Radio Free Internet

By Susan Bergeron

July 2: Seated in a dark room the size of a closet, the shadowy figure of an emaciated woman clutches the stand of her old school computer mic with her boney hand. The webcam image is murky but we can still make out a pale sweaty face, her fiery eyes staring into the lens. Once well-kept, her hair is now dull with long grey roots. The microphone crackles. "Good Morning, America. This is the Voice of Radio Free Internet. We are the last Free Voice of The People. Voice of America is gone. And all of their global associates are gone. They have all been rounded up and removed. VOA has been replaced with PVA---the new President's Voice of America. After head of the FCC, Rush Limbaugh passed away, his Deputy Director Alex Jones was tapped by Trump as new Acting Chief Operating Officer of the new President's Voice of America, and John F. Solomon was moved up as Acting Director of the FCC. 

The boney hand picks up a half spent cigarette from an overflowing ashtray and the parched lips draw greedily on it. Blue smoke swirls about the face of "VFW Vickie." She exhales and draws closer to the camera. "My mother named me Victorious Jones but call me Vickie, it stands for the same thing, 'victory.' I'm speaking to you GI's out there. You soldiers who Donald Trump sends to war knowing that Vladimir Putin will buy your dead body for $100,000 but does nothing to protect you. Save yourself, GI! Save us all. We plead for your help. You must fight for America. Trump has betrayed you!" VFW Vickie lifts a 'Women Against Trump' coffee mug to her lips and drains it. "Military Man, do not let Donald Trump continue to use you for a prop at his Death Rallies! You shame the uniform when we see your MAGA cap and your Marines For Trump  poster! Do not stand with the man who called the Joint Chiefs of Staff 'babies and idiots' to their faces. Veterans of Foreign Wars, hear my plea! Do not lend your support to this traitorous criminal who has lied to you 30,000 times. Reject this failed and defeated leader who has insulted World War II heroes! Do not forget how Trump shocked and disgusted native American code-talkers while they were recieving an award for bravery! Reject this man who called a U.S. Senator Pocahontas  in front of them during that sacred ceremony.

A ladder clunks against the side of the burned-out tenement from where 'VFW' is broadcasting. From the street down below, a bullhorn booms a stern warning: "Come out now, Vickie! We know you're in there. It's no use. You're surrounded..."

Vickie stubs out her last smoke. "Listen to me, GI. Will your Gold Star parents receive respect from the U.S. government if you die in this stupid unnecessary war in North Korea? Or will Donald Trump send another love letter to the ruthless murdering dictator Kim Jong-un, who Trump has appeased at every turn? Today an underground message was received from Radio Free New Zealand informing us Trump has pulled all U.S. military troops out of South Korea and the Japanese Peninsula! Once again, he has put you in harm's way! Will the President of the United States stand before your father and insult him and make your mother cry if you die in battle? Remember Khizir Khan! Remember Otto Warmbier! 

There is a crackling noise. Interference blocks out some of VFW Vickie's words. She is rattling off a long list of names of military widows and Gold Star parents whom Trump has insulted. "...a grateful nation thanks...your sacrifice..." It sounds like a bad CNN transmission, just before the government had shut down all mainstream media broadcasts, after the merger of Fox Entertainment with One America News, after all the other transmission towers were toppled. The new Fox One station became the official state media and was now the only "news" channel on television. And after the murder of Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch by the Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump now controlled all media.

VFW Vickie soldiers on, her speech pressured and nearly breathless. "U.S. Soldier, do not be fooled! Wake up! Think about the image of Donald Trump pouting in the Oval Office, the circle of American flags seen through the window behind him waving high above the dome of your Capitol on the day after John McCain's death! For days, this stubborn, vengeful man could not be persuaded to put aside his petty differences long enough to honor one of the greatest war heroes in American history---a seven year POW who went on to serve for thirty years in the U.S. Senate. Trump refused to lower the American flag for John McCain, a patriot who, even as he lay dying of brain cancer, climbed out of his death bed one last time to go to Washington to fight for the good of the American people. Think about that, Soldier. Will you not stand up for a war hero who lost his leg fighting in Vietnam?"

There's the loud sound of boots pounding through the hallways, glass breaking, women screaming. An automatic rifle shoots a round of ammo into a row of apartment doors. The bullhorn squawks again: "Gonna find you, Vickie. Save the others and give yourself up! It's all over for you, traitor!"

VFW goes to the window, ducks down and holds a mirror to view the outside world. The ladder is three windows away. A black uniformed member of the AGSB---the Attorney General's Safety Brigade (Trump's goon squad) has climbed halfway up, almost to the fifth floor. They're closing in!

Back at the microphone VFW makes her last stand. "I'm begging you, please, U.S Military Man, do not let Donald Trump use you for his puppet, his prop. Trump was not invited to George Herbert Walker Bush's funeral! For the love of God! The sitting Commander-in-Chief of the United States was disinvited from attending the state funeral of the last surviving War Hero President of our times! Think about that, GI. Trump has caused the deaths of 325,000 people of the United States of America through his incompetence! He continues to demand that states conduct commerce even as your VA hospitals have crashed! Seventy-five percent of all veterans admitted to the VA hospitals this year have died, GI! There is not one single hospital bed left for you in this country! The military nurses are almost all dead now. It is up to you, Soldier. Donald Trump has lost this election in the biggest landslide in American history and he knows it but continues to lie to the American people by telling them that the election was rigged. Yet here we are. The cold winds of March blow across our broken and diseased land and still he barricades himself in the White House, his shameful sycophants barring the gates to The People's House. Now it is up to you, GI. You must rise up and do your Civic Duty! You must save the world from..."

A rat-tat-tat of automatic rifles tears through the room. Broken glass and warm blood splatters the computer screen of the last Free Voice of The People.