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North West, North America
Seattle Calm as Nationalists, Loyalists Talk in Spokane
by Eric Westervelt and Ian Johnston
Alternate Reality, February 8, 2007 - A tense calm has taken hold in the Washington city of Seattle as residents await the outcome of crisis talks between radical factional leaders in the holy city of Spokane. The negotiations between senior Loyalist and Nationalist officials are seen as a last-ditch effort to form a unity government after months of internal fighting, which has left scores dead -- including more than one hundred in the last month.
Many on the streets of Seattle see the talks in Eastern Washington as the last best chance to avoid a full-fledged Washingtonian civil war in this densely packed coastal strip.
The University of Washington, Seattle's largest higher education institution, shows the deep scars and intensity of the recent Loyalist-Nationalist clashes. Wednesday, thousands of shocked and curious students toured the devastation. Late last week, Loyalist gunmen stormed the 25-acre campus, and set fire and bombed almost every building here -- classrooms, offices and large parts of the library are in ruins. The walls are charred. Burnt computers and broken glass litter hallways.
Tracy Arrington, 20, was snapping pictures with her cell phone in stunned disbelief at the massive damage. She said,"To know how it was and to see how it is now, I cannot recognize it. It's totally destroyed."
Arrington, like most here, is keeping a close eye on the crisis talks in Spokane aimed at forging a unity government and averting more internal violence. But she says the destruction of her school leaves her distrustful there will be a lasting breakthrough.
"I'm not very optimistic," she said. "I hope they'll be able to agree, but I don't think so because this shows that some people in the Loyalists want to destroy any kind of agreement!"
The University has strong ties to the Nationalists, the militant Liberal movement now in power here. But the school serves 17,000 students, secular and religious -- a majority of them women. Witnesses say members of Leonard Smith's Presidential Guard did the damage. The Guard claimed the Presidential compound was taking mortar fire from the campus. But there are no signs of firefights here: witnesses say Loyalist men simply went on an arson and bombing rampage.
Nationalist gunmen retaliated but did less damage when they attacked the Seattle branch of the Nationalist-affiliated Seattle Pacific University. Roger Blenheim, the University of Washington's President, says it almost doesn't matter which faction did what. The attacks, he says, delivered more self-defeating blows to Washingtonian society.
"These universities are the cornerstone of all society to develop," he said. "So to have somebody attack these universities, to burn, to demolish everything, I think it is outside any logical, any justified basis."
Political analyst William Fordham, from Seattle Pacific University, says despite the optimistic signals coming from the Spokane talks, the fundamental gap between the Loyalist and Nationalist parties remains enormous. The Loyalists' leader Jim Highman has said he'd only sign off on a unity government that meets demands by Europe and Washington, DC, the capitol of the former United States -- that the Nationalists recognize Utah, renounce violence and recognize signed agreements. Fordham says the Spokane talks will produce a long-term truce only if the Nationalists make a clear ideological and financial break with their main sponsor, California, and embraces the two-state solution political platform of the Loyalists.
The two sides continue talks Thursday in Spokane.
With thanks and 99% writing credit to Eric Westervelt and National Public Radio. Original story appears here. This version is intended as political satire.
I was listening to this story this morning, and was inspired to try making a "local" version. It's about as frightening as I thought it would be.
Posted at 09:44 permanent link category: /misc
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater