America 1982-Chapter 454 - 76: Jeff, Clear, Foolish, and with Grand Ideals

Florida’s Eighteenth District is one of the seven districts in Dade County, and Florida itself has only twenty districts at the moment, showing just how dense the population of Miami must be, being divided into seven different districts.

Completely unaware of the completely different life experience that was about to come his way, Jeff was leisurely driving his Ford family car with Tommy on a sightseeing tour of the district, pointing out some local landmarks and waiting to pick up the kids from elementary school before starting his grand assembly.

Along the way, he shared with Tommy and Martin his journey from an everyday man to stepping forward as a candidate, in a very sincere and simple way, causing Martin to several times think about stopping the car, grabbing a taser from Page’s hand at the car behind and giving this guy a shock, maybe that would make him grow a brain.

Aside from being a plumber, Jeff Raven was also a volunteer school worker for the church, which can be interpreted as an enthusiastic Catholic parishioner who helps out at school and with children. "The assembly" Jeff mentioned refers to the time after school when many local parents were working in citrus, okra, or sugar cane fields, finishing work late, so these kind-hearted church school workers would care for the children at school or church-arranged extracurricular locations. From this, it was evident that Jeff Raven was a person who loved children and had a great heart.

The only problem was, his fondness for telling the children stories from the Bible, along with his two fellow school worker friends who also believed in the Flat Earth theory, convinced the children of a so-called truth - that scientists were lying and that the Earth was flat.

He was responsible for standing on stage and narrating mythological stories from the Bible, interspersing some Flat Earth rhetoric, while his two school worker friends distributed candy to the children to keep them quiet.

No child wanted to listen to the stale Bible stories, so the assembly wasn’t going well, with only a dozen or so children willing to listen to Jeff’s stories for the sake of candy.

At the assembly, one teacher in charge of overseeing the children’s safety at school couldn’t help but argue with them on the spot, ridiculing Jeff and the other two school workers as fools. Though the three school workers were sincere, they were not as eloquent as the real teacher, so a debate about science and theology between the teacher and them led to the dozen or so children who were half-convinced about the Flat Earth theory dwindling to five the next day. Those five didn’t really believe in the Flat Earth theory; they just liked the free candy provided by Jeff and his friends.

Seeing his hard work almost convincing the children of the truth being ruined by the teacher, the three were very angry. However, they felt they couldn’t defeat the odious teacher with rhetoric alone, so after much contemplation, Jeff thought of a way to prove to the children that practice brings true knowledge. He invited the teacher, who was earnestly looking for trouble and trying to stop them from uncovering the scientific conspiracy, to participate in a proof experiment.

The experiment was simple. Jeff found a large solid sphere and a big wooden board, and the three of them, looking like fools, climbed and jumped on the board. After their demonstration, they invited the teacher, in front of the children, to repeat their actions on the solid sphere. If he couldn’t do it, it would prove that if the Earth were actually a globe, they would have been unable to stand steady on it.

Perhaps the brains of public school teachers in Florida also had issues. Egged on by the students’ constant goading, he actually decided to take up the challenge on the spot. He managed to stand steady on the solid wooden sphere with great effort, but as soon as he jumped, he sprained his ankle.

The day after Jeff proposed this great experiment, the number of students attending the assembly went from five to over fifty. While Jeff was telling the story of how God commanded Noah to build the ark to save the world, the children were enthusiastically discussing at the meeting how to get their disliked teachers to also take part in this Flat Earth proof experiment and sprain their ankles.

A few bold children even went to the principal, asking them to participate in the experiment.

The principal obviously had basic logic; he didn’t argue with Jeff and his two companions about any issue, nor did he accuse them of what they were doing was wrong. After all, the three were church volunteers who helped look after the children for free after school, and telling the children Bible stories wasn’t prohibited in the state. He just wanted to mock Jeff and his friends from a higher level, hoping they would realize that it was flat Earthism that was incorrect. His sarcasm went like this:

"Jeff, if you think there’s a problem with the science curriculum at school, you should go to Congress in Washington and tell all the citizens of this country. Let parents tell their children the truth. Maybe the kids would find it easier to believe."

The principal’s mockery was spot on, the only problem was that the three smart alecks didn’t pick up on the irony; they heard only encouragement:

"Right, if their experiment with the solid sphere and the wooden board was broadcast on television at Congress, wouldn’t the entire American public understand that all the scientists who claimed the Earth is a sphere were lying?"

The three brothers hit it off and, in last year’s congressional elections, Jeff’s clever friend registered to run as a Democrat. Possibly due to inadequate preparation, they didn’t just fail to debate within the party and show the Democrats their great flat Earth experiment during the primaries—their name wasn’t even mentioned by any media, sharing a label with a bunch of registered candidates who had less than 0.1% support—others.

They thought they would have to wait for the next House of Representatives election in two years to continue their campaign and strive to clear the truth in Washington, but luck was on their side. The Eighteenth District, which Mr. Claude Pepper had monopolized for twenty-seven years since 1962 until he fell ill with cancer, was to hold a special election to choose a new representative to go to Washington and take over Mr. Pepper’s job.

This convinced Jeff and his two smart companions that this must be God helping them. God wanted them to stand up and announce this great truth to the world. Moreover, this time, the other two smart alecks supported Jeff Raven for running because it was Jeff who had come up with the solid sphere and wooden board demonstration and provided the props.

What followed was Jeff stepping up without hesitation to take the solid sphere and wooden board to Washington, trying to show the American people the truth, by registering to run. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Today was the day he had just completed his registration, carrying his personal candidature information, ready to look for a printing shop to print flyers, when he ran into Tommy and his film crew.

Martin looked at Jeff in the driver’s seat, who, while keeping an eye on the road, occasionally turned his head to the camera in the passenger seat, struggling to explain the process of completing the great flat Earth experiment, his facial muscles involuntarily twitching.

He had always lived in Little Haiti in Miami, where all he saw were black people—bottom-tier black people. Then he went to Los Angeles to make a living, met Page, encountered Tommy, moved into the Beverly Hills Estate, and most of the white people he met in his life were wealthy—like Tommy and Stephen—or smart and cunning villains, like Page, or the suddenly disappearing George. In short, all these white people made Martin think they were all formidable, making him believe all white people should be as outstanding as Page, Tommy, Stephen, Sophia, and Odelia.

It was not until now, when he met this white man Jeff, who earnestly wanted to unveil the great discovery of flat Earthism to the American people, that he realized white folks could be as dumb as the blacks of Little Haiti or Compton.

"Boss..." Martin looked at Tommy reading the newspaper beside him: "How about we keep going and give pigeons laxatives? Look at that sincere expression on the guy’s face; I can’t bear to call him an idiot to his face! I’m afraid he’d look at me earnestly and ask what the word ’idiot’ means."