RENAISSANCE 2.0 - Book 2 - Sample Chapters

Chapter 65

Robin and Drew sat silently facing one another from opposite ends of the couch. They looked like a pair of bookends without merit, considering the empty shelf-space separating them, and the lack of good ideas pressed up between them. Drew had her straight backed, prim and proper pose on for good measure. Robin hoped the steel rod running up her spine, helping to keep the men's suit she had on fully pressed, could be spared from holding up whatever now-crumbling edifice it had been yanked from without inviting calamity. 

But then, Robin realized, this was the first time Drew had gotten a load of him in female form, tits front and center, marching forth into the future forever ahead of her brain perched behind them. The latter now strictly in a supportive role, no longer in a leadership capacity, or so it had to feel from Drew's perspective.  

"How did you fare in Washington?" Robin asked. "I don't know how you do it. It must be like fighting a war on two fronts." 

Drew refused to rise to the bait, even before Robin recognized his unwitting faux pas. "Sorry, I didn't get a chance to brief you before I left. As you know, the coal lobby just kicked off a $40 million campaign to manipulate the election cycle. In 2008, the industry planted questions in town hall events to coerce candidates like John McCain, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama to support coal-friendly policies. This year, the effort seems quite similar - but the first ad of the campaign actually mocks Occupy Wall Street." At the news, Robin tightened, and his jaw clenched. They were going after his peeps.  

Drew, after giving her recent revelation a chance to sink in, pressed on, with her usual sense of impeccable timing. "During the ad, an image of Occupy protesters flashes across the screen as the narrator states: 'It's time we focus on reality instead of rhetoric.'" Robin was already hyperventilating. Drew empathetically gave him a chance to collect himself. 

"The coal lobby thinks 'reality' is a world dependent on their dangerous product," Drew said. "Coal-fired power plants kill at least thirteen thousand people a year by spewing over three hundred and eighty-six tons of pollutants, including mercury, into the air. Coal is also the most significant driver of carbon emissions, making the industry responsible for global warming that will cause more extreme weather, droughts, famine, crop failures, mass extinction of various species, as well as flooding. Coal is hardly even a source of middle class jobs given efforts by major coal companies to bust their respective unions." 

"You told Congress this?" 

"I told Obama this, after speaking with numerous senators, congressmen, and subcommittee people. And I didn't just go in armed with words. I went in fortified with flow charts, Power Points, and an iPad app to make Al Gore jealous." 

Robin's eyes ran with tears of joy. He couldn't believe Drew was championing one of his causes for him, in ways he could never hope to match. He wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to peddle such influence, even if he had the money to do so; he just didn't have the schmoozing schmaltzy demeanor required for the job. She was empowering him to be effective in the world instead of flickering aimlessly in the wind like a candle-flame only to be snuffed out by power interests much like herself. The bad news was, this meant Drew's insecurities about the two of them staying together had flared to the surface again. The good news was, he never felt closer to her than he did just then. He could no longer separate being played from wanting to play. 

Drew articulated the rest of her agenda, no doubt responding to the tears in Robin's eyes in the manner of a crow to a hummingbird that had just hit its head against a widow. "And just as coal pollutes the air and water, the coal lobby pollutes our political system with tens of millions of dollars spent on influencing legislators, funding front groups, and broadcasting ridiculous propaganda."