The Quiet Conspiracy
It’s often hard to remember way back to childhood. Somehow I do remember a comment my uncle, who is a year and a half older than me, made about my sister, brother and me. He said he thought we resembled the Brady Bunch. He didn’t mean it as a compliment either. He believed we lived in this eggshell world in which everything was sprinkles and rainbows. I think he also thought, just as an egg is fragile, the world would come crashing down on our lives once our innocence got corrupted.
I do believe our parents tried to keep us from the long reach of the evil of the world as long as they possibly could. When I was really young I would beg my Dad to take me to work with him. He delivered bread to grocery stores. He eventually relented and would let me go with him some of the time. One of those days, another vendor was kidding him. He knew how much my Dad valued his Christian reputation. In front of me, and knowing my Dad never drank, he said, “Did you hide the bottle so he wouldn’t see it?” I went home and laughingly told my Mom what the guy said, or at least my version of it. I told her, “A guy said Dad was hiding a baby bottle in his truck.”
I’m not sure if it was the time I dropped my sister, while giving her a piggy back ride and she sprained her ankle, or if it was another time, but my sister and I had another secret we kept for a long, long time. We, I’m not sure which one of actually did it, were playing and we knocked over a little ceramic planter my Mom had. I remember it was formed and painted like a teddy bear and some lettered blocks. I believe it was given to my Mother on either my birth or my sister’s birth. We knocked it off where it was sitting and it broke. Although it was an accident, we both worried about the punishment we would receive. We decided the best plan was just to try and glue it back together and hope Mom didn’t notice.
When my sister and I were in our late twenties or early thirties, we were at a family gathering. We were telling old family stories and we shared the story of the broken ceramic planter. I was looking at my Mom as we told the story and a complete sense of shock overcame her. Till that day she never even knew the ceramic planter was broken. I’m not only amazed the glue held it together that long, but also by the fact that neither my sister nor I ever let it slip before that.
It was a long campaign and this was just to get the party nomination. One guy was conservative and the other guy was middle of the road. One candidate believed tax cuts were the solution to our economic woes and the other believed there would have to be some sort of revenue increase to balance the budget. The conservatives did not trust the middle of the road guy at all. The middle of the road guy was none too fond of any of the conservatives either.
The nomination process lasted until late in the primary season. Finally, the middle of the road guy’s aides and supporters encouraged him to quit the race. He relented and hoped that he might be considered for the Vice President spot. The nominee had other ideas. In a strange twist, the nominee entertained the idea of asking a former President to become his Vice Presidential nominee. The deal fell through and at the last minute a sense of panic overcame the nominee’s campaign staff. There was only a short time remaining before they were going to have to come up with someone for the Vice President slot. With no time left to find someone else the nominee was forced to pick his former rival.
The nominee didn’t like or trust his Vice Presidential candidate. The Vice Presidential candidate was determined to change the nominee’s mind. The nominee was elected President and the new Vice President gained his confidence because he worked really hard to prove his loyalty. The Vice President also, very careful, never upstaged the President. He always defended the President’s positions and worked real hard to promote them, even if they were contrary to his previous personal opinions. They would serve two terms together. They would eventually form one of the closest one-two punches in President-Vice President history.
The Vice President was to head out on a three hour plane flight to Fort Worth aboard Air Force Two. With him aboard the plane were two congressmen, Kika de la Garza, the Democratic chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and Bill Archer, a Republican from Houston. They would land at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth. His first stop was to unveil a historical plaque at the Hotel Texas, where John F. Kennedy spent the last night of his life. The Vice President then headed over to address the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association luncheon at the Tarrant County Convention Center. The President was still in Washington finishing his lunch and putting on the final touches of a speech he was scheduled to give to the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.
After the luncheon, the Vice President headed back to Air Force Two at Carswell Air Force Base. Here he was scheduled to meet up with House majority leader Jim Wright and head to Austin, Texas. At 1:45 central time, an air traffic controller, without explaining why, radioed Air Force Two, “Are you continuing to Austin or diverting to Washington?” Why in the world would they divert back to Washington? The tower radioed back, “Sir, we’ve just received word about a shooting in Washington.” He would continue, “There is no indication the President has been hit. Word is that two agents are down. That’s all we have right now. But I’m going to make some calls and see if I can get some more information.”
On March 31, 1981, a mentally disturbed young man named John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. He would get six shots off with his .22-caliber revolver. Four men would be wounded: White House press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and President Reagan. Reagan was having trouble breathing and he thought his rib was broken by a Secret Service agent who shoved him into the presidential limousine. When Secret Servant agent Jerry Parr noticed the blood on Reagan’s suit, he knew it was more serious than that. He yelled at the driver to head to George Washington Hospital where it was determined that there was a bullet lodged close to Reagan’s heart. The President was in very serious condition. Had the Curse of Tecumseh extended to another President?
The attack happened as Vice President Bush was leaving the Cattle Raisers Association luncheon and heading toward Air Force Two. The Vice President’s plane was diverted back to Washington. Would Bush be forced to take the place of his former rival?
In a strange twist, a Houston Post reporter would raise some serious questions. Did John Hinckley, Sr., the would-be assassin’s father, contribute to the Vice President Bush’s Presidential campaign run against Reagan? What about Neil Bush, the President’s son? John Hinckley, Jr’s brother was scheduled to have lunch with him the day after Reagan was shot. John Hinckley, Sr. and his family lived in Denver and Neil Bush had just moved there. There was enough there to raise a few eyebrows.
It was a sad day among the Ammonite people. Their king, King Nahash, had died. Hanun, his son, became king. The king of Israel was also sad. King Nahash had always shown him kindness. The king of Israel decided he would send his condolences through some of his trusted servants.
Before the king of Israel’s servants arrived, some of Hanun’s trusted aides advised the newly crowned king of Ammon. They told Hanun, “You have to watch that sneaky Israelite king. He has conquered many kingdoms and we don’t really trust his motives. He is probably sending these characters in here to scope things out to make it easier for him to invade us. It’s a trick. He doesn’t give a hoot about us.” King Hanun thought about what his aides were telling him and he decided they must be telling the truth.
When the king of Israel’s men arrived, Hanun order the men to be seized. The punishment for these alleged spies was designed to send a clear message back to Israel: “We’re not stupid. You can’t fool us. If you send us others, they will be treated the same way.” So what did they do to these alleged spies? They took these servants and shaved them clean, including their beards. Then they “…cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks….” They then sent them away humiliated.
King David, of Israel, was none too happy about all this. Fearing David’s and Israel’s wrath, Hanun hired chariots and horsemen, some 32,000 of them. They also teamed up with Syria. This really upset David and he called his general, Joab, and his Mighty Men to get ready for battle.
Joab decided to split his forces into two divisions. His brother, Abishai, would be in charge of the division that would attack Ammon. The rest of the forces would do battle against the Syrians. Joab also made a pact that if either side would start losing the other one would come and help them. They would have each other’s back.
When the battle started the Syrians were filled with fear. In fact, they were so scared they just started running away. Israel slew 7000 Syrians and killed their captain, Shophach. The Ammonites saw this and they, too, started running. When Hadarezer, of Syria, saw his country was soundly defeated, he made peace with Israel and refused to help the Ammonites anymore.
The Israelites defeated the Ammonites, too. David would take the crown off their king’s head and put it on his own head. They destroyed and looted the Ammonites. Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
It was determined that it was a complete coincidence that Vice President Bush had been in the city that saw the last President’s assassination on the day Reagan was shot. John Hinckley’s dad was a member of a circle of like people of which the Bush’s also belonged. He was equally shocked that his son, and his name sake, could ever do such an evil thing. I don’t know for sure if the meeting between Neil Bush and John Hinckley’s brother ever even took place. From personal experience, I know you may be born a member of a family, but that doesn’t always translate into a like sense of morals and values.
We are a nation that seems to feed on theories and conspiracies. Like the ceramic planter that breaks with contact with the ground, a Vice President who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or just happens to know the wrong people, or someone misjudging our intentions like Hanun did with King David, conspiracies are just like a skunk’s odor: they get sucked into our brains and it takes a long time to clear out the thoughts and impressions they leave behind.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, It is so easy to misjudge people or situations. Sometimes the winds of evidence are so strong it’s hard for us not to stand tall in the mist of rumors, gossip, or hurt feelings. In those situations, please let us grant the time needed for the real truth to surface. Please let the real victor be truth. Amen.
