Chapter 1 Small Town Crisis
Braddock is an ordinary town located on the East Coast in Pennsylvania, only a dozen kilometers away from the downtown area of Pittsburgh, the second largest city in Pennsylvania. Like Pittsburgh, it once flourished because of the prosperity of the steel industry, but it was not as lucky as Pittsburgh to achieve industrial transformation. With the decline of the US steel industry, the town became increasingly depressed, and its population dropped from more than 30,000 at its peak to about 3,000 now.
The intersection of Braddock Avenue and Eleventh Street is the former steel industrial area. Reddish-brown buildings can be seen everywhere, with walls falling off like mangy dogs, and broken. There are also abandoned blast furnaces covered with rust, black-brown steel frames, and slender chimneys that stand tall but do not spew black smoke into the sky.
There is no iron flowing like the past, and it seems very quiet here. Going forward along the asphalt road on Braddock Avenue, it is difficult to see a few people along the way. When you reach the corner in front of you, you suddenly open up. An open-air football field appeared next to the road. There was an American football matchup on the field. The offensive group vs. the defense group of the Braddock High School football team has been playing for a long time, and now it is about to end. The winner is determined in one round. The offensive group has a touchdown, and the defense group has won four attacks.
There were more than a dozen young men and women standing on the side of the field, and one or two calls were heard occasionally. If you listen carefully, there seemed to be an echo.
"Rex! Rex!"
"Kill them, run, run!!"
As the quarterback wearing the No. 3 jersey made a pass, the audience on the sidelines immediately became extremely excited. He raised his hands and waved his fists. Several girls raised their hands and made a trumpet in front of them, shouting at the field, jumping and jumping. They were undoubtedly supporters of the offensive team.
However, the cheers suddenly turned into a "Oh" sigh. The running back on the right fell on the grass and did not catch the ball! Still did not advance ten yards! This is the third attack, which means that the offensive team only has the last chance to attack, and if they still can't get the first attack, they will have to be mutually involved in the offensive team, so it is natural that the defense team wins.
"Hehe!" Eleven people in the defense team were laughing. Although the faces were hidden under the helmets, everyone knew that they must be smiling brightly. These guys laughed and shouted: "How is it?", "Rex, give up!", "Next, I'm going to have a sack!"...
Compared to their sturdy body like a bison, the provocative quarterback looked a little thinner. He was not the kind of bull charge-type QB. However, he could still be said to be burly in a football field that was particularly strong and focused on strength and collision.
"Stop playing!" The quarterback suddenly shouted in a muffled voice and said to his teammates: "Let's punt, so they can't even touch the ball!"
The other ten people in the offensive team spoke in surprise, "Punch? There is only one round!", "Fight for the last time!"
The quarterback waved his hand and said in a deep voice: "Give me a quieter moment! We lost today, as training, punt."
Everyone was a little reluctant, but he was the captain and was usually very prestigious, so he could only nod: "Okay."
"If it's a real game, I'll have to punt now."
"Hahaha!" The defensive team suddenly became even more happy and kept shouting: "We will still get the ball!", "Remember to kick farther!", "Rex, are your feet strong enough?"
Both sides laughed and scolded, and then put on a stance again. Originally, this job was done by the punters of the special service team, but who told them not to play, the center throws the ball and the quarterback punts!
"Hmph." The quarterback walked up and signaled to his teammates: "Start!" The center then threw down the football in his hand. Then, the quarterback should have walked up, swung his right leg, and kicked the ball farther away... He walked up, but instead of raising his foot, he hugged the ball and rushed up frantically!
Hey, where is the ball? Everyone was stunned, especially the eleven people in the defensive team. They either rushed towards the offensive players or had already run back and were about to catch the flying ball, but there was no ball in the air!
The quick-reacting person woke up immediately, fuck, this is a fake punt! Rex is going to run the formation! Sure enough, taking advantage of everyone's moment of being stunned, the quarterback had already rushed through the first attack with the ball in his arms and continued to run towards the bottom line to the contact area!
"Rex, you bastard!" The No. 8 strong guard in the defense team, a big black man as strong as a calf, roared angrily, turned around and rushed over, being fooled, being fooled!
The other defenders also woke up as if they were dreaming, chasing back frantically, running rumbling on the ground, like a group of crushers!
"Rex! Rex!"
The enthusiasm of the audience on the sidelines was ignited suddenly, and the energy in their bodies was completely stimulated, and they shouted the names of the quarterbacks in unison in unison.
The boy ran in the front, followed by a large group of people, running towards the bottom line in a flash!
Ten yards! Twenty yards! Thirty yards!… Seventy yards! Successful touchdown!
"Damn it, Rex, you liar!" The black man gasped, lifted his helmet, rushed up and yelled at the quarterback. The attacking team members who were running immediately stepped forward and pushed him away.
"Hi, Luca, don't afford to lose. This is tactics, tactics, do you understand? Hahaha!"
"**!" Luca spitted, cursed and walked to the sidelines with dissatisfaction under the comfort and surroundings of the defensive team members. In fact, everyone is from the same team and has no hatred at all. They are just unhappy when the ducks that eat their mouths fly...
The showdown ended and the offensive team won.
"Oh, Rex, you are so awesome!" The Red Team members all raised their chests and stepped forward to collided with No. 3 "bang bang bang".
"Brother, good!", "Great!", "Cool!"...
"Hi, Colin, relax, relax! This is just a small scene. We are going to participate in the NCAA Rugby League." No. 3 unbuttoned his buckle, lifted his helmet upward, revealing a handsome face belonging to the Orient, with sword-browed eyebrows and starry eyes, his eyes were shining, his thin lips were slightly raised, and he smiled brightly.
His name is Rex. Wang, who is a Chinese, and his Chinese name is Wang Lei. Everyone who is familiar with him calls him "Lei". He looks only seventeen or eighteen years old, with a short black hair sticking to his scalp, soaked in sweat. He shook his head, and the sweat splashed on his teammates, which immediately caused a strange scream and laughter: "Lei, you bastard!"
"Lei, you have such an idea, drink some water!" The cheerleaders on the sidelines met these heroes who won the victory. A tall, fair-skinned, black-haired and blue-eyed girl jumped to meet Wang Lei and threw a can of Gatorade on him.
Wang Lei quickly caught the drink, raised his hand and slapped the girl in high-highlights to celebrate.
"Emily, when I see you, I don't have to drink Gatorade, and I feel full of strength. Oh, Luca, let's do ten more games." Wang Lei laughed, raised his neck, and drank a can of Gatorade cleanly.
The big black Luka poured a bottle of mineral water on her head, reached out to wipe her face, and then kept lit Wang Lei with her fingers: "You sinister guy, wait. Next time the official competition, I will definitely knock you away."
Wang Lei laughed loudly, and used force to squeeze the iron can into a discus: "Luca, do you really want me to hit you?"
Luca's movement suddenly froze there, and her whole body shivered, as if she remembered something even more terrifying. It took her a long time to turn her head and say, "Hmph, I must beat you!"
"Next time? It's a little faster. Hawke said he wanted to demolish the stadium. He had a 99.9% chance of being elected as the new mayor and launching his new plan within one month." Colin is a white guy, tall, handsome and gentle man. His nickname is "Chinese" because he has good math and is better than Wang Lei, a Chinese. No matter what he says, he has to use numbers to prove it.
When everyone heard his words, they were silent.
They have all heard of this. The town is declining. In order to be re-elected, Mayor Hawke recently proposed a new development plan, intending to learn from Pittsburgh, realize industrial transformation, and take advantage of the town's low land prices and extremely cheap housing prices to attract emerging industries to settle in. The specific measures include demolishing this historic football field, using the court and surrounding open space, and building new neighborhoods.
Thinking of the happiness that the stadium once brought, everyone was a little reluctant to leave. Losing the stadium means losing the place to play. If you want to play, you have to run to the nearby town, which is really inconvenient.
"Colin, you are too pessimistic. Hawke wants to demolish the stadium and asks us if we agree. As long as we vote against it, his plan cannot be implemented." Wang Lei threw the can of discus in his hand hard, hitting the trash can on the side of the field "accurately", and bounced off the side of the bucket with a "bang" and bounced away. He let out a "oh" and hugged his head in disbelief.
"Lei, you're talking simple. There are only four or five of us who are eighteen years old here. They all vote against each other, and it's useless!" Emily said, reaching out to hand over a towel.
"To be precise, there are only four. Before the voting day, Ray, Luca, and I will be eighteen years old, so there should be seven people, with seven votes. The number of adults in Braddock town is 2,013, plus the three of us, and the other two and three, that is, two,19, the proportion of seven votes is 0.346%, which is insignificant." Colin said slowly, taking off his protective gear, taking out a pair of gold-rimmed glasses from his carrying bag, and putting it on his nose, making it look more gentle.
Wang Lei took the towel from Emily's hand, wiped the sweat from his face, threw it on his shoulder, raised his fingers and shook it: "No, no, no, not four or five, we have fourteen... twenty... thirty people, more than thirty families, each of us goes back to do the work of our family, that is more than one hundred tickets, and then our relatives, friends and neighbors will influence more people."
"Braddock's turnout has never exceeded 20%, and registered voters are not all residents, only about 80%, right? In other words, usually three or four hundred people vote, and we can be a vital force among them."
Wang Lei waved his hand, very optimistic and confident.
Whenever Colin started to put numbers, only among the teenagers in the town could keep up with Colin's ideas and argue with him: "So, we must act, tell the adults, tell the MPs and the bureaucrats: We need this stadium, and no one can tear it down!"
In the United States, any public decision by local governments must be subject to public participation. After sufficient discussion and hearing, it is voted by town councils or even a referendum.
Even if the procedures are passed, stakeholders can still raise objections and ask the town government and council to consider it. Even if they are only minorities, they must be respected.
A decision may have to go through such a process over and over again, and it will not be resolved for years.
Such democracy is often considered inefficient, but it constitutes the local governance structure of the United States in the past century, and in this century, the United States has always been the most powerful country in the world.
Wang Lei grew up in the United States and was influenced by American culture. He was very familiar with this method and process. Therefore, he was full of confidence and encouraged everyone to act together, seek support from adults, and oppose Mayor Hawke's plan: "As long as we are united, we can defeat the evil dictator."
"Ray is right, we can't watch our courts be demolished and turned into sinful neighborhoods, occupied by those outsiders!"
"We can't let them tear down our stadium!"
Luca and the others waved their arms excitedly and loudly supported them. They all liked the sport of rugby. If the court was gone, they would have no place to play.
Colin curled his lips, disagreed. Braddock residents would not all vote, but their parents and elders were certainly not so easy to be convinced, let alone relatives, neighbors and others.
Not everyone will object to Mayor Hawke's plan. Some people think that this plan can revive the economy of Braddock town and will bring more jobs, population and fiscal revenue, and they have the opportunity to enjoy more and better public services.
However, Colin was not sure how many people they could convince. Seeing that everyone was excited, he did not continue to debate with Wang Lei. Anyway, Wang Lei would be supported most of the time. Those guys couldn't understand the meaning of numbers and would only accept emotional things.
"Action, act, and kill the Hawk Demon King!" Wang Lei raised his hands and quivered the group of teenagers to encourage each other.
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Chapter completed!