It was a professional, standing army, and that went a long way toward encouraging our neighbors to at least consider yielding to our control.Luckily f...or us, the main opposition in Oregon was a small collection of eastern counties controlled by extreme survivalists. We had a tacit alliance with the various reservations of the province’s First Nations, who now grasped that we offered a better chance at avoiding a genocidal crusade by far-right extremists. We were a far superior alternative, even. Melissa has to be wondering where I am. She probably assumes I broke down or worse got into an accident on the way to the mall. I decide to just turn the phone off. I don't want to talk to her now. I don't want to talk to anyone. I find a bench to sit on out of the normal flow of students. I need to think now. How do I confront her? Do I confront her? Should I just throw away our relationship and pretend like she doesn't exist? Sitting on the bench, I find myself looking down at the ground. And so it went. Then one evening Mike came home from work with an announcement: "The boss told me I've got to go to Zimbabwe to close down our branch there," he said wearily. "Zimbabwe, for Christ's sake..."Suzy's blood turned to ice. "What! Let him send somebody else!" No dice, baby. I'm the only guy available with the necessary experience and seniority to handle the job. Unfortunately, all the others who could do it are already busy with other assignments, so I drew the short straw. Shit!". The movie was sad and depressing, with John being sympathetic as he justcouldn't do anything to help his brother while his brother triedeverything to undermine John's work. They saw something in John, a sparkof determination that showed as he grew older and tried hard to standagainst his brother and get him help. Seeing that help get wasted thensomething horrible happen due to that help caused them to see the realstory: John's humility and compassion were abused yet he still tried todo the.