“-Tickets to see the Adams Sisters in concert?” Class dismissed.”Īfter taking notes on their Pip-Boy 3500s, the students filed out through the corridors as the bell rang marking school closing time, George holding hands with Arlene. “You’ll be tested on this next week and in the exam.
He spoke on at length, drawing various parallels and explaining the concept in detail for the better part of an hour before wrapping up. How can a perpetual union, made more perfect, possibly be abandoned once entered into? There’s no right for any constituent part of the United States to withdraw or become independent – after Aradesh had reorganised South California back in the late 2100s, the first thing he should have done was establish contact with the Federal Government and said ‘hey, we’ve got this republican form of government, would you please take us South Californians back in, Mr. “When the original thirteen colonies first aligned with each other – and this is before even the Declaration of Independence, I might add – they declared a ‘perpetual union’ and in the 1780s, within a decade of winning the War of Independence, they made it ‘more perfect’ with the Constitution. That is why the NCR and the Brotherhood are so determined to destroy the Federal Government, and doubly so to tarnish its good name with all that crazy propaganda you’ve heard about in Post-War History.”
“Bingo! The secessionist and anarchic regions of our great republic are still part of the United States no matter how much they try and deny that fact. “It means that true secession is impossible unless the Federal Government itself were to be destroyed.” “It means that it’s illegal for US states and commonwealths to attempt to secede?” George looked over to Arlene - a blonde-haired girl who kept her hair tied in a ponytail - for an instant, his face turning red momentarily in synch with hers, and spoke, running a hand through his maple-brown hair nervously. That would be continuity of government, without the plans for which put in action by our prudent forefathers 250 years ago, we would all still be living in shacks and looting pre-War supermarkets to supplement our diet.” “It means that even though the secessionists claim that the United States ceased to exist in the nuclear war, it still does?” Minnie, a black-haired girl with her hair still in pigtails at 18, raised her hand first, beating Walker by a fraction of a second. “Can any of you,” he said, “explain what this concept means?” He was shaken out of his reverie by the sound of the teacher writing on the blackboard, the two words clear to him - “PERPETUAL UNION”. He remembered a field trip to the Capitol Wasteland Museum when he was thirteen, five years ago – those stuffed deathclaws and super mutants, crude pipe rifles used by wasteland dwellers to protect themselves, and explosive collars used by slavers to secure their ‘stock’ had scared and enthralled him in equal measure. Walker had known nothing of that era and the even worse time two decades beforehand – his earliest memories of the city were of shining white marble monuments, brick houses and apartments, clear blue skies and bright green lawns.
Old enough to remember the bad times of the 80s, when wasteland monsters and raiders were still a recent memory. The teacher walked into the class – portly, balding and in his late 40s. George Michael Walker sat down in class and prepared for the lesson – Civics, as usual – due to unfold.