The crows nest, p.24
The Crow's Nest, page 24
“This is just not to be believed. Someone or some ... thing knows we’re here,” Donato whispered as he stared incredulously into the pitch-black night.
“Well ... you have no idea, Rocco,” Jack said with a grin.
Liz squeezed in between and wrapped her arms around both of them. “Here we go again, boys. It’s once more into the vortex.”
Transcended
“I want to wrap myself in the warmth
of Love’s infinite realm.
To let go and grasp hold of this thing
wondrous and inexplicable.
To swim in the subconscious of its
primordial essence, buoyant atop
the polemic rip of antipodean enmity.
To rock, gently contained in its
tumescent heart, lulled into surrender
moored inviolate in the shoal waters
of a lover’s kiss
in a shimmering mirage upon a
transcendent shore where the
concave of Love’s imprint lies
sandcast in the wistful remnants
of affection’s fossil.”
…. /2016©James Calderaro
The End
Excerpt: Truth Untold
CHAPTER ONE
“So, what do you say? Wanna go out with me?” John Dutton asked with a self-confident smile. He was a senior at Mountain Pointe High School in the community of Ahwatukee in the East Valley of Phoenix, Arizona and the captain of the junior varsity basketball team, the Golden Lions. He exulted in the flattery lavished on him by the flock of A-List girls who competed for his attention.
Jessica Richards stared at the tall, muscled boy with the cocky smile. He looked like the actor, Taylor Lautner, from the Twilight movies and had a charisma that she’d never seen before in any other boy.
Nevertheless, she hated jocks. They were all the same—arrogant, cocky, and spoiled. The fact that her neighbor had turned into one the moment he made captain, made her wince.
“Go out with you? That’s not going to happen.” She surveyed the smug grins sniggering behind him. “You and your new best friends don’t impress me with the bad boy attitude you so proudly sport. Why would I want to go out with a jerk-off like you?”
“Wow. Really? I’m a jerk-off? We’ve been friends forever. Why would you say that?”
“I just told you why. What don’t you get?” Jessica glanced over his shoulder. The four boys in tow were elbowing each other and gesturing at her.
“Ah, I see. It’s a bet. Get the geeky girl who never dates to go out with you? Is that it? What do you get out of this, John?”
“You’re wrong, Jess. Come on, don’t be like that. It’s only to see a movie.”
“I don’t know who you are anymore, John. Your little, myopic world is so exclusive, it can only be about you. I mean, you barely say hello to me when you see me in the halls and God forbid that I dare talk to you at a party or at the mall. We might’ve been friends before but that’s changed. You’ve changed.”
“I haven’t changed, Jess. I just grew up. Maybe you should, too. Anyway, forget it. I don’t want to be saddled with a tight-lipped chick all night. Besides,” he said and winked at her, “there are so many hot girls fighting to be seen with me.”
“The only thing that’s grown on you is the size of your fat head. So, big man, you go for it. I couldn’t care less.” She shut her locker and turned to study his mocking face. “What an incredible asshole you’ve become. We’re done here.”
Anyone who bothered to look at the sultry dark-haired girl walking to her next class would’ve noticed the sadness in her eyes. Jessica had had a secret crush on John for years. When they were younger they were best friends. They had reached a point where she’d thought their relationship would become more than that until she arrived on the scene.
“Ugh. I don’t have time for her now,” Jessica muttered sotto voce. She sped up, hoping to be inside the classroom before intersecting the gaggle of blondes.
“Well, look who’s trying to butt in on my turf. Haven’t you realized yet that you’re wasting your time, Jess-i-ca?” Mandy Porter whined in a syllabic taunt.
“Yeah, John would never be interested in a geek like you,” Tanya Rhodes intoned from behind.
Oh, Christ, save me from these navel-gazers. She held up her hand when Sonia Brooks, the third of the trio, opened her mouth to add her disparaging comment. They did everything in that order—always. Jessica suspected it had something to do with which one’s head was stuck the farthest up Mandy’s ass at the time.
“Don’t bother. Believe me, Maa-andy,” she responded in kind, “I wouldn’t date John Dutton if you paid me. You both are so very well matched, aren’t you? Spending an inordinate amount of time in front of the mirror, incessantly preening to no end.”
Jessica grinned as she pushed past them into the classroom where Ms. Claire Miller, the Civics teacher, was impatiently tapping her foot.
Jessica smiled at her as she passed, wondering what had made her appear irritated. She thought Ms. Miller was very pretty and at times speculated about her age, wondering why she was still single. She glanced at her furtively. Her hair was pulled back into a customary French roll. Jessica noticed how the highlights in her rich, dark-red hair glimmered. Her flinty blue eyes sparkled behind the perfectly applied mascara and streaks of eyeliner scored her top lids. Her tumescent lips, pursed irritably, glistened with a rose-colored wash.
“Close the door behind you, John,” Ms. Miller ordered brusquely.
“But there are still some—”
“And they are already five minutes late. Close the door and sit down, please.”
She turned to face the group of students who were eyeing her worriedly. When she was in a mood, they usually got loaded with extra homework.
“Thank you, everyone, for almost being punctual. This—”
The door then swung open, flooding the room with the incessant chatter from the threesome of girls who had been loitering in the hallway.
“Get out of my class,” Claire growled with her fists on her hips.
“But, Ms—”
“GET. OUT. All three of you report to the principal. And while you’re there, request a refresher tutorial on how to accurately read the hours and minutes of a chronometer. Now, get out of my sight.”
When Mandy opened her mouth to protest, Claire walked toward her looking murderous. The class burst out laughing when the three girls shrieked and scattered through the doorway. The atmosphere quickly returned to a somber state when she spun back around.
“Today, class, we will continue our discussion on the corrosive power the drug cartels are having on the very fiber of American society. As we discussed last week, they have exploited our insatiable appetite for non-pharmaceutical drugs, particularly, but not limited to, cocaine. And now, with the opioid pandemic, they have expanded their operations into the production of heroin, making it cheaper and far more accessible than synthetic pharmaceuticals being legally produced here, such as Buprenorphine, Methadone, Morphine, Hydromorphone, Oxycontin, Oxycodone, among a host of others. These synthetics are much more powerful than organic opiates. The synthetic, carfentanil is 5,000 times as potent as one unit of heroin. Imagine what happens when a synthetic is mixed with heroin?”
“Shit happens, that’s what,” a flippant response piped up from the back of the class. The few chuckles that followed died quickly when Claire continued.
“In 2016, The Centers for Disease Control estimated that there were more than 64,000 deaths caused by opioids with the sharpest increase related to synthetic opioids. The drug cartels took their cue from Big Pharma and discovered the enormous profits synthetics could generate.”
Claire looked about the room. The expressions were rapt as they waited for her to continue.
“What distinguishes Big Pharma from drug cartels like Los Zeta or the Quintana Roo cartel, legally or morally? Hands?”
A few soft murmurs followed.
“No one? Well, other than the laws governing the sale of prescription drugs, not a whole lot. Legal and moral aren’t synonymous terms. Slavery was immoral, but it was legal. The same with racial segregation. The Holocaust was legal. Genocide by any other definition. The systematic slaughter of indigenous populations by colonial powers was legal. The theft of ancestral lands. The unilateral abrogation of treaties. Some may argue that waging total war is immoral, but it can be legally justified. The effects of these historical events continue to reverberate and impact us today. So, we know that the name, Big Pharma, is an umbrella representation of the many pharmaceutical companies that produce and dispense drugs of which synthetic opioids play an important role. The cartels, on the other hand, operate illegally. They both manufacture and distribute narcotics. We could debate whether Big Pharma is ethically motivated. Are they working towards the common good? Anyone here know who Plato was?”
“He was an ancient Greek philosopher and a student of Socrates.”
“Correct, Jessica. He wrote about justice, beauty and equality, among other things, as well as the subject of political philosophy. The question then is: is the bottom line just about profits? Do ethics and morality play a role in the decision-making process of powerful corporations? Can anyone give me an example where ethics takes a back seat?” Claire scanned their animated expressions. “How about the big banks crashing the economy and the effect that had on the twelve million Americans who lost everything they had?”
“When it comes to doing business, I’d have to say it’s all about the money,” John interjected.
Claire nodded briefly. “By the way, can anyone tell me where the heroin that enters the United States comes from? Anyone? No one has the answer?” She glanced at the students listening avidly.
“Most of the opioids are domestically produced.” Claire continued. “Can anyone guess what happens to them? They are diverted into the black market. Nearly one-hundred-percent of heroin is produced outside the U.S. Where’s it coming from? C’mon, people. Doesn’t anyone read or watch the news?”
“Cuba,” Gideon shouted.
“Colombia,” said Annie Holden, Jessica’s only true friend.
“Ninety-five-percent of it is coming in from Mexico. Anyone want to take a stab at where fentanyl is coming from?” Claire paused expectantly.
“Um ... not to sound stupid, Ms. Miller, but what is fentanyl?” Gideon Walker, the captain of the football team, asked.
“It’s an opioid which is used as pain medication,” she explained. She looked around the class. “It’s vitally important that you all understand what’s going on. I’ll bet many of you know of someone who died from an overdose. That’s how close this is to all of you.” She pointed at them with a sweeping hand.
“So, back to the synthetic, fentanyl. Where’s it coming from? It’s coming from China. China is a mass producer of fentanyl. In fact, they continue to operate with relative impunity within the US. Why do you think that is?” Claire asked the class.
“Because the feeble efforts of the authorities to diminish their influence have failed,” Harold Scott, one of John’s friends retorted.
“That’s partially true but can anyone tell me why?”
“In my opinion, it’s largely because of their inability to learn from lessons of the past. The cartels are growing instead of declining and all because the government isn’t tightening the noose enough,” Jessica commented.
“It isn’t that simple to arrest the flow of drugs coming over our borders,” John added. “There are also politicians who favor unregulated business, who have formed mutually exclusive alliances with Big Pharma, which, through completely legal means, has facilitated the spread of the opioid epidemic. In other words, they are bought by Big Pharma.”
“Why do they do that?” Annie asked.
“Why? In a word, money. It’s within their power to enrich themselves as legislators,” John said.
“Yes, exactly,” Jessica confirmed. “This is a perfect illustration of Ms. Miller’s question about what’s legal and what’s moral. If passing legislation that will undermine efforts to staunch the excessive flow of pain medications is financially conducive to Big Pharma, then it goes without saying that the kickback for the legislators in Big Pharma’s back pocket, is also financially rewarding.”
“What the hell are you all talking about? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of this,” questioned Gideon.
“Yeah, that’s because you live under a rock, which really doesn’t matter since your brain, what little of it that’s left, has been scrambled on the football field,” one of John’s friends taunted. There had always been a rivalry between the basketball and football teams.
Gideon jumped up and reached for the laughing boy.
“Knock it off! Settle down, all of you,” Claire ordered. “The law John referred to, was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry. It was done specifically to weaken the aggressive enforcement efforts by the DEA to stop drug distribution companies. Especially those who were supplying corrupt medical doctors and distributors peddling narcotics to the black market.”
She glanced around the room. The young faces were animated with interest.
“Here’s another fact. Big Pharma spent 485 million dollars in one year on lobbyists to push their agenda through Congress. Money is power, class. Anything can be bought for the right price. As cynical as that may sound, there are historical examples that have proved this to be true. We’ve seen this in the failed narco state of Venezuela where politicians and the military are on the take while millions of Venezuelans have fled to neighboring Columbia and other South American states. We see this in the corrupt Central American governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua with mass migrations of their citizens fleeing poverty and gang violence. We see this again, happening to our neighbor, Mexico, where it can be argued that the entire state political, law enforcement and military apparatus is complicit in the highly lucrative drug trade. Even here, in our democracy, we see a conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Big Business. So, how is all of this legally possible? Does anyone remember Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission? It was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution ‘Prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for communications by nonprofit corporations, for-profit corporations, labor unions, and other associations’. What does this mean? Can anyone sum up what the consequences were from this ruling?”
Claire looked around the class. “Anyone?” The teenagers stared at her blankly. “In a nutshell, the Citizens United Ruling opened the door for unlimited election spending by corporations through Super Pacs. Ever hear the term, Dark Money, used? It’s all legal. What was the impact of this ruling? It allowed companies, corporations, and foreign powers to buy elections, shifting the power from political parties to their donors. The drug cartels took advantage of this. They set up shell corporations and Super Pacs and funneled millions of dollars in dark money to candidates and incumbent senators and congressmen who would vote to weaken the reach of the DEA.”
“Yeah, and that was more than enough incentive to say, fuck the legal system. Let’s side with the criminals,” Harold said loudly.
“Watch your language, Harold,” Claire warned.
“Sorry, Ms. Miller,” he said, meekly.
“Which one of you can tell me who the main sponsor was of the bill that tied the DEA’s hands?”
“Representative Tobias Merlin, a Pennsylvania Republican,” Jessica responded. She had read extensively on the subject after the previous lesson. It angered her how little humanity people had who were after money and power. “He also just happens to be the president’s nominee of choice to become the nation’s next drug czar.”
“That’s true, Jessica, but apparently he’s since withdrawn as a candidate for that position after an article in the Washington Post reported that he had accepted $300,000 from Big Pharma to stock his reelection war chest.”
Claire smiled at her impressive knowledge on the subject. Not many teenagers cared about civics and political issues. They took the course because it was the lesser evil as far as requirements were concerned. Unfortunately, for those who chose to be idle-minded, Claire took her job as an educator very seriously and was intolerant of any slacking off in her class.
“For years,” she continued, “pharmaceutical drug distributors ignored warnings from the FDA to shut down the suspicious sales of hundreds of millions of pills while simultaneously racking up billions of dollars of the same.” She turned to the whiteboard and scribbled down a number. “That is what the Mexican drug cartel is estimated to generate from drug distribution.”
“Jeez! What the fuck—?”
“Harold, again―your mouth.”
“Sorry, but you can’t be serious? That’s a lot of zeroes, Ms. Miller.”
“This number illustrates how incredibly corrupt people are. The new law now makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from pharmaceutical companies. All this scheming goes on out of sight of the public while the deadly toll of opioid abuse grows larger. Thousands of people are dying every day from overdosing on legalized medication that’s available on the black market.”
That caused an eruption of expletives and a heated debate ensued on the role of government in keeping the public safe.
Their reaction validated Claire’s concern at how easily accessible drugs had become. They were clearly riled up over the powerful corrupting influence money had in politics. The discussions continued throughout the day in individual groups all over the school campus. Even the Panthers had a debate about it in the locker room after practice.
“I can’t imagine how much money is made from selling illegal drugs and the effect it has on American families. Just blows my mind.”
