The Smiths and Joneses (42 page)

              Picking up the handset Sharon says, “Hello Debra, how are you? How’s the new baby? Are you getting any sleep?”

              “Hi Sharon, I’m sorry to bother you, I hope I’m calling before the broadcast crew arrives.”

              “They’re already here, but no problem, what’s up? Is something wrong?”

              “Nothing’s wrong. Matt and I want to invite you and Jason to stand with Matt and me at the baby's chipping ceremony on Friday.”

              “Oh Debra, we’d be happy to be there and stand with you. Is it this Friday?”

              “Yes, at 5:00 PM, ours is the last ceremony of the day.”

              “Debra, this is such good news. This means everything’s great with the baby and he’s going to be accepted into the community now. I’m so happy for you. Listen, can I call you back later?”

              “No problem, sorry to interrupt you. I was so happy. We just got the call from the Department of Health. Bye, now.”

              Hanging up the phone Sharon has a huge smile on her face, she turns to Jason. “Honey, Debra’s and Matt’s new baby has been cleared by the Health, they are going to hold the chipping ceremony on Friday. They asked if we’d stand with them.”

              Jason replies, “Honey, that’s wonderful. I’m so happy for them. I was a little worried since Debra was a little old to have her first child. There’s always the chance Health would find something wrong with the baby. I’ll tell my manager. He’ll have no problems letting me leave a little early. Chipping ceremonies are important.”

              Sean looks at both of them; he doesn’t mention that everything since the phone call has been broadcast. “May I ask, what’s a chipping ceremony? Why is this such a special event?”

              Sharon smiles, responding. “In the LSA when babies are born, the Department of Health holds the babies for three to five days to check the baby. They want to make sure the DNA of the baby is clean; they check to make sure the baby isn’t carrying critical diseases. They check to make sure the baby is a normal healthy baby. Once they’re sure, they release the baby to the parents and a schedule is established with the Department of Population for the baby to be chipped. It’s a special ceremony. The new healthy baby has a small chip implanted in their arm. This chip is powered by the body; it transmits the person’s location and general condition to the master databases at DepPOP - that stands for our Department of Population.”

              Sean gets very excited, “Sharon are you telling me that the government holds newborn to check if they're healthy? If the baby is healthy, you implant an RFID chip inside the baby’s body? A chip that acts as a location device?”

              “Yes, that’s correct. Isn’t it exciting? This is the first chipping ceremony in our group of friends for a long time.”

              “Sharon, I think I know the answer to my next question, but I have to ask it. What happens if the baby is found to have something wrong with it?”

              “Sean, would you want a sick baby to drag down your entire health care system for as long as it lived?”

              “Your government kills the babies?”

              “It’s not like that. If the baby is sick they simply put it to sleep, so it’s not a burden on our entire society. I’m told it’s totally painless.”

              “Sharon, why would you do that to a baby? A newborn? Maybe science will develop a new cure. Maybe science will find a way to make the baby a productive member of your country.”

              “There’s a list of issues the Department of Health has if the baby tests positive for any of the diseases on their list the baby is classified as non-stable.”

              “That’s a new one on me, ‘non-stable’?”

              “Yes, it means the baby won’t be able to survive on its own.”

              “How long has this been going on?”

              “I think around ten years.”

              “Does everyone in the LSA have one of these chips?”

              “Of course. Those of us that were born before the divide were chipped when the chips were developed, about the same time, ten years ago. All of us have one. Don’t you in the USA have one?”

              “No, we don’t. We don’t want our government tracking us from birth to death.”

              Jason picks up the discussion, “Sean, we’ve read about your NSA and FBI tracking everyone’s phone. Listening in on everyone’s calls and reading your emails before you even know they’re in your inbox, in our case, they track our bodies. It slows down on kidnapping.”

              Sean responds, “Couldn’t a kidnapper just cut the chip out and then hide from the government?”

              “Very hard to do. The chips are not just under the skin. They’re deep inside of us, plus if they are removed, they send a special alarm signal. The last time we had a kidnapping case, which was over eight years ago, DepLIES was able to locate the kidnapper within minutes. The government runs tests every six months showing how accurate the chip is. They run demonstrations on live TV so would be kidnappers can see they won’t be able to get away with a kidnapping. Sean, we’ve heard about all of the missing and lost children in the USA. Chipping our children enables us to find our children. If someone grabbed one of our children, we could track them within a minute. We also don’t have the problem of elderly wandering away. The chip allows the Department of Population quickly to locate anyone who forgets where they are. Many of our senior homes have a sensor in the doorways if any senior walks past the doorway their chip starts broadcasting their location. This helps us quickly locate a missing person. Elders in the USA wander off and die from exposure or lack of their medications, which can’t happen here. Isn’t allowing a chip to be placed in your body worth the benefits? We’re saving lives; we’re using technology to protect our people.”

              “Aren’t you giving up all of your privacy rights?

              “So what, everyone knows where we are all the time anyway. What am I giving up? My family can be quickly found in a crises, can yours? We’re even going to chip Rebel so she can be found if she runs away.”

              “Do you have an issue with visitors being kidnapped?”

              “That used to be a problem until visitors were given IDs that had chips in them.”

              Sean holds his ID up, “Are you telling me this ID has an RFID chip in it?”

              “Yes it does. The DepLIES can track you anywhere you are in the LSA.”

              “I should have figured that one by myself. Sharon, I know religion isn’t a topic that’s openly discussed. However, I have a quick question that may step into the religion issue, may I ask?”

              “Sean, you can ask, however if we feel you’re crossing into forbidden spaces we’ll tell you and not answer.”

              “That’s fair. Sharon, Jason, does the ‘mark of the beast’ mean anything to you?”

              “Sean, I’m sorry, but you’ve crossed into an area we don’t discuss or talk about on the air.”

              “Thank you, I understand. Sharon, do you know any families that couldn’t bring their newborn home?”

              “Yes, there’s the family three houses down the street; they had a little girl, however, the DepHEALTH found she had one leg and one arm longer than the other. There might also have been something else wrong which we don’t know about. Usually the parents are given a medical and DNA report if they can’t bring their baby home. It hit our neighbors very hard. She fell into depression. Her husband had to agree to place her in a special home where they keep an eye on her. We hope she recovers soon.”

              “How long has it been since she went to a nursing home?”

              “About three years.”

              “Three years? Has her husband visited her often?”

              “I don’t think so, when she was committed, their marriage was automatically terminated.”

              “I think I’m going to stop this line of discussion. I have another question about some of your neighbors. Do any of your neighbors have a multiple partner marriage?”

              Scott jumps in saying, “My friend Randy has two mothers and one father, my friend Jenny has three mothers and no father. There’s a couple down the street, the house at the STOP sign; they have a family of three husbands or something like that.”

              Sean sits in his chair looking at Smith family, “Is this type of marriage that common? I thought when we first discussed this it was rare.”

              Jason replies, “Sean, it was rare around five years ago, since then, it’s gotten much more normal.”

              “Jason, are most of these people in what you call an Alpha or Beta marriage?”

              “No, most are in regular marriages, meaning a marriage without a built in term limit.”

              “I see, I’m not sure I do, but that’s most likely my upbringing talking.”

              Sharon says, “Sean, you have to look past your religious background and look at the situation from the peoples involved point of view.”

              “I’ll try to keep an open mind on the subject. I still have personal issues with the co-ed gym situation in your schools.”

              Scott says, “You weren’t born here. You don’t have the same education as we do.”

              “Scott, that’s a very wise statement, you’re much smarter than your years.”

              “See dad, Mr. Sean thinks I’m smart. I think I’m smart and aware enough to take my bike over to Randy’s or Jenny’s house.”

              “He said you were smart on that one subject. As to you getting your bike expert license that would allow you to travel up to five miles from home on your bike, let’s see how you handle your chores and show your mother and me how well you handle your responsibility.”

              “That means you might agree?”

              “You heard what I said.”

              Wolf jumps in saying, “Sean, you’re a real King Solomon, you may have just made a life long friend.”

              “Hey, the way I’m going I can use all of the friends I can get.”

              The crew laughs as they take a short break for a couple of commercials CNN decided to accept into the program.

              Returning from the break Sean asks, “Sissy, Scott can you tell us more about your school. If I asked you to add 9 and 6 can you quickly tell me the answer?”

              Sissy responds, “Mr. Sean, can I use my tablet?”

              “Sissy, you need a tablet to figure out the answer?”

              “It makes it much easier to do.”

              “Here, use mine.”

              “Mr. Sean, first we write 9 + 6 =, the next step is to take the number 6 apart, It’s made up of 1 + 5. If we take the 1 and add it to the 9 we get 10. 10 is good. We like 10. Now the 6 is a 5, so we add the 5 to the 10 which gives us 10 + 5 or 15. See how quick and easy that was?”

              Sean looks at the tablet saying, “Sissy, yes I see. You’re not able to do math in your head can you?”

              Scott jumps in saying, “Why would we? Everyone has a smartphone or a tablet.”

              “Scott if you go to the store and one item is priced at $8.75 another is priced at $3.69 how do you quickly figure out if you have enough money to buy both items?”

              “Mr. Sean, first of all almost everything is priced at whole dollars if I wanted to know if I have enough money to buy both I take them to the scanner. I scan the two items and my payment card; it’ll tell me if I can buy both items. We don’t usually use what was called cents. It’s too hard to use cents and try to figure out in our heads or even on our tablets.” Scott sits back on the love seat proud of himself.”

              Sean looks confused, he says, “If I understand this correctly, everything that deals with numbers has been changed to make it easier for people to calculate. Math has been changed to stay within the student’s ‘comfort zone.' If one were to follow this to its logical conclusion, students’ and everyone else’s comfort zone will never be expanded. How is anyone learning new things if everything is being kept to the easiest?  Scott, thank you for explaining that. I would say your response clears up a lot of questions about your math education. At the same time it generates a lot of new questions, those we won’t touch tight now. Scott, if I said to you CO2, what would you respond to me?”

              “That’s an easy one. I’ll tell you CO2 causes Global Warming. It’s a very bad chemical. We have to do everything we can to lower the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere. We’re doing everything we can to save the planet. We have to work twice as hard since you in the USA refuse to sign any treaty to slow and stop Global Warming from destroying the planet.”

              “Scott, do you realize that you exhale CO2? If you have to do everything possible to reduce CO2, does that mean reducing the planet’s population?”

              “Yes, that’s one of the things we’re taught. That’s why soon new families are going to be limited to one child instead of two. We have to work very hard because so many other countries, and that includes the USA, aren’t doing anything to stop Global Warming.”