Civilly Disobedient (Calm Act Genesis Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the National Guard has opened up with teargas. I’m not sure what else. We heard gunshots and screaming. I was collecting water for the elderly at the time.”
    “Reese,” he replied, accepting the handshake with me, then Hogan. Such a simple thing, trading names and sharing a touch. But a line is crossed. We were now fellow citizens conferring on how to handle a shared problem, not nuisance customers to be brushed off.
    Reese considered the situation, then decided he could open up the boathouse for use as an aid station. And he’d talk to the other boathouses for us. There were half a dozen or more establishments in boathouse row, presumably all with sanitary facilities and drinking water. They could make spending a night in the park a whole lot more civilized.
    Hogan got on the phone to report back to the upper cadre of Weather Vane, while I accompanied Reese to negotiate with staff at the other boathouses. Turned out Reese was a gardener like me, and sympathetic to Weather Vane. We bonded over our vegetable concerns. My tomatoes were transplanting out two weeks early the past few years, his a full month early. The freaky weather lately was playing havoc with our harvests and boating.
    Inside of an hour, official-looking canopy headquarters were staked out in front of three boathouses to represent the three groups who held legitimate permits – Weather Vane, Racial Economic Justice, and ELF, the turtles who sought Educational Loan Forgiveness. AARP set up a tent, too. But the other three demanded they pitch their tent across the street, away from us, as an illegal protest group. Not that it mattered in the end. We could resent them all we wished, for having crashed our legal demonstrations. But the senior citizens needed the most assistance, and overran the limited facilities.
    By then, our quiet riverfront was inundated by stressed crowds of protesters. Coughing teargas victims had priority use of the outdoor drinking fountains. I helped the staff at one of the boathouses set up a table with a giant ice water punchbowl and cups. Hogan was having the time of his life, working with REJ to enforce clear lanes for bringing the weak through to the boathouses. Aside from people needing help, they tried to reserve the boathouse area for our authorized protesters only.
    It was after 6:00 when a National Guard truck rolled up with a loudspeaker. “This is an illegal demonstration. You are to sit in place until processed for arrest. You will be told when to exit the park. This is an illegal demonstration…”
    Reese, on behalf of the boathouses, along with leaders from the protester tents, walked up to the truck to argue with them. The truck rolled on and left our spokes-folk shaking their heads in disgust.
    Weather Vane or not, permit or no, the protest march was to have finished and dispersed by 6:00 p.m. According to the National Guard, we were all criminal agitators now.

Chapter 4
    Interesting fact: The GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) blight began with corn, the largest crop grown in the U.S. The identical genetic sequence was shared with GMO soy, cotton, and other crops. Soon the blight mutated and jumped to infect soy and cotton, exploiting the same genetic marker. All remaining GMO crops were burned in the fields. There was no GMO wheat or rice, so those crops were spared the blight. But American wheat harvests were ruined by drought in the high plains, the rice drowned by rains on the Gulf coast. The impact on the world food supply was devastating. Where U.S. consumers saw painful food prices, famine spread in Africa and the Middle East, as the world’s agricultural superpower ceased its exports.
    I sure was glad of my couple thousand calories of Philly cheese steak. The AARP came around to beg everyone’s snacks to give to diabetics who weren’t prepared to spend the night. People who’d packed candy bars and junk food got to keep them. But the oldsters made off with my pricey stash of dried strawberries and