The Attrition Colonies

Follow the evolution of the tests and how the secret tests by two doctors conducted at the University City Hospital's Medical Lab by its Director Dr. William Onochre and his lab manager Robbie O'Hanna evolve into becoming The Attrition Colonies.

A riveting "what if scenario" which examines the possibility of a program that has nothing to do with national security snowballs out of control and finally becomes a part of "The Stoneman - Wells National Security legislation as ARC the acronym for 'AIDS Reporting Commission,'" a federally mandated program.

I began writing The Attrition Colonies more than ten years ago, long before the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and it is a work of fiction and fantasy which one could theorize it could in fact possibly become reality. It is along this storyline I have journeyed from the "what if this did happen to what did occur." I have attempted to present The Attrition Colonies in a manner that I hope the reader will find thought-provoking as well as entertaining.

Much of life as we all experience and live it is a result (I feel) of direct and indirect events that happen to us as a part of what is often described as "the law intended and unintended consequences." It was in that manner that I developed the story as its narrator and story teller Rollin Payne comments in the opening paragraph of The Attrition Colonies "is the reality of life as I am now living it a cosmic configuration of events or the collision of happenstances, uncontrollable consequences resulting in occurrences beyond any reasonable control?" Rollin Payne, a victim of the unintended consequences of becoming infected by the HIV virus and then being forced by government regulation to be confined to and reside in Colony 04N in a remote area of northern California is relegated to the status of being a victim of intended consequences.

As the author, I have tried to remain as an unbiased and impartial observer in the battle for the inherent right to privacy as advocated by a large segment of American society with absolute need for government to be allowed to take appropriate action(s) to protect its citizens in sometimes what is perceived to be Orwellian efforts. Hopefully I have conveyed the arguments of both sides, although in this story the government prevails and the laws of both intended and unintended consequences result in the formation of The Attrition Colonies.

Could such a thing happen here in America? Should the government be allowed to circumvent the tights of its citizens granted in the U.S. Constitution under the guise of protecting them, which many feels has happened since 9/11? Or should the government on the other hand take precautions in protecting those same citizens by any means, even if they are contrary to and a violation of their constitutional rights, which many Americans also feel they would be willing to sacrifice some of those rights in order to be protected from events such as 9/11. That is your choice as the reader of The Attrition Colonies. Which is more important, permitting through legislation governmental action protecting society from a horrible and dreaded disease such as AIDS or preserving the constitutional rights to privacy? I hope you enjoy The Attrition Colonies.

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