The Surly Bonds of Earth

Anyone can find the background for Josiah Bartlet; it's written in history books and summarised in encyclopaedias the world over. But what's harder to find out, what isn't written and can only be understood through interviews, is the story of his life. What made an unassuming economics professor who once considered priesthood run for the highest office in the nation?

Perhaps it was the fact that he never once expected to win.

Standing with her arms submerged in a sink full of soapy water, CJ commented, "The four of them were more than a little shell-shocked when they walked in and saw that not only were they spending the weekend with the former president who happens to be their professor, but also the rest of us."

"You mean that he didn't tell them?" Donna asked, carefully returning the plate she had been drying to the cupboard.

"I think that he was intending to tell them," CJ answered, "but they got lost on the way and Toby, Margaret, and I got here early."

"They were nervous enough when they walked in, but when Sarah saw CJ, she almost started hyperventilating," Margaret added, putting the last of the leftover food in the large refrigerator.

"It's like the first time that Ainsley met Jed," Donna groaned.

"Are the three of you finished yet?" Josh whined, coming to stand in the kitchen doorway. "We have to play nice until you get back."

"Just wait until tomorrow morning when it's your turn, mi amore," CJ warned. "Then you'll find out just how long it takes to clean up after fifteen people."

"They've got a helipad; you'd think they'd have a dishwasher" Josh mused, coming to perch on the edge of the table.

"Usually it's just the two of them out here," Donna reminded him, shooing him off the table. "I think that you, Toby, and Sam are on breakfast duty tomorrow."

"I don't do breakfast," Toby grumbled, coming to join Josh. "Give me a couple of gallons of black coffee and I'm happy. Make Mark and the boy take care of things."

"The boy?" CJ inquired, raising her eyebrows.

"Him," Toby agreed.

"He was mocking you again, wasn't he?"

"I think that Abbey has them scheduled for lunch," Donna responded, handing towels off to both Toby and Josh. "Now, if you intend to stay in here and escape whatever lecture is being given in there, you've got to work."

"That's not fair," Josh groused, crossing his arms across his chest and staring at the towel in Donna's hands.

"What do you mean, that's not fair?"

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"If you want sanctuary, you've got to work for it."

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"Working for sanctuary?" Leo repeated incredulously. "You've got twenty Cubans clinging to a couple of pieces of plywood that they've somehow managed to lash together and they're trying to swim across the Gulf of Mexico during a storm and you're telling me that's not enough work?"

"These are people coming through hell in hopes of reaching the Promised Land," Abbey pointed out. "And we can't even offer them asylum. You've got people fleeing from China in boats that are barely seaworthy, packed in a hold for weeks with hundreds of other desperate people and we can't even ask what situations they're coming from. We can't stop to consider why they're willing to put themselves through it."

"Immigration laws are enacted for a reason," Mark argued. "If you throw open the borders, then you're allowing for a flood of unskilled immigrants, or worse, terrorists."

"Now look," Sam answered, "we're not saying we want to throw the borders wide open. We're saying that it's happened before that people honestly running from intolerable situations are being sent back. And it's usually even worse once their escape has failed."

"Some families in Mexico are living so far below the poverty line that they can't even see it, and we don't let them into the country. If they manage to make it past the barbed wire, the guards, and the dogs, we have no qualms about sending them right back." Mark leaned forward in his seat, resting his hands on his knees. "I just don't see what the difference is between a bunch of Cubans and a bunch of Mexicans. That's all that I'm saying."

"Then why bring terrorists into the equation?" Jed questioned. "That's a completely different kettle of fish."

"I thought we had to play nice," Toby observed, re-entering the room.

"Did they kick you out or try to put you to work?" Abbey teased.

"Put us to work," Toby supplied with a sigh.

"And Josh would rather do dishes than be in here?" Jed wondered.

"With all due respect, sir," Alex answered, "you did begin with a lecture on the radicalism of Luther. We only started in on sanctuary and refugees after the two of them left."

"You've been oddly silent on both of those topics," Jed noted.

"Yeah, for once," Jack snorted. "Usually you can't get her to shut up," he explained.

"Well, Alli, I always told you that you'd never be able to handle yourself around the big boys," Mark said, only half-teasing.