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• THE FRANKLIN COVER-UP
leaders, trying to help them save themselves from economic
collapse and political revolution, which might turn into a new
totalitarian dictatorship. And nobody cared. The guards did not
care who I was or what I was doing. The system had collapsed.
It was over. Communism was dead. That was the happy part."
Bill went on, quietly, "But I also realized, that this walk in
Red Square was going to be the only victory parade I would
have, to celebrate my forty-year battle for this. There were not
going to be any parades down Madison Avenue with ticker
tape. This walk in Red Square was the only victory parade I
was going to have."
"So, what's the message" I asked. "What are you trying
to tell me"
"Sometimes," Bill said, "There are forces too powerful for
us to whip them individually, in the time frame that we would
like. We have to keep working at our goal. But we have to
be sensible enough, not to risk everything and get ourselves
destroyed or killed in the process. That victory we seek may
take much longer than we wanted, and come in ways we
never anticipated.
"Maybe, just maybe, you have to have your own private
victory parade. You maybe have to face the fact that you cannot
'right' all the 'unrightable wrongs.' That there really are people
too powerful, interests too big; that the rich and the powerful,
even when doing evil, can and will succeed and you can do
nothing about it at that moment.
"But," Bill continued, "you do the possible, recognize the
impossible, and if you are right-and you are, and we both
know it-there will be a time when victory will come and the
good will triumph over the evil. Only the when and where and
how are usually unknown to us. The best we might be able to
do sometimes, is point out the truth and then step aside. That
is where I think you are now. For your own safety and survival,
step aside."
"Maybe I should start carrying a gun," I suggested.
Bill gave a cynical laugh and said, "No, that will only likely
get you killed. If they are going to get you, a gun you are
carrying is not going to stop anything. The best thing you can
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