Glen Tate - 299 Days - The Stronghold

Grant was glad he had read survival novels like Lights Out , One Second After , and Patriots . There was a lot to learn in them, even if they were “fiction.” One of the things the surviving groups in all three books did was allow people with valuable skills to come into their communities. They had a way of screening people to find the ones that could add to the community. Grant realized that this would be a mission for the immigration committee. He thought this was the time to bring it up.

“Another thing the immigrations people can do is screen people wanting to join us,” Grant said. “Let’s say someone is a doctor, an expert at treating water, or a communications expert with lots of valuable gear.” Grant didn’t say the real group he was thinking about, which was intact military units that wanted to fight for the Patriots. He didn’t want to scare people. Not this early. “Whatever the skills or gear, let’s say we really need him or her and they want to stay with us. The immigrations people can screen them and flag them for an interview by us. What do you think?”

“Sure, but where would the strangers stay?” someone asked.

“Abandoned houses and cabins,” Grant said. “There are quite a few here. The real owners would have dibs if they came back. The occupants would improve the places while they’re there and would pay rent to any returning owner.”

The Constitution. Just like the Constitution.

Grant realized this was an opportunity about how they should follow the Constitution even on things that didn’t seem like “legal” matters.

“It’s like the Third Amendment,” Grant explained, “that forgotten clause of the Constitution. You know the one about not being forced to quarter troops.” It made an exception for a time of war, and this was definitely as close to a war as they could have. But the principle was the same: people would not be forced to house government employees. The crowd was nodding. This was Grant’s segue to a speech he’d been wondering when to give. Now was a good time.

“This brings up a good point,” he said. “I think we should follow the Constitution out here for everything, not just our law enforcement and homemade court system. But let’s go further. Let’s have it for everything else.” Do the opposite of what the former government did, Grant thought. Here goes.

“Let’s start with the First Amendment,” Grant said. “Out here, I suggest, no one can be punished for saying anything. Call me a ‘teabagger’ if you want. Whatever. I’ll still run into your house if a looter is trying to kill you. The other parts of the First Amendment would also apply here. Freedom of religion, which includes the freedom to be free from religion. Petition government for redress of grievance, too. You can always talk freely to us, publicly or in private. We would be transparent. This should be like a New England town hall.”

“The Second Amendment,” Grant said, pointing to the AR slung across his chest. “’Nuff said. I don’t think anyone—with all the threats out here and especially outside the gate—wants to be disarmed.” Todd Snelling glared at Grant, but he could care less.

“The Third Amendment we covered,” Grant said. “The Fourth too, when we talked about no random or intrusive searches without a warrant. The Fifth is a big deal. Not only the part about not having to testify against yourself, but the due process and property clauses. Due process means we won’t take your life, liberty, or property without some legal process of some kind. It could be review by a judge and a jury. You may not agree with the decision, but it won’t be a band of thugs doing whatever they please.” Grant couldn’t resist, “That was the former government and we’re doing things better out here now that we have the chance.”

That got a few people clapping. Just a few, though.

“The property clause would apply to what we do at the Grange,” Grant said. “That says that we can’t take your property except for a public purpose and we must pay you fair market value for it. This will prevent the community from stealing people’s food or other property. This is critical and I, and my Team, will not live in a place where this isn’t the case.” Grant had no idea if the Team agreed with him on a legal point like this. Once again, by describing the Team as “his,” Grant was not-so-subtly reminding people that he was in control of them. That wasn’t really true; the Team wasn’t “controlled” by anyone except themselves.

“The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments are a criminal law thing and were already discussed,” Grant said, realizing that people weren’t sitting in this meeting to get a long lecture on the Constitution. They wanted to see how this Grant guy and that Constitution thingy related to their daily lives during this scary time. “The Ninth and Tenth Amendments related to the states versus the federal government, which we no longer need to worry about.”

That was a controversial thing to say, Grant knew, because some people in the audience still believed the United States existed. It did, on paper and maybe in practice in some places like the East Coast or California. But Grant was mentally preparing the people listening to him to conclude that they were on their own out there and the only government they had—or needed—was right there in the Grange that night.

“Finally, I think we need to vote on things,” Grant said. “We will need to vote to give authority to people to do things, like the immigrations people need the authority to screen people. We can’t all meet down at the gate to individually interview a dozen people a day. That kind of thing. We wouldn’t give people powers without electing them, starting with me. Like I said, if I suck, remove me. We need to elect a Sheriff and I think that should be Rich.” Lots of nodding.

“Oh, and I think we should have a civil justice system,” Grant said, realizing that he needed to wrap up this legal stuff. People were there to hear about guard duty, but he had their attention and this was an important topic. “By ‘civil justice system,’” Grant said, “all I mean is a way of peacefully resolving the inevitable disputes that will arise. Your dog ate my chicken, that kind of thing. But nothing complicated and,” Grant smiled, “other than the judge, no damned lawyers.” That got a couple of laughs.

Grant paused, got very serious, and said in a very resolute voice, “We’re going to start over out here and do things right. This is our chance to set up simple rules that everyone can live with. Unlike the old system.”

The crowd was silent, taking it all in.

Then the clapping started. Lots of people yelled, “hell, yeah!” and “right on!” A sizable portion, about a quarter, of the crowd was not as enthused. Some sat there stone-faced, others just clapped politely. Grant was paying close attention to who they were. Not to retaliate, but to intensify the persuasion efforts on those people. They were undoubtedly afraid that Grant was too much of a leader and was promising too much. That was fair. The old government had taken way too much power and promised so much—and then failed miserably—that people were entitled to be skeptical of someone with a rifle saying they’d follow the Constitution.

When the cheering died down, John yelled out, “Let’s take a vote on following the Constitution!”

More cheering.

John asked, “All in favor?” and almost all hands went up. John spoke in an exaggerated and comical formal voice, “The ayes have it. Pierce Point will follow the Constitution.”

Now, Grant thought, we have to actually do it; that’s the hard part. Wait until someone acts like a jackass and the Constitution protects him. That’s when the real leadership kicks in. These people had no experience actually living under a constitutional system. Oh, they were told in high school about the Bill of Rights. Then the rest of their lives they were taught that the government had to put “reasonable” restraints on all these rights. Free speech? Sure, as long as it didn’t offend anyone. So these people had never experienced reacting to offensive speech by letting the speaker continue to be offensive. They had seen the authorities take care of the problem; they never had to deal with the problem themselves. Now they would.