Free Dawn of the Unthinkable by James Concannon Page B

into his
arms again.
    “Well, I’m still here and plan on being
around for quite a while, so you can put your dreams of getting
your hands on my vast estate and running off with some other guy
away. Remember a good man is hard to find.”
    In answer, she ventured a quick look to make
sure the kids were otherwise occupied and reached down to his
crotch for a little squeeze, saying, “No, it’s ‘A hard man is good
to find.’”
    He laughed, gave her a quick kiss, and left
the kitchen.
    She turned back to her cooking. She usually
didn’t remember dreams for long, either, and probably wouldn’t have
remembered this one if he had not have said anything. It was
curious that they should have the same type of dream so close in
time to each other, but this wasn’t the first time that they had
had some type of telepathy thing going. It was probably more due to
circumstance than any mental bond, she realized, but it was nice to
think that there were times when they could communicate without
talking. God knew there had been enough times when they were
talking (yelling, actually) and not communicating at all. Now, they
were having similar dreams? Amazing.
    Ryan had turned his attention to the
newspaper, which had an amusing little write-up about some senator
getting his pompadour gummed up. He was glad to see that the guy
wasn’t hurt and wondered about his assailant. She had the guts to
make her views known, even if her method of delivery was way off
base. How did people get the courage to come forward and say,
“There’s a better way to do things!” Especially since out of a
world with billions of humans, only a small handful really had the
power to mold and shape public opinion. The problem was the people
who had that power usually used it to gain more power, by
conceiving ways to separate the less intelligent from their money.
And the ultimate problem was that the decision-making was left to
too small a group that they could not possibly reflect the choice
of the majority of the people. While the old system of
representation worked fine when people were spread throughout the
country and the capitol was a three-day horse ride away, it was now
time for an update. With global communications becoming more
sophisticated, there was no longer a need to have only certain
people vote for laws. Everyone could do it, and there would be no
need to have lobbyists or special interests influencing the
outcome.
    His mind drifted back to his article. He had
left off thinking about asset divestiture and how to persuade the
rich to join such a program. It was likely that no amount of civic
spirit could move someone who had acquired a large amount of land,
housing, and goods to voluntarily give them away. He was not that
naïve. No, something like that would take legislation, vast
legislation. People had tried before, and ideas like the New Deal
and The Great Society had come and went without ever really curing
the problems they set out to solve. He wondered if behind closed
doors the idea of a moneyless society had ever been put forward. If
so, how had it been received? Had its sponsor been branded a
lunatic? It was possible it had happened; he probably would never
know. But whether it had or not, it shouldn’t stop him from
suggesting it. After all, if it never gets any farther than these
sheets of paper, he’d still feel better for having tried.
    Many nations created a constitution to deal
with chaos after a revolution or civil war. His system would allow
people to plan a transition to a new way of life while things were
going relatively well. Rational thought could be put into how to
ease the pain and difficulties of changing, and pitfalls could be
avoided to a certain degree. Instead of having to field-test such a
system in real time, you could set up simulations that would show
where the problems were and how to solve them. But he kept coming
back to how to overcome the resistance of the “haves” to this
system, as his article