The United Hates of America

My years writing in foreign countries had been my life until I quit.

When I landed at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, Mary Saint-Baptiste from The Picayune had a job for me. I really had nothing else to do and so I figured what the hell.

The clich says truth is stranger than fiction; but when I returned to the States, it seemed like fiction had become truth. I got curious as to whose truth had become the truth. Having knuckled under to political pressure, the press was too busy entertaining to argue for truth.

The media was in a love/hate relationship with the public that definitely accentuated the hate. The relationship had spawned a story when people started turning up dead.

So my search for truth became a murder mystery.

It seemed two Christian ministers, who hated each other, had banned together to attack common enemies. To cover their actions, they had enlisted the help of an Arab/Haitian restaurateur they felt they could use as a scapegoat if things went wrong.

When federal officials arrested the restaurateur as an illegal alien and possible terrorist, the media, now a tool of whoever paid for their services, came to her aid. When the restaurateur became a media darling, the ministers' plan began to go wrong.