CSI: American Carnage (Sunday, February 9, 2020}
OUT IN THE OPEN – Little Timmy, pup reporter, and the Professor’s small strike force have emerged from a siding mistakenly taken in their trek through the nation’s key back channel. What place is this? Boris, genial triple agent, asks aloud. Sarah, Timmy’s friend from the resistance potluck, looks around at the small buildings, the cars, the posters tacked onto telephone polls. There are clusters of young men arguing on the street corner. One spectacled man shouts, Dammit! The working class is the vanguard! We cannot abandon basic theory at this point! Another says, The working class remains deeply alienated, only a man such as Bernie can break through and bring on the revolution so deeply needed! Sarah says, This is Manchester, we have been sidetracked to New Hampshire. On another corner, more young men are discussing prosperity. They are all wearing ties and slacks and white shirts. One passionately proclaims, We need a brighter future which can only be achieved by the hard work and vision of a fresh face from someplace not Washington where black and white, rich and poor, men and women, gay and straight, are recognized for what they are not and who they are. A group of women across the street hoot at the young men. One shouts tell us about the drug busts. Another says, Yeah! The strike force listens. Timmy looks up at the sky, expecting a tweet to come barreling in. Instead, down the middle of the street, a group of older people, many with walkers and canes, march and chant, Here’s the deal! Here’s the deal! Here’s the deal! As Timmy’s friend Mohammed watches, his jaw drops. Mohammed says, This is campaigning? This is democracy? He looks around, a puzzled expression on his face. Hey, Mohammed says, where’s Elizabeth Warren? Papers blow over the sidewalk. Sarah reaches down and grabs one. It reads, Addressing Our Maternal Mortality Epidemic. Another says, Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform. Another: End Washington Corruption. Another: Addressing Discrimination and Ensuring Equity for Farmers of Color. Sarah says, These are Warren’s plans! She must be around here somewhere! The strike force moves out of the way of the chanting seniors and their walkers, they peer past the bespectacled young men now arguing about the French Second Republic, they look beyond the platitudes swirling about the young men with their ties and slacks. There! shouts Sarah. There! Several blocks down the street, a woman in a black down coat can be seen on a door step talking with a single voter. A dog is on a leash at her side. The woman wraps up her conversation with the prospective voter. There are hugs. The voter grabs a phone. She takes a selfie. Sarah says, That’s Warren for sure. At that point, as the woman and her dog leave the steps to knock on the next door, the young men arguing, the elderly marchers, the men in their ties, the women hooting all see her at once. Horrible! they shout. Unlikeable! Strident! Not Nice! They pick up stones. Sarah looks on aghast. – Sunday, February 9, 2020