Tent City
A Cautionary Tale
A Screenplay
By: Christopher Meesto Erato
2018©
FADE IN:
EXT. TENT CITY – DAY
A bird’s eye view (drone
shot) of a huge tent city complex in Eastern Pennsylvania called New New York.
The year is 2068 ACE.
DISOLVE TO:
INT. TENT CITY TOWN HALL -
DAY
Within the New New York
Tent City (NNYTC) central Town Hall area, a press meeting is under way.
JOE PALENTI, an
ex-military and college history professor is currently the council leader of
the NNYTC and a co-chair of the Citizens Restore Democracy (CRD) movement,
representing around 25 million displaced US citizens - is being interviewed by a
corporate talking head REPORTER IMA CLUELESS from the Internet News Network -
INN.
REPORTER
This is Ima Clueless
reporting for INN with an exclusive one on one interview with Citizens Restore
Democracy or CRD movement’s leader Joseph Palenti. We are streaming live from
the town hall in New New York’s Tent City located in Eastern Pennsylvania. Mr.
Palenti, You and fellow members of the CRD have organized several peaceful protests
with the other tent cities around the country and even some of the RV Parks’
populations, but recently there has been some violent clashes with police and
some outsiders – why the change in tactics? Is it related to the president’s proposed
chip plan?
JOE
Firstly, Ima - there has
been no change in our tactics – we are a non-violent movement engaging in
militant civil disobedience in the tradition of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and
the Me-Too protests. The recent violence has resulted from defending ourselves
from outside attacks upon residents of tent cities from different militias
around the country. Other altercations have been instigated by the Black Rock
private police force with their total disregard for our individual constitutional
rights. And finally, yes – the president backing this insane, Big Brother like,
1984 plan to microchip millions of displaced US citizens living in the tent
cities was the last straw and the impetus for the Citizens Restore Democracy
movement. We are organizing a huge march on Washington DC in September, right
before this very important presidential election cycle in November, 2068. Our
goal is to oust this horrible president and his party from power and save our
country from ruin! And as far as the current administration’s justification of
the chip implants through false allegations of wide spread cheating by tent
city residents in regards to supply distribution, the block chain ID key fobs
are as secure as it gets and work fine. This was affirmed just months ago by a
third party investigation unit hired by the very same government!
REPORTER
The president and other
GOP senators have said the chip is necessary for keeping track of dispersing
very limited supplies, especially in light of outside militias and bandits that
keep raiding the government supply trucks and depots’?
JOE
The audacity of even
considering such a Draconian invasion of citizen’s privacy via our actual
bodies with an implanted chip device is not only crazy, it’s against everything
our country stands for! We will fight the good fight and never let this happen!
Reporter
What is the CRD prepared
to do to fight it?
JOE
Exactly what we have been
doing – militant civil disobedience and hunger strikes if necessary. But thank
God it has little chance of getting through the new House of Representatives in
congress, but just the fact that this administration took a
crazy idea so seriously is really disturbing!
Reporter
That may be true but again
– are you not concerned about the black market thugs and the food and water
shortages?
JOE
Of course! The millions of
residents of the Tent Cities are unfortunately at the mercy of the government
assistance programs during this major crisis, the likes of which have not been
experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We have suffered the direct
effects of the flood disasters and now have to deal with the supply rationing
laws more so than the rest of America! The selfish and illegal actions by these
small dissident militia groups negatively affect all US citizens who pay taxes,
play by the rules and hope for a better future for our entire country. Yet this
piracy is no excuse for the preposterous idea of implanting a microchip in the
wrists of around 25 million American citizens living in the Tent Cities! Should
we be punished for having been living in major cities and urban areas within the
flood zones and not having enough savings or resources to own our own
Recreation Vehicle (RV) and rent an expensive lot in the Parks or be privileged
enough to live in the pre-built gated communities of the elite 10%? Historically,
most Americans are two paychecks away from destitution. This crazy chip idea is
an insult to the entire middle and working class majority of Americans – living
both in and outside the temporary Tent Cities – whom, according to the latest polls
are in total solidarity with our movement, along with a sizable portion of the
RV Park residents. Many of us know there is another, more sinister reason
behind this chip implant – it’s to monitor and control the tent city populace
as if we were enemies of the state!
REPORTER
Yes – you referred to George
Orwell’s 1984 book before. But I think the analogy is a bit extreme. So what is
the CRD agenda or end game?
JOE
Extreme? Not really! The
citizens in the 1984 story did not even have a chip put in their bodies! CRD’s
plan sums up the dire situation our country finds itself in in 2068. Firstly, restore our basic
cherished freedoms guaranteed in our constitution! No more curfews and restrictions
on our movements. Bring back Habeas Corpus and the right to a day in court.
Undo the recent Patriot Act 3 and protect our 1st amendments rights
to free speech, free press and a right to assembly. Get rid of the private
police force mercenaries who are mostly uneducated, ill trained and not capable
of the responsibility of possessing a firearm. These bullies with guns are like
the Pinkerton Guards hired by the elite 1% during the Gilded Age to intimidate
and beat down the workers fighting for all the hard earned work place rights
many take for granted. It’s been over a year since the flood disaster and there
has been no mass insurrection or chaos breaking out and so therefore no reason
to allow these Draconian laws antithetical to our core constitution to continue
one minute longer. Allocate the emergency funds necessary to relocate the
remaining 25 million displaced American citizens. It’s been over a year and
only 2.5 million have been relocated. This is half of the 5 million a year time
frame promised by the president! We the progressives, who ruled for almost 30
years barely won back the House this past midterm. Therefore we want the
intelligent but apathetic masses to take a break from their VR headsets, get
registered and vote for Senator Letisha Jones for President. Based on her
consistent record of voting for and writing progressive bills in congress and her
25 years of public service, the CRD membership fully endorses Senator Jones as
our pick for president of the United States in 2068.
REPORTER
Wow, that’s a serious list
of demands. Do you think they’re realistic given the current partisan political
environment?
JOE
The last four years with
President Dick Faice has been an extreme, reactionary nightmare. His horrible legislative
decisions, based on corporate self-interests, pushed the world’s climate past
the tipping point and caused the great flood events! To add insult to injury
was his surreal Draconian handling of this massive citizen displacement crisis and
not even following through on his relocation promises! He has sent the country
backwards drastically after a previous 30-year run of the most progressive and
prosperous era in our country’s history during the Green Revolution that
achieved 60% clean energy!
REPORTER
Actually, it’s now a 50%
ratio of renewable energies to other sources including nuclear, petrol and coal.
Now - are you saying the great flood events of 2066 were of the President’s
making?
JOE
Yes I am. He and his
fossil fuel cronies behind the scenes along with members in his administration
and the congress undid the 25 year old worldwide bans on any new fossil fuel
extractions within the first months of his presidency, which along with other countries
restarting petrol extractions - quickly elevated green house gases again past
the tipping point we had avoided after stabilizing the climate through the Green
Revolution - freezing any new fossil fuel production. These irresponsible
actions caused the temperature to rise quickly another 1.5 degrees that led to
the final ice cap melt off and a higher than predicted 12-15 foot sea rise that
caused the great flood disasters around the world almost a year and half ago.
Yet all our recent human ancestors are also collectively guilty for allowing
the fossil fuel industry to control the energy infrastructure of our planet for
far too long, even decades after most knew better from climate change science and
our human made Co2 emissions role in the heating up of our world. It just
boggles my mind how so many people develop historical amnesia about such recent
history. Denial is a defense mechanism that America has mastered since its dark
inception 300 years ago.
REPORTER
Be that as it may - where
will the nearly bankrupt federal government get the money for this massive
relocation effort? The cost has been estimated at between 10-12 trillion
dollars.
JOE
It will come from the same
place they get money for the perpetual wars we engage in around the world and
from the huge corporate welfare giveaways in tax breaks for the richest
industries in the world.
REPORTER
Before
you became the leader of the CRD and Tent City council rep, you were a college
history professor and activist, and you also once served in the military – yes?
JOE
That’s right, I did two
tours of duty in the Middle East and Africa. I did so with good patriotic intentions
and honestly to get money to go to college, but learned the hard way that I was
not fighting for freedom in the homeland. As World War One era Marine General
Smedly Butler stated long ago, “War is a Racket”. I was actually fighting for
greedy, evil corporations like Hollaburton, Flexxon, Black Schlock, Roeing,
Paytheon and Blockhead Fartin.
REPORTER
So you are of those
conspiracy theorists that believe there is a Military Industrial Complex
influencing and guiding US geopolitical strategies on the world stage?
JOE
I am not a conspiracy
theorist – just an informed citizen that does his research. Anyone who doesn’t
at this point in history with access to so much information is just a sucker,
plain and simple. Perpetual war is pushed by a very small group of elites around
the world. All are competing and fighting for other poorer countries’ natural resources
and cheap labor. For the weapons manufacturers its priority is to use up the
old billion dollar bombs and drones to make new ones – it’s all just business
as usual. This tiny elite group that rules the world represents less than .001%
of the 9.8 billion humans on planet earth and yet still possesses 80% of the world’s
wealth and control governments’ politicians like puppets because we the sheeple
let them! Perpetual wars make them richer and more powerful feudal overlords
that keep the rest of us 99% serfs in their servitude, fighting for the crumbs.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the two term president, five Star General, and leader of
allied command that defeated the formidable Nazis during WWII, warned the US of
the Military Industrial Complex around a hundred years ago. He was he was the
last Republican president with any integrity.
REPORTER
I think you exaggerate and
are spreading conspiracy theories. These corporations also keep our country
safe and create thousands of decent paying jobs.
JOE
I’m not exaggerating or
spreading conspiracy theories! The facts speak for themselves! So I guess we
should keep on bombing and killing innocent people around the world in the
endless ‘war on terror’ so a few thousand Americans can have a job? That argument
was immoral decades ago when these corporations actually did provide some jobs,
but robots now do most of these jobs and will continue to take more jobs. So the
old hackneyed weapons manufacturers corporate propaganda about job creation no
longer holds water in the latter 21st century, in our hi-tech
artificial intelligence robot reality.
REPORTER
Then what to do about the
Islamist extremists over seas that hate the West and wish us harm as the recent
bombings in Africa and Indonesia prove?
JOE
Unfortunately, much of
this is the result of 60 years of the Western allies bombing both the innocent
and guilty in the ongoing “war on terror” (does a quotes sign with hands). For
every terrorist we have killed, we have created even more. When a child see’s
innocent family members blown to bits, the revenge cycle continues and thousands
are killed on both sides of the conflict but mostly on the their sides.
Meanwhile, the oil barons and weapons manufactures selling to all parties
involved get richer and more powerful. These powers that be keep us all living in
a permanent state of fear via their corporate mass media machine and thus many of the ugly, divisive issues we face such
as global warming are a direct result of this Machiavellian manipulation
governance technique that has sadly ruled much of human history.
REPORTER
There
maybe some truth to what you say but what then is the solution to keeping our
country safe?
JOE
We can keep our country
safe without engaging in perpetual policing via mini-wars all over the world.
We just need to keep a strong, readied military force, which does not mean out
spending the top countries by a factor of 10 to one and adding trillions to the
national debt – this is wasteful and much of the tax revenue monies for the
military seem to disappear either over seas or in the black hole of the Pentagon’s
budgeting office. I am actually more concerned with the threat of domestic
terrorism via these growing militias and radical racist splinter groups, some
of which have been threatening violence to our Tent City residents and raiding
the government supply depots.
REPORTER
Based on what you just
said doesn’t the government need to keep the crisis safety measures in place to
keep chaos from breaking out?
JOE
No, not at all – these
extreme Draconian laws were rushed through after a major crisis and played on
the fears of the people. Our leaders in congress should have known better but
of course they too shrunk in the face of adversity and were weak. Our great
country was founded on the core principles of inalienable rights and freedoms
for all citizens – this is why I joined the service and why I fight now against
the oppressors within our own country. We are over a year into this crisis and
the country has not fallen apart and it’s time to lift these limits to our
basic freedoms guaranteed in our constitution. As founding father Benjamin
Franklin once said “Those willing to sacrifice liberty for safety deserve
neither”.
REPORTER
You have claimed that
millions of fellow Americans outside the refugee camps are in solidarity with
you as far as restoring basic freedoms, but are they as supportive of the
relocation process and the huge costs involved? Surveys indicate that many seem
a little envious and upset that millions of tent city dwellers are getting into
new or refurbished houses or apartments on government lands, some taken via Eminent
Domain laws - while they struggle to make ends meet and deal with ongoing
extreme weather events doing damage to their own properties and localities?
JOE
First of all, please do
not refer to us as refugees. This term has a negative connotation and is
offensive. We are American tax paying citizens that were recently productive
members of society until the flood disaster upended our lives and forced us to
relocate by no choice of our own to these government tent cities. Yet I do thank
God we live in a rich country that has contingency and emergency resources for
big disasters because the poor countries are doing much worse and civil wars
are breaking out in many places around the world. That being said, I know there
is mostly solidarity among all citizens regardless of party affiliations when
it comes to our rights being restored ASAP. Yes, I do see some animosity from
the general public in the social media as far as the relocation costs situation
goes. To all those listening please understand that none of us living in
these packed like sardines tent cities, with tight rationing of food stuffs and
basic supplies, with ongoing sanitation and clean water issues - wants to live
here. Furthermore, most of us do not like receiving the handouts necessary to
help us survive and find a new home. But we have paid taxes into the system our
entire working lives and these emergency social safety nets exist for a reason because
life and circumstances on earth are more unpredictable than ever because of an angry
Mother Nature. Finally, I ask anyone who lives in America’s inland zones that
were not wiped out by the catastrophic flood and other extreme weather events
if they would be willing to trade places – live here in a tent city and wait for
a new home and give up there current beloved, lived in, comfy homes with anyone
of us millions living in the tent cities or even the slightly better RV Parks?
No - I think not. All we want is a hand up – not a hand out so we can relocate and
begin to build a normal life somewhere and become productive, free citizens once
again. Whew! That’s all I have to say for today Ms. Clueless. See you all at
the march in September. God bless America!
REPORTER
One last quick question
Mr. Palenti – do you have any political ambitions – say mayor, governor or even
congress?
JOE
No – right now I am
focused on the success of this grass roots Citizens Restore Democracy movement.
However, I never say never to new opportunities to serve my country – so who
knows what the future holds? But for right now the organizing and success of
the CRD march on DC and helping Senator Jones get elected president are my top
priorities.
REPORTER
Well, that’s a wrap for us
and only time will tell what direction the country will go in after the
November elections. This is Ima Clueless signing off for INN.
