Page 113 of The Rebel King

“No, long before that.”

“You knew Ms. Hunter before?”

“I met Lennix when she was seventeen years old. I was twenty-four, but nothing happened, so please don’t come at me about being a dirty old man.”

Some of the nervous tension breaks, and most of the crowd laughs again.

“We met at a demonstration.” I chuckle. “Ironically, she was protesting one of my father’s projects. A Cade Energy pipeline that would go through ground her tribe considered sacred and that had been protected.”

“At seventeen?”

“Yes. She was speaking, actually.”

“And your first impression of her was what?”

“I heard her before I saw her. I’d never heard conviction like that from anyone so young. Not even at my age. I was twenty-four at the time, so seven years older, and, as noted, nothing romantic happened between us.”

I pause and rub the back of my neck. “Well, that’s not entirely true. I think that was the day I started falling in love with her.”

“What happened at the protest?”

“We actually got arrested.”

“You got arrested for protesting your own father’s pipeline?” Bryce asks, delighted.

“He was not too happy about it,” I reply dryly. “But that’s where Lennix and I first met.”

“There’s a well-documented history of antagonism between your father and Lennix Hunter. Is it difficult managing that tension?”

“Sometimes, but listen. This nation has a painful, problematic past with its treatment of Native Americans. Someone like Lennix can’t even hold a twenty-dollar bill without seeing Andrew Jackson. They buy their groceries with money celebrating the man who caused them arguably the most pain.”

“I’d never thought of it like that.”

“You and I don’t have to. When people speak out about a past as painful as theirs, as long as they’re not breaking the law, you don’t get to tell them how to do it. So it’s not awkward for me that Lennix objects to some of my father’s business practices. So do I. That doesn’t mean I don’t love him or want a relationship with him. It means we don’t agree. I won’t tell Lennix not to voice her outrage on these matters. My role should be to listen.”

“Are you concerned at all about the potential complications of running for president and dating someone like Ms. Hunter?”

“Excuse me?” A muscle in my jaw ticks. My teeth grind together. “You should define what you mean by ‘someone like Ms. Hunter.’”

“Yes, well.” He clears his throat. “Someone who has been so vocal protesting for a particular people group.”

“Her people, you mean. Native Americans.”

“Yes, but if you’re president, it will be of the United States, all of them, all the people. Does it complicate things that in the interest ofherpeople, Ms. Hunter has espoused views about our forefathers that some consider unpatriotic or un-American?”

“I think her views should be considered not un-American butpre-American. They were here first. This was all theirs. We stole it. The implications of those wrongs are still being felt. And I think we get patriotism twisted a lot.”

“You think we should redefine patriotism?”

“I think we shouldrememberwhat patriotism actually is—that it’s rooted in love of country and seeing a vision for life, liberty, and justicefor allfully realized. Our forefathers wrote the truth but, in many cases, didn’t live it out. Patriotism is loving this country enough to examine its problematic history so wecanfulfill our forefathers’ words.”

“Some would argue that our forefathers did what all nation builders have done,” Bryce says. “The strongest take over and make something good better, something that will last.”

“Your version of colonization sounds like Darwinism, with the strongest surviving.”

“It’s not too far off,” Bryce chuckles.

“I’ve lived all over the world, and America is my favorite place to be by far. I believe in it, or I wouldn’t be running to lead it. Just because something ends up wonderful doesn’t mean you don’t expose the wrong in how it began. This country is amazing, but our origins are complicated and, in many cases, morally reprehensible. In the process of building something incredible, we stole, we destroyed, we took advantage of, we hurt a lot of people. We detract from our greatness when we not only refuse to acknowledge or examine our actions historically but don’t seek ways to heal and make amends where we can. I believe that’s the essence of what ‘people like Ms. Hunter’ are asking of us.”

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