In everyone's favorite state, the State of Euphoria, in the Spring of 1998, a dispute occurred within the hometown professional football team located in the town of Europa. The Europa Elephants had been making a considerable amount of money, selling out all of their games, having enough money to contract with, and pay, lots of football stars, and winning lots of games as a result.

Nevertheless, the team, owned by someone often in trouble with the law, Eddie Eager, didn't like spending money on things it saw as unconnected with the team, and wanted the city of Europa to pay for things such as building a new stadium. The mayor of Europa, Mayor Wily Green, was more than willing to try to raise money for a new stadium, and put a referendum on the ballot for which he campaigned vigorously. In fact, although there were other referenda on the ballot, for such things as new museums and jails, the combined efforts of Green and Eager resulted in a win for the new stadium, while the museum and jail bond issues lost. As well, Europa being on Euphoria Bay, and called Baghdad by the Bay, there had been major attacks on Green for not keeping the bay clean. A favorite chant was "Hey, hey Wily Green, how many days has the bay been clean?"

While bemoaning the losses, Green was elated about the new stadium. Indeed, he spoke to any and all who would listen about it, even though on one occasion a group calling themselves "Pie In The Sky" (hereafter PITS) accosted him, while he was speaking, by hitting him with pies. Many people in the City felt similarly to the PITS group, feeling that the Elephants team was getting improper attention, and excessive support, and that well deserving needs such as an adequate art museum and an antiquated jail were not receiving enough attention. The PITS people, headed by a self-styled radical by the name of John Baez, decided they would try to do something more than just throw pies. John wrote a letter to the heads of the local museum association (Museo), the Europa Bay Association (EUBA), and the Friends of the Jail (FOJ), saying that "something had to be done. Someone has to, in the words of Shakespeare, `take arms against a sea of troubles"'. John knew that all of the groups were frustrated and angry, and he hoped that someone might do something, as he later put it, "effective".

Unfortunately, at one of the groups, EUBA, the person who opened the daily mail, was an ex-con volunteer by the name of Ma Barker. Ma was herself a victim of overcrowded jail conditions, having been convicted years ago of threatening to dump agent orange into Europa Bay although she had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity because of a condition of post traumatic stress disorder caused by a very stressful childhood. Ma was quite angry both about the failure to build anew jail, and the failure to keep the bay clean, and she decided to do something "effective."

Ma knew that the Mayor had access to a special fund of city money which could be used to help relieve jail overcrowding and clean up the bay. Ma decided that she would alarm the Mayor by going to City Hall, with a weapon, perhaps a pistol, and threatening him that if he didn't transfer money from the fund within a week, she would hurt him. Unfortunately, Ma didn't have any weapon, but she knew that her co-worker, Papa Hemingway, kept many guns. She went to Papa, told him what she wanted to do, and asked if he would give her a gun. He told her he wanted nothing to do with the project, but would give her a gun, and did.

Ma then went to City Hall. She was armed with the gun inside her coat pocket, but, when she went through the detector inside the building, the alarm went off. Ma pulled the gun out, hoping she could run through the hallway and get to the Mayor's office. The guard, thinking she was going to shoot someone, shot at her, missed, and hit and killed an innocent bystander.