^{I’m a little burnt out with trying to keep up with Trump’s mind and current events. And, so, I’ve been working on revising a chapter in my will-it-ever-be-finished novel.}

^{The chapter takes place in 1979. It’s about a university professor of advanced mathematics -- Dr. Rebecca -- who gets “visited” by an “agent” with a national defense intelligence “network.”}

^{The “network,” she’s told, is “concerned” about an academic paper she had recently submitted for publication in an international peer reviewed journal.}

^{The “network,” she’s told, is concerned about “our enemies” and how they might benefit from her recent discoveries, making them stronger and more difficult to defeat.”}

^{The “network” wants her to remove “certain ideas” from her paper, explaining that “certain ideas” are “classified” and that their dissemination to the general public had consequences, especially for her and her family.}

^{Since one theme of my will-it-ever-be-finished novel is about standing up to Fascists and imperial, warmongering bullies, she, of course, refuses. That’s just the way she  is… feisty… strong willed… a Jewish girl from the Bronx who’d grown up in an Orthodox family but had jumped the Fence around the Torah when told she had to believe something she didn’t believe. She could have been a concert violinist, but decided to pursue mathematics — advanced mathematics.}

^{Expressing herself in the occult language of her chosen field, she had demonstrated conclusively that there’s enough for everybody, so that if somebody didn’t have enough, it wasn’t the fault of reality, but was the fault of Fascists and imperial, warmongering bullies.}

^{Continuing the line of thought of the 18th-century German mathematician Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866), who once famously wrote that “thoughts have mass,” Rebecca glimpsed behind the veil that had been concealing from us the limitless energy of stars. Eureka! She checked and re-checked her calculations. The numbers added up. We could reproduce the process here on earth. It was doable.  Controlled thermonuclear fusion. Tiny suns on earth. Unlimited energy for all humanity for all time. Rebecca thought the world should know. She thought she knew better than the system that made and enforced the nation’s secrecy laws. She knew the risks and then acted.}

^{That’s why I’m working on re-writing the chapter right now. I’m still searching for the why. Why would Rebecca risk everything just to let the people of the world know that their material burdens are not nature’s fault. She had a secure, tenured position at the university. Family. Summers off. Travel. Her husband was a professor at the university, too. He taught young writers. That’s how she’d first met Benny. Benny was one of the young writers her husband would tuck under his wing and invite to weekend parties at their home on a hill overlooking Lake Superior. Benny had gone on to become a newspaper reporter with a national chain.  That’s why she called him when she decided to become a whistleblower and tell the world.}

^{But why?}

^{They could crush her.}

^{But she did it anyway.}

^{But why?}