The Presence Read Online Free PDF Page A

hibernated for eight months in Washington. He had not shown his face a single time in Silverwood’s district.
    â€œI heard something about how this black fellow may have made the difference,” the senator went on. “What was his name again?”
    â€œThomas Jefferson Case,” Robinson replied, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial level. Credit was never voiced loudly in Washington. “And there’s no ‘may’ about it. John’s sitting here with us right now because of what that man did.”
    â€œHe definitely tipped the balance,” Silverwood agreed.
    â€œCrossed over party lines in the middle of the campaign, did I get that right?” The senator patted his coiffure into place. “The man must be a fool.”
    â€œNot at all,” Robinson countered. “I’ve met him on a number of occasions, and the man is anything but a fool. He chose to stand on his principles even when it meant committing political suicide.”
    â€œWhat was the issue?” the senator asked. “Something about education, wasn’t it?”
    â€œHe wants to establish special programs for gifted children,” Silverwood replied. “Education’s been the basis of his entire political career. He finally decided that the Democratic ideal of equal education for all just wasn’t working. Put an awful lot of thought and work into it. Spent over two years traveling the entire southeast, gathering statistics and talking to local authorities. The report he put together for the Democratic Party Caucus last year was nothing less than incredible.”
    â€œYou’ve read it?” the senator asked.
    â€œMost of it.”
    â€œSo did I,” Robinson said. “That was one of the issues we had to agree on before he’d give his support to John. I thought at first we were just dealing with another black who’d had his pride hurt. But not anymore.”
    â€œHe took it to the Democrats not once, but seven different times,” said Silverwood. “They patted him on the head, made some kind of polite noises, and sent him away. So he got involved with the local school system, monitoring the four regional high schools. Then he took it to the papers.”
    â€œSeems I recall seeing some headlines about that,” the senator said.
    â€œâ€˜Showdown Over Educational Policy,’ “ Silverwood supplied. “That was back, oh, the summer before last.”
    â€œThe Asheville paper dubbed him ‘The Lonely Knight,’ “ Robinson said. Asheville was the original stronghold of the state’s Republican party, and home to the only right-leaning newspaper in North Carolina.
    â€œThis was not some casual decision,” Silverwood informed them. “When he finally came to see me, the man was in agony. Really at the end of his rope. He did it because he just couldn’t stand there and let them destroy our educational system. That’s exactly what he said.”
    â€œSeems amazing that you’d get this from a black man,” the senator mused. “I’d have thought he’d believe special ed would wind up being just for the little white kids.”
    â€œThat’s the most amazing part,” Robinson said.
    â€œAs long as the program is really open to everybody on the basis of merit alone,” Silverwood explained, “his study shows that there’s an incredibly high proportion of minority students who come in. His study went against every grain of Democratic policy-thinking for the past twenty years. The key issue, TJ feels—”
    â€œThat’s what he’s called? TJ?”
    â€œTJ Case,” said Robinson. “Mention that name in Democratic party circles these days and you’ll have a dozen stroke victims on your hands.”
    â€œTJ feels that the key is not to equalize education but to equalize the availability of education,” Silverwood continued. “And the way to do