Leon Uris: A God In Ruins

“We don’t need DNA results,” Rita said, lifting off Ben’s glasses.

“Just look at the two of them.”

They drifted down from the tale of fantasia back into Mal’s studio.

“Thank God, Ben reached us when he did. If the public learned after the election, it would be a prelude to a national nightmare,” Greer said.

“Am I privy to this?” Mal wanted to know.

“Of course you are,” Quinn answered.

“All right, then. We must put this before the American people at once,” Mal said. “But no matter what approach you make, you’ve entered a mine field.”

“He’ll tell the truth,” Rita cried.

“Truth is in the heart of the beholder. Them that wants the truth will believe him. No truth can penetrate them who can’t comprehend the truth. They will cry wolf about a Zionist conspiracy. In ten minutes I can find someone in the media down in Troublesome and tip him off that a left-wing Catholic priest planted a Jewish child as part of a Zionist plot. You think that’s crazy? Nothing among the haters will be too farfetched.”

Mal looked at the brothers and shook his head. The resemblance was

remarkable. “The problem is, Jew hating has always been close to the

surface throughout the last two millennia. It’s the perfect system of

bigotry, time-tested—the Roman sacking of the nation, the divorce of Jesus from the Jews in order to make a new religion, Islam, the ankle-deep blood of Jews by the Crusaders on the Rhine, the Inquisition, Martin Luther, the pogroms of Eastern Europe, and lest we forget, the Holocaust.”

“Is the human race forever in a prison of bigotry?” Quinn whispered.

“Quinn, I don’t want you or Rita or the kids to have to walk into a blizzard of hate. Withdraw from the race,” Mal said.

Ben once again berated himself for his bounty-hunter zeal. Greer answered him that he had to do what he did. Neither Quinn nor Rita spoke of the terror they had endured before and after the AMERIGUN convention.

“We Jews are the most outstanding example of a patriotic minority,” Ben said. “At only two percent of the population, we’ve created great industries and writers and musicians and doctors. As I teach my students, there are over seventy Jewish American Nobel prize winners. Godammit, we deserve the respect of our countrymen!”

“There has been no crime ... no conspiracy,” Quinn said.

“Depends on who is telling the story and who is listening,” Mal said.

“They’re all in place, waiting for the news.”

“And if I quit, the Second Amendment will never be tested.”

“Remember what was done to the Clintons,” Rita said. “Destruction, sheer destruction.” Her quavering words were her first. She knew what lay ahead if he went on. Quinn was deeply jarred by her less than enthusiastic support. His strong allies in life were becoming his reluctant allies. Greer? What about Greer? She’d be too clever to slip one way or another at this point.

“It’s your call, boss,” Greer said.

“Like my old commander Jeremiah Duncan said, “If blood bothers you, don’t go on this mission.” Greer, buy some network and cable time. I’ll read a statement from here to the American people at one o’clock,” and then he laughed, “Rocky Mountain time.”

“Call me if you need me,” Mal said, and left the studio.

Rita hedged. She’d give no further resistance. She would come to his side. Only, it was shaky knowing what was ahead. Greer saw through it. She took Rita’s arm and spun her around.

“Here’s truth,” Greer snapped. “Quinn Patrick O’Connell cannot and will not walk away from this fight. Never has, never will.”

“I know,” Rita said with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I know.”

“What will you say to the voters, Quinn?” Greer asked.

“Straight up and down, I think. I won’t plead or defend. I won’t grovel. It’s going to be up to the people.”

“Oh, Jesus,” Greer sighed. “Ben, come with me. We have to sequence your story correctly for the press.”

“My nieces and nephews, Duncan and Rae?” Ben asked excitedly. “Isn’t Duncan’s wife due?”

“Their dad will tell them. You’ll be able to meet them in an hour. Excuse me, we’ve got work to do,” Greer said. She and Rita exchanged hard glances.

breaking news breaking news breaking news “This is Lou Luenberger, MS NBC Denver. We are in Troublesome, Colorado, the home of Democratic candidate, Governor O’Connell. The air around his traveling headquarters has been rife with rumors. The O’Connell people have kept a lid on things, skipping the daily afternoon press briefing. The center of this appears to be a new player on the stage, who flew in from New York this morning. He has been tentatively identified as Detective Lieutenant Ben Horowitz, also a professor of criminology. The governor will make a statement at eleven Eastern, two Pacific Coast time.”

Quinn sat, naked to the world. No notes, open collar, no flags, no mantel filled with photographs, no busts of Lincoln or statues by Remington.

“My fellow Americans,” Quinn said, “today I experienced one of the most joyous events of my life. As you are aware, I was orphaned at about the age of one year and was raised in a convent until I was three. I do not remember the names of any of the nuns, and I do not know the name of the convent or its location.

“At the age of three I was adopted by my mother and father, Dan and Siobhan O’Connell, ranchers near Troublesome, Colorado.

“My family and I were no more or no less dysfunctional than the average American family. Being Irish, we got into our Eugene O’Neill mode from time to time. In the end, we came back to a most loving relationship. Dan is gone. Siobhan is very ill. I am the most fortunate person in the world to have been their son.

“Yet for every orphan there is a dual life of fantasy. You cannot separate the orphan from this dream. The need to know your biological parents is a need to know yourself. Who am I, really? Where did I come from? God puts you on a relentless search. You are never a complete person if you do not find your roots.

“Today, I met my brother, Ben Horowitz, who has been searching for me for nearly half a century.”

Quinn briefly told the tale of David Horowitz, Marina Geller, and Yuri Sokolov.

“Herein lies the rub,” Quinn said. “I believe the American

civilization has reached a challenging moral plateau. We have made a

powerful attempt to rid ourselves of bigotry. We still have a long way

to go to rid our nation of racism. If I had been Alexander Horowitz, I

believe I would have been elected governor of Colorado. I also believe

that Governor Alexander Horowitz could have won the Democratic Party

nomination. And I also believe that Alexander Horowitz could win the presidency.

“I am the same man I was yesterday. I have not changed. I will carry on with the same issues I had yesterday. Along with my other commitments, I will fight for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

“I was raised as a Catholic. I will remain in the Church. Yet I cannot help but inquire into my Jewish heritage. Where this will take me, I cannot predict.

“The human race has had a checkered existence, from the beginning unto this very day, of blood and evil. Yet we come to moral imperatives, like slavery, where we must rise and create a new norm. The issue of guns, I believe, is such a moral imperative. I also believe that the crushing of anti-Semitism is such an imperative.