Oh, right. What changed is what you wanted to know, right?
“Very well, you can speak, but if you make a mockery of this process, or if you continue to display contempt with your vulgar language, I will ask the Chairman to call for your removal,” Michael Anders says, pretending he’s being oh so gracious.
Listen, why don’t you try to see what changed instead of me just telling you, okay? And if at the end, I get carted off to jail, or anything else, I’ll explain it to you.
Because this shit is about to get real. Like right now.
“If I know Carter, he gave you the example of turning on your water at your sink and seeing brown sludge come out,” I begin and Michael begins to nod. Carter is looking at me in a mixture of surprise, wariness, and curiosity. I bet a part of him thinks that despite all the sex we’ve had the last fucking month I’m still going to stick a knife in him or something.
“But the fact of the matter is that when you don’t have a job, or a voice in your future, you don’t really care about that brown sludge, because that’s what you fucking feel like as a person,” I say and I can tell Carter now thinks I’m going to fucking back stab him. Michael is quiet.
“I grew up in Andrews Estates,” I say and some people widen their eyes. They must not have known that about me. All they knew is this oil and gas tycoon that became the youngest mayor. They don’t know this side of me. “The government paid Carter’s father for it. Then they shoved some families in there. Then they forgot about them. Checked off some boxes and moved on. I know what it’s like to feel left behind. Not part of the fucking system.”
The hearing room is quiet now. You could hear a pin drop.
“You want to see a modern day equivalent of what Andrews Estates used to look like before it got torn down, come on down to Main Street in New Kingston and look at the shops that are closing. The people who wake up with nowhere to go. The kids who have both parents out of work. People with nothing to do,” I say.
“As much as I agree with you, Mr. Mayor,” Michael Anders says to me, nodding now and using my title. “That’s what we’re investigating today. Did Governor Carter Andrews use an environmental bill to enrich himself from special interests and cast the people of New Kingston to the fires.”
He’s talking to me like I'm a fucking baby. But I keep my cool.
“So basically, in this instance, these people have only two choices, right? Because that’s what you’re framing it as. The Boltiador family factories, which will go against the environmental bill. That means they’ll be spewing out some pretty toxic shit. Poisoning the water. Salting the earth. Or economic starvation. Is that it?” I ask Michael directly. I know he’s not going to be able to answer. “When the only choices you give a group of people are to work and be poisoned, or not be poisoned and starve, you’re still not giving them any fucking options.”
Everyone is looking at me like I’m a bit crazy now. I bet you’re scratching your head trying to follow along. But don’t worry. I said I’d come for a knife fight. And I fucking brought my knife.
“So if you don’t think the Boltiador family factories are a good thing, what is it you want exactly?” Mayor Anders asks.
“I want to not have to be placed in that choice for my people,” I answer. “I want these corruption hearings to focus on why and how huge groups of Americans have been left behind. To understand and fucking fix what led to this situation in the first place.”
Now Carter begins to nod. I think he gets it.
“I want you to ask yourself, Mayor Anders,” I say, getting ready to pull out my knife. “How many times did your paper, as it was discussing my sex life, spending time attacking Senator Hawthorne for her sex life, or Carter Andrews for his…how many times did your paper even ask why these jobs were so important to these people in my town that they were willing to risk poisoning their future for them? Why were the people calling out for change in the first place?”
If possible, it’s even quieter. I am so going to enjoy twisting this knife.
“But that’s not what this government does anymore, and that’s why I ran for mayor,” I say. “When faced with an issue about the environment or jobs, we focus on who had sex with who and who got bribed by who to find the bigger scandal.”
Carter is smiling.
I’m going to finish
this off.
“The biggest scandal in this room is that we’re sitting here talking about a good man facing investigations because all he wanted to do was help people lead a healthy fucking life. Sure, his priorities are different from mine, and we disagree about what to do in the short term, but at the end of the day we only want what’s best for the people of this state,” I say and take a deep breath, making sure to draw a pose. I end it with a question. “Do you?”
Boom. The cameras start to click and the people are talking to themselves as if I’ve just unleashed the dogs of war.
The Chairman calls for order. Bangs his gavel several times. Finally, over the din, Michael manages to speak up.
“The charges of corruption are very real here, Mr. Mayor,” Michael says. “Both you and Carter Andrews may have had severe lapses of judgment because of Senator Vivian Hawthorne and this may have led you to be compromised by an economic rival. You may have tried to create the exact problem you described. There is a very co-ordinated case of corruption here.”
He’s not backing down from that. He truly believes that he can fucking get away with trying to prove Carter is corrupt, that I’m on the take, and that Vivian is a sex-fiend.
I did my bid. I tried to defend Carter Andrews. I don’t mind casting my lot with him, anyways. If he goes down, I’ll be proud to go down with that fucking guy.
Because like I said, we may disagree on a lot.
But I fucking respect him for standing up for what he thinks is best for people.