NEWS FROM OUTSIDE

The most radical fringe, headed by Daniel Waggonner and his fast growing "Revelation Army" had formed covert vigilante groups to "purify" the transgressors, their parents, and supporters. A series of grisly murders had been layed at their door bythe FBI but it wasn't even slowing them down. Waggonner, a charismatic speaker, was a smart man. He wasn't all fire and brimstone. He would speak calmly on his nightly Christian radio show, careful never to openly suggest acts of violence, and talk in biblical allegories about "cleansing the heart" and "cutting out the eye that offends thee". He was also capable of a very persuasive logic. He only used facts, about the friends, thateveryone had come to accept and he used those facts to dig into thedeepest, darkest fears of us all. James played us a tape of one of theprograms he had recorded at the communications center. The man was good at what he did. I found myself surrendering to his logic. It was frightening.

Trouble wasn't just coming from the lunatic fringe. The middle of the road types were putting pressure on the government. Lots of pressure. Two days after the President made his "Listen to the Children" speech, there were calls for his impeachment in the House. He refused to be drawn into the paranoia and hatred that much of the establishment, especially the religious establishment, was formenting, and he was hated for it.

Federal troops and national guardsmen had already been used on several occasions to protect children's marches and demonstations, which were also beginning to arise in reaction to a constant litany of hate crimes and killings of children. Many parents, who at first had been too confused to act, were starting to listen to their kids. Horrified by the hideous acts of torture and mayhem directed towards young people, they had begun to bring the wagons into a circle. Other parents, who could not deal with the rebellion or the disappearance of their children, swelled the ranks of the opposed, adding their pain to a growing tide of hatred and despair.

As if things weren't bad enough, people were getting sick. Famous people were dying from mysterious causes, enough more than the norm to be alarming. Officials attributed the deaths to the worsening of public health conditions but nobody knew what was really gong on. Dread was becoming the national pasttime. Slowly, across the nation, the fabric of the system began to break down.

Overseas, things were even worse. Moslem children were being put to death or stoned by crowds for blaspheming the divine prophet or for being bearers of "unclean spirits". Re-education centers, another name for concentration camps, were rumored to have been established in countries as various as Northern Ireland, Argentina and Ceylon. Dark suggestions of massive executions from places like Kenya, Cambodia and Chile surfaced, but were impossible to confirm, as much of Africa, South America and Asia were out of touch. Some areas suffered complete information blackouts. In others, only "official" communications were getting out.

All the news wasn't bad. The scandanavian countries seemed to be conducting themselves in a civilized manner. The Netherlands government even made an appeal for direct communication with the friends. Of course, the friends didn't answer. Why make things easy. Little pockets of sanity showed up here and there in communities across the U.S. and in such unlikely places as Costa Rica, New Zealand, certain polynesian islands, and Canada. You had to dig the positive stories out of the dark recesses of the print world. They were hard to find. Blood, terror and mayhem sell more papers.