When Jan put that article down, Ann handed her the next one. “This one, I felt, pretty much summed up his views on social programs and such.”

“Don’t tell me, he’s somewhere to the right of Adolph Hitler and Attila the Hun when it comes to welfare,” Jan jokingly asked.

Caught up in her job, Ann missed Jan’s effort at humor. “No,” she responded flatly. “Quite the contrary. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was a socialist. Here, listen to this. ‘Corporate America has forgotten that its single greatest responsibility is not to its shareholders who seek only monetary gain, but to the people of this country who have made the corporation’s very existence possible. The business community has a duty to its employees and the community those employees live in, to preserve and serve this country’s two greatest assets, the American worker and their communities.’”

Fascinated by the portrait Ann was creating, Jan raised an eyebrow as she took the copy of the news story. “It sounds as if Mr. Thomas is running for sainthood.”

“Perhaps,” Ann countered quickly. “Here,” she injected as she went through her stack of photocopied pages, “listen to this.” When she found the article she was looking for, she pulled it out and started to read. “The political system, as it now exists in the United States, has been corrupted beyond redemption. Neither I, nor any other American with a lick of common sense, can trust our federal government to reform itself or the way it conducts its affairs. In 1796 George Washington, the man who presided over the gathering that wrote the Constitution himself, said, ‘The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and alter their constitutions of government.’ While there is a growing chorus of special interest groups who claim that the time has come to do just that, I believe the solution to the problems we face today can be found in the document that has guided this nation through times more troubled than those we now face. Rather than discarding our current Constitution, I believe our salvation lies in returning to its original meanings, as laid out by our founding fathers. Let us stop using that document as an engine for social engineering and instead, employ it as they meant it to be used, as a means of curbing the abuses of government and protecting the freedom of the people.”

“Well,” Jan remarked as she reached out and snatched the copy of the news story from Ann’s hand when she was finished. “While not exactly a popular view, the Governor’s statement does not justify initiating a new investigation into his affairs.”

“Wait,” Ann all but squealed in excitement as she flipped through her stack of photocopied articles. “It gets better.” When she found what she was looking for, she pulled it out of the stack, ripping the paper a tad in her haste. “This quote was given to a reporter for a Boise newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, during the big to-do over the various militias that were forming in the northwest a few years back. ‘With few exceptions, the principles upon which these militias stand are sound and justified. After all, the revolutionary movement that took this nation out of the British Empire and put it on the road to independence was based on militia organizations that were, in concept, little different from some of the better militia groups that have recently sprung up around the nation. Were it not for the manner in which the leaders of these militia movements went about promoting themselves and their beliefs or carrying out their programs, more people, people disenfranchised by the excesses and abuses of the Federal Government, would support them. Eventually, I believe the day will come when a man on a white horse shall come forth and lead this nation through the dark cynicism that pervades our Federal government and lead the American people into a new era of greatness. When that day comes, he may well do so supported upon the bayonets of the militia movement.’”