A Friend I Need. Zoran And Will Byers with Byler Content

Chapter 14 - The End of Normal Time

June 2019 - 30 years later

"Tonight on the show we have two gentlemen with us with radically different views on society. One side believes we should go back to traditional values and norms in society and believes straying away from these values is destroying the nation and its future. This view is espoused by Jason Carver from the Center for an American Future. "Thank you Christopher for having me on." Jason smiled his beaming smile with his mouth of fake white-capped teeth and his combover in a traditional expensive suit.

And we have the opposite view. A view that America needs to adopt new norms so people can cooperate with each other instead of competing by eliminating certain traditional views that are holding the nation back from achieving greatness. This view is held by the International Foundation All of Us Together Foundation. Here tonight is the group's Head of Legal Affairs Michael Wheeler." "Thank you Mr. Welch for having me on your program." Mike hated going on these shows because it was all soundbites and flash. Will usually debated Jason on the shows as head of the Foundation but he wasn't available because he was spearheading a new project. It beats going head to head with Jake and Angela Allen (yes those two from Lenora High) who ran Legal Affairs for the Center for an American Future. Debating them made Mike feel like he lost I.Q. points because they were so dumb. They hated Mike when they found out he was The Freak's ex-boyfriend back in 1986 in the infamous Skate attack at Rink-O-Mania.

"So Mr. Carver, tell us about the Gettysburg II project your Center is promoting as the future of American College education. It is interesting that your Center created a whole new college accrediting body to monitor these new colleges that are sprouting up across America. Why go through all this effort?"

Mike rolled his eyes. Jason's group was basically exploiting a loophole in the law to have ideological segregated schools and colleges.

"Those are good questions Christopher. When we started the original Gettysburg project, we wanted K-12 Schools that focused on traditional values and practices in education. We wanted a place where parents didn't have to worry about their children being exposed to outside influences that hate their values or undermine them. We wanted to restore a sense of accomplishment and competition to the students by making them earn their achievements. The point of our colleges is to provide quality students to our nation and our industries. We are people who are hard working, motivated and value our national identity and believe in the greatness of our nation. Our nation can't afford to have a generation that is unmotivated and hates competition. Our enemies in the world are getting tougher all the time while we are getting weaker and want to wave the white flag. When that happens, it's all over."

"Mr. Wheeler, your rebuttal?"

"I disagree with Mr. Carver. The Gettysburg projects are nothing more than Southern-style segregation schools with a new twist. All your doing is cherry-picking your best students by keeping them in a bubble where they don't interact with or face the real world. The people out here don't fit in neat little boxes you can categorize as you weed out your 'undesirables'. A lot of students fit into more nuanced categories you seem to equate with weakness. All that your schools are doing is teaching students that classism, bullying, hazing, and forced conformity are not only allowed, but needed actually for the betterment of this nation because it somehow denotes them being stronger mentally. Bullcrap! Kids so mentally scarred because they are a little different they are constantly picked on. Or kids who have so much self-loathing they can barely function. Are these students helping our nation become greater when they can barely help themselves? No! Our Foundation seen the psychological horrors your schools inflict on its victims who are dumped into the nearest public school when they are progressively weeded out. It takes a lot of time and resources to help these kids become whole again. The point of the education reforms of 2009 was to show everyone deserves a modicum of respect and decency and that elitist behavior wouldn't be tolerated. We want students' achievements to stand on their own merits regardless of their wealth, political views or other personal attributes. Your schools are trying to bring back these distinctions which the rest of the world is leaving behind which will weaken this country in the long run. Our research shows in countries where these reforms took place are seeing increased job and business creation and more active engagement by the most marginalized groups. Building a sustainable Middle Class is what strengthens Representative Democracies like ours, not weakens them. Didn't you learn anything from The Privilege Purge 12 years ago?"