Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 29, 2010 23:56:45 GMT -5
...
I have never been a political person before but I know that every time the government takes my money in taxes I am poorer for it. That was one of the reasons why, three generations ago, our forefathers and mothers left a ravaged Earth and came here to Lariat. For more than 50 years our government has been on autopilot. They never raised taxes and they never grew out of proportion and they never went into debt.
Now the rise of the new Progressive Liberal Party was threatening to upset the applecart by saying that government should provide for the people. They were starting to convince more and more that government could create wealth instead of moving it around, destroying part of it in the process.
That is why attended the local Assembly where I raised my hand to give my piece, which is what our people traditionally do. On the stage I could see the five candidates with the PLP guy having the largest grin. He had just gotten the other four idiots to assent that government “could do some things better than the private sector”.
“Okay, so you take a dollar from me. You pay your bureaucrats a quarter of that and then you give fifty cents to the poor, as you said. Then you give twenty-five cents to your favorite causes and grants to your friends in the media, arts and business, the ones who donated to your campaign. How are we any richer overall?” I asked my question and then I kept talking when met with silence. “That dollar could have gone into expanding my business, creating jobs for people who work instead of feeding a person who refuses to work for a day. You are removing the dollar from where it will do the most good to where it will do the least, except pay off your election benefactors. This is how Earth was destroyed. This is what our people escaped from!”
The PLP candidate Howard Nova Yeltsin decided to change the topic of the conversation and the other fools didn’t try to respond either.
“My party will make diplomatic contact with Earth, cradle of humanity. There is no good reason for us to be cut off from our people, our original home any longer” he was trying to say before I, rather rudely, butt in.
“There is every good reason. Tyranny and brutality and forced economic impoverishment. Our people escaped by the skin of their teeth and going back will not change anything”
He shook his hand “We have no influence on them while we hide from them. They probably think we are ashamed”.
“Pragon’s poop! Mr. Yeltsin” I bolted back out of my chair “We are not ashamed. We are hiding our crown jewels from thieves, we are hiding our children from perverts. We are hiding from Earth because they will hate our liberty and freedom and seek to demolish it”
“There is no evidence that Earth is the same as it was half a century ago. Earth could very well have progressed beyond barbarism and totalitarianism. We should go and find out, we should offer our help to move them toward peaceful civilization” He prattled on and on.
Ed Thomas, local handy man and mechanic, stood up and said “I move that we nominate George Teague for the Assembly”.
I was aghast. I had not sought to run for office. I would have no idea what to do when I got to the capitol. I mean, yes, I was honored that my friend Ed would nominate me but I secretly hoped nobody seconded.
Vance Roberts stood up to my left and seconded the motion. After a show of hands there were more than two dozen present that agreed and I was an official candidate. All of this was happening so suddenly that I barely noticed being ushered to the stage where a sixth candidates chair had appeared.
Gregory Horn, Status Quo Party and the owner of the hardware and gun store in town scowled at me. He had told me that he counted on my support just yesterday. I didn’t know what to say but that I had been very disappointed that he was not standing up to the PLP mouthpiece.
Someone came to the microphone and asked all of the candidates, me included, about where we stood on the issue of building a space naval force to defend our planet.
Howard Nova Yeltsin was glad to answer first, since all he had to do was reiterate the PLP talking points. “The Progressive Liberal Party believes that we indeed require adequate force to protect our planet and respond to natural disasters. This could be quite expensive and we have put forward the notion of small cuts in expenditures on the militia and ground defense forces to help pay for this, but it may require further contributions”
“He means he will raise your taxes and that this space navy will not be a real fighting force and could be used here on the surface. Which would leave us defenseless in the event of such a disaster scenario, something I would oppose” I explained to the crowd in front of me.
Gregory Horn of the SQP seemed to be nervous when it was his turn “I think we’re doing okay right now. We could build more ground based fighters, I suppose, over time. There is no real military threat to Lariat anyways”
Like I said, I was disappointed the man turned out to be such a squishy character.
The other candidates were simply boring and quite annoying. The single-issue idiots at the Petard Regularization Party were the most annoying, bringing it up no matter the topic being discussed at the time. I rolled my eyes as I heard “We think petard legalization is a central plank in the defense of Lariat”.
I guess nobody had really broke it to them that petard was only still illegal because the vast majority found the PRP to be full of nutcases.
In 501 district elections around the colony world of Lariat it soon became apparent that the Progressive Liberal Party was going to come very close to winning an actual majority with all of the other parties dividing the rest. The Status Quo Party was in second place and seemed destined to hold at least 85 seats.
The next morning I awoke to the news that I had won the local seat and that my old friend Gregory Horn had come in fourth with around 9% of the vote. I had beaten Howard Nova Yeltsin by a handful of votes but he had conceded gracefully. My pre-written, taped, victory speech was broadcast and the concession speech I taped was erased.
The PLP was going to be setting the agenda and I was certain it would be a radical departure from the calm and serene Lariat politics of the past. They wanted to change the Constitution to allow them to put an income tax in place, change it again to institute a welfare program and make other changes that would empower a strong central government.
…
I would take my shuttle to the capitol city of Durban and do the job I was elected to do. The proposals from the PLP were all discussed and debated online, amendments offered and debated and voted on during the past two months.
As I was stepping off my shuttle the warning sirens were blaring, I could not see any storms in the sky so it was a mystery to me. I jogged inside the nearest terminal and went up to the big screen where a small crowd had formed. The image was clear enough to see that a raggedy-looking vessel was approaching the planet.
The image shrunk and the LTN News anchor was filling the rest of the screen “A refugee ship from Earth has arrived and is pleading with the government to accept them. They claim their ship is broken, that their food and water is nearly gone and their life support system is failing. The Prime Minister, Marshall Johnson, is convening his cabinet as we speak and will have a proposal for the Assembly as soon as it meets in the next few hours”.
Oh boy. The proposal would be to accept the refugee’s on the ship and give them taxpayer funded housing, food, healthcare and everything else. They would argue that it was not compassionate to do anything different.
“It is still unknown how many refugees are aboard the crippled vessel…”
I left. I had a very important job to do elsewhere.
…
“I have directed the Minister of Defense to fly food and water, as well as technicians who are expert at life support systems, to the refugee vessel.”
There was applause from the Assembly at this opening line of his first Prime Ministerial speech.
The ship is called the Arcane, which looks like a good fit. The ship is a wreck for all intents and purposes. It might be coming to the end of its last leg. The Minister of Lands and Agriculture, Mary Ann Stephenson, is reporting to me that feeding and caring for the refugees can be done within the Set Aside Fund”
“For how long are we to pay for their proper care and feeding?” Someone shouted back, there were murmurs of assent and agreement.
“We will do what it takes to save those people. We will save them and we will make up the costs later. This is a crisis and it is not a time to pinch pennies. I am the Prime Minister and I will not allow those people to die a needless death!”
That was the money quote for the TV and radio broadcasts, the PLP media were probably already asking if a “prosperous and generous people like those of Lariat would really watch those people starve to death?”
“Under the powers and duties of Prime Minister I am ordering that the military send shuttles and bring those refugees to the surface. We will find the housing and food for them. We will give them medical checkups and inoculations. This is within my powers without a vote in the Assembly. What I am asking for is this, that the Assembly to agree to not deport these poor people until their ship is repaired or other transport is found and that they have a place to go.”
I put my head in my palm. An open-ended commitment to take care of possibly thousands of refugees is not something that should pass, but I could see it would already. I cast my NO vote, feed them, fix their ship and send them on their way is what should happen. I doubted any of them had marketable skills or education to make them employable on Lariat.
…
I watched the screen in my office as military shuttle after shuttle landed and offloaded hundreds and then thousands of refugees. The Budget Office was already issuing reports of the projected costs and the PLP was now talking about how to raise the revenue to pay for it. The Set Aside Fund bought them a tent city and sent tons of food but the money was dwindling rapidly.
The SQP was appalled at the income tax proposal but some of their members had crossed over and helped pass the Emergency Refugee Act. They felt responsible and, after all, it was the compassionate thing to do wasn’t it? The Temporary Income Tax Act would lapse when the refugee crisis was over, that was what the law would say. It couldn’t be helped. It had to be done.
…
The SQP was turning out to be quite the poodle for the PLP in helping pass these radical bills that required two-third majorities. Still, how to overcome the Constitutional ban on income taxes was the big question. The PLP was in favor of just pretending that it was not unconstitutional, it was to be temporary after all, so it wasn’t all that unconstitutional.
A 5% income temporary tax on individuals and businesses alike was the idea, meaning that I would be hit double.
“We are a wealthy, generous people” The Prime Minister said moments after the passage of the bill while the whole world watched. “This is a short term measure that comes from our compassion. This is not going to bring civilization crashing down on top of us”. Meanwhile viewers were treated with the images from the tent cities of the children and women and old men.
I was a backbencher and I was an independent, that’s two strikes against me already. There was little to no chance that common sense was going to prevail until many more people saw where this was going. I decided to sleep in the office again since I hadn’t spent any money at all at the local hotel.
I woke up, washed my face and turned on the screen. Before I could check my messages I noticed the headlines.
Second refugee ship enters solar system!
Medical teams stretched thin at tent city
Tent city sewage runs through open canals
…
A second ship was entering our orbit and this one looked worse off than the first one did, it was sending out pleadings for mercy. “We have a dozen dead in our freezer but that number could easily quadruple in a matter of hours” the voice of the “Captain” said as everyone listened “Please, we will all die if you send us away”.
Here we go again I thought to myself.
As we debated the income tax measure the proposed number was increased to 8%, this caused a lot of consternation on the floor. Some of the SQP were very displeased and some of the minor parties were outright furious. I might have the beginnings of a coalition coming together, and I meant to take advantage of that.
After we all went home for the night the PLP introduced a Budget Amendment Bill that would reduce funds allocated for civil defense and other things and move them into the Refugee Relief Fund. The Outland Militia would lose all of their allocation under the amendment.
The tent city was expanded to meet the new demand and the stories about Earth that the refugees were telling was heart rendering. Earth was nothing less than a hellhole according to the stories and it was a life or death struggle everywhere. The population was a tenth of what it was fifty years ago it was estimated, hundreds of cities were abandoned ruins.
“The law applies to refugees already here and those who will be here in the future, it makes no such distinction” Prime Minister Marshall Johnson told the Assembly “That is the law as it was passed. This is no time for weak spines, gentlemen. We have people who need us in this crisis and we will spare no effort. Human lives are at stake, it is the only decent thing to do”.
The refugee spokesperson for Survivors United was on the screen a lot giving interviews about Earth and the voyage and their hopes for the future.
“The toilets are backing up and the sewage runs down the middle of the sidewalks, there aren’t enough fruits and vegetables or milk for the children. Life in the camp is tough, I am simply asking for basics here. Is it too much to ask for a toilet that works or milk for a child?”
Later the press mobbed the PM who was almost happy to hear about the demands being delivered by the refugees. “We will, of course, strive to rectify those deficiencies. We are a prosperous and moral people here on Lariat and we do not begrudge bread for the starving”.
Another ship arrived the following day. We were told that dozens of decrepit vessels had been launched and that they were destined for the colony worlds. How many do they think we could take? What was the limit to our compassion? When we were all living in filthy tent cities right along with the refugees?
The head of the refugee council Survivors United was on the screen again, a news woman was sitting across from him. “Do you feel that refugees could become a burden on society?”
“A burden to the wealthy, do they wish us to go away to die somewhere else? Are they so greedy and callous that they would watch those camp children die for lack of clean water and a crust of bread?”
“Assembly member George Teague has taken the position that your ship should be repaired and you should be sent elsewhere. That your problems need not become our problem, what is your response to this?”
“I will just say this. To look upon your fellow human being as an inferior being not worthy of a chance to live decently is one of the lowest and most vile concepts I have ever heard” he said with a growl.
…
Yet another vessel full of refugees arrives.
On the hyper I see that some are calling the refugees “zombies”. Soon there are news articles about teenagers teasing and roughing up zombie kids. There are quickly more police officers assigned to full time patrols just outside the camps. Someone has to pay for all this.
“Living in tents is cruel and inhuman. Winter is coming and we have seen no signs that housing is being constructed. Are we supposed to freeze to death, cuddled up with our children, in the winter time?”
I shook my head in my office. Winters are quite mild here in the capitol city.
When the Assembly convened after the weekend a flurry of bills had been added to the docket without any of the Constitutional preliminaries. I was appalled as I read the titles.
Refugee Fair Housing Act
Refugee Guaranteed Nutrition Act
Refugee Healthcare Access Act
Refugee Mainstream Education Act
Refugee Employment and Job Training Fund Act
Department of Refugee Services Act
We were also to vote on the Income Tax Adjustment Amendment, I skimmed through that as I sat down. Then I bolted straight up again. Raise the Income Tax to 25% on individuals and 30% on businesses! Then they would have “rebates” mailed out to the “poor” who were exempted, out of fairness of course.
On the other side of town one could see dozens of cranes and a flurry of activity as crews raced to construct a dozen high-rise apartment buildings before winter. The Assembly had passed a massive bond package to pay for it. First they had to pass a law that created the ability to issue bonds to raise immediate funds.
“This is madness. This is insane!” I bellowed despite the microphone “We are heading down the road to ruin at breakneck speed and we have no brakes! I cannot be the only person here who can see where this is going. Where does it stop? How does it end? We will become what they escaped from!”
There were more jeers than applause from the rest of the Assembly but there was more support than there had been just days ago.
The Prime Minister responded with the regular bromides “We are a rich and generous people, for the most part. Yes, we are asking for you to give up a small thing to help make lives better for the refugees. Why would you deny them a roof over their head? Why would you deny to them noodles or oatmeal in their bowl? Have you no spark of decency in your soul?”
.......... THAT IS WHERE I AM ON THIS STORY ........
I have never been a political person before but I know that every time the government takes my money in taxes I am poorer for it. That was one of the reasons why, three generations ago, our forefathers and mothers left a ravaged Earth and came here to Lariat. For more than 50 years our government has been on autopilot. They never raised taxes and they never grew out of proportion and they never went into debt.
Now the rise of the new Progressive Liberal Party was threatening to upset the applecart by saying that government should provide for the people. They were starting to convince more and more that government could create wealth instead of moving it around, destroying part of it in the process.
That is why attended the local Assembly where I raised my hand to give my piece, which is what our people traditionally do. On the stage I could see the five candidates with the PLP guy having the largest grin. He had just gotten the other four idiots to assent that government “could do some things better than the private sector”.
“Okay, so you take a dollar from me. You pay your bureaucrats a quarter of that and then you give fifty cents to the poor, as you said. Then you give twenty-five cents to your favorite causes and grants to your friends in the media, arts and business, the ones who donated to your campaign. How are we any richer overall?” I asked my question and then I kept talking when met with silence. “That dollar could have gone into expanding my business, creating jobs for people who work instead of feeding a person who refuses to work for a day. You are removing the dollar from where it will do the most good to where it will do the least, except pay off your election benefactors. This is how Earth was destroyed. This is what our people escaped from!”
The PLP candidate Howard Nova Yeltsin decided to change the topic of the conversation and the other fools didn’t try to respond either.
“My party will make diplomatic contact with Earth, cradle of humanity. There is no good reason for us to be cut off from our people, our original home any longer” he was trying to say before I, rather rudely, butt in.
“There is every good reason. Tyranny and brutality and forced economic impoverishment. Our people escaped by the skin of their teeth and going back will not change anything”
He shook his hand “We have no influence on them while we hide from them. They probably think we are ashamed”.
“Pragon’s poop! Mr. Yeltsin” I bolted back out of my chair “We are not ashamed. We are hiding our crown jewels from thieves, we are hiding our children from perverts. We are hiding from Earth because they will hate our liberty and freedom and seek to demolish it”
“There is no evidence that Earth is the same as it was half a century ago. Earth could very well have progressed beyond barbarism and totalitarianism. We should go and find out, we should offer our help to move them toward peaceful civilization” He prattled on and on.
Ed Thomas, local handy man and mechanic, stood up and said “I move that we nominate George Teague for the Assembly”.
I was aghast. I had not sought to run for office. I would have no idea what to do when I got to the capitol. I mean, yes, I was honored that my friend Ed would nominate me but I secretly hoped nobody seconded.
Vance Roberts stood up to my left and seconded the motion. After a show of hands there were more than two dozen present that agreed and I was an official candidate. All of this was happening so suddenly that I barely noticed being ushered to the stage where a sixth candidates chair had appeared.
Gregory Horn, Status Quo Party and the owner of the hardware and gun store in town scowled at me. He had told me that he counted on my support just yesterday. I didn’t know what to say but that I had been very disappointed that he was not standing up to the PLP mouthpiece.
Someone came to the microphone and asked all of the candidates, me included, about where we stood on the issue of building a space naval force to defend our planet.
Howard Nova Yeltsin was glad to answer first, since all he had to do was reiterate the PLP talking points. “The Progressive Liberal Party believes that we indeed require adequate force to protect our planet and respond to natural disasters. This could be quite expensive and we have put forward the notion of small cuts in expenditures on the militia and ground defense forces to help pay for this, but it may require further contributions”
“He means he will raise your taxes and that this space navy will not be a real fighting force and could be used here on the surface. Which would leave us defenseless in the event of such a disaster scenario, something I would oppose” I explained to the crowd in front of me.
Gregory Horn of the SQP seemed to be nervous when it was his turn “I think we’re doing okay right now. We could build more ground based fighters, I suppose, over time. There is no real military threat to Lariat anyways”
Like I said, I was disappointed the man turned out to be such a squishy character.
The other candidates were simply boring and quite annoying. The single-issue idiots at the Petard Regularization Party were the most annoying, bringing it up no matter the topic being discussed at the time. I rolled my eyes as I heard “We think petard legalization is a central plank in the defense of Lariat”.
I guess nobody had really broke it to them that petard was only still illegal because the vast majority found the PRP to be full of nutcases.
In 501 district elections around the colony world of Lariat it soon became apparent that the Progressive Liberal Party was going to come very close to winning an actual majority with all of the other parties dividing the rest. The Status Quo Party was in second place and seemed destined to hold at least 85 seats.
The next morning I awoke to the news that I had won the local seat and that my old friend Gregory Horn had come in fourth with around 9% of the vote. I had beaten Howard Nova Yeltsin by a handful of votes but he had conceded gracefully. My pre-written, taped, victory speech was broadcast and the concession speech I taped was erased.
The PLP was going to be setting the agenda and I was certain it would be a radical departure from the calm and serene Lariat politics of the past. They wanted to change the Constitution to allow them to put an income tax in place, change it again to institute a welfare program and make other changes that would empower a strong central government.
…
I would take my shuttle to the capitol city of Durban and do the job I was elected to do. The proposals from the PLP were all discussed and debated online, amendments offered and debated and voted on during the past two months.
As I was stepping off my shuttle the warning sirens were blaring, I could not see any storms in the sky so it was a mystery to me. I jogged inside the nearest terminal and went up to the big screen where a small crowd had formed. The image was clear enough to see that a raggedy-looking vessel was approaching the planet.
The image shrunk and the LTN News anchor was filling the rest of the screen “A refugee ship from Earth has arrived and is pleading with the government to accept them. They claim their ship is broken, that their food and water is nearly gone and their life support system is failing. The Prime Minister, Marshall Johnson, is convening his cabinet as we speak and will have a proposal for the Assembly as soon as it meets in the next few hours”.
Oh boy. The proposal would be to accept the refugee’s on the ship and give them taxpayer funded housing, food, healthcare and everything else. They would argue that it was not compassionate to do anything different.
“It is still unknown how many refugees are aboard the crippled vessel…”
I left. I had a very important job to do elsewhere.
…
“I have directed the Minister of Defense to fly food and water, as well as technicians who are expert at life support systems, to the refugee vessel.”
There was applause from the Assembly at this opening line of his first Prime Ministerial speech.
The ship is called the Arcane, which looks like a good fit. The ship is a wreck for all intents and purposes. It might be coming to the end of its last leg. The Minister of Lands and Agriculture, Mary Ann Stephenson, is reporting to me that feeding and caring for the refugees can be done within the Set Aside Fund”
“For how long are we to pay for their proper care and feeding?” Someone shouted back, there were murmurs of assent and agreement.
“We will do what it takes to save those people. We will save them and we will make up the costs later. This is a crisis and it is not a time to pinch pennies. I am the Prime Minister and I will not allow those people to die a needless death!”
That was the money quote for the TV and radio broadcasts, the PLP media were probably already asking if a “prosperous and generous people like those of Lariat would really watch those people starve to death?”
“Under the powers and duties of Prime Minister I am ordering that the military send shuttles and bring those refugees to the surface. We will find the housing and food for them. We will give them medical checkups and inoculations. This is within my powers without a vote in the Assembly. What I am asking for is this, that the Assembly to agree to not deport these poor people until their ship is repaired or other transport is found and that they have a place to go.”
I put my head in my palm. An open-ended commitment to take care of possibly thousands of refugees is not something that should pass, but I could see it would already. I cast my NO vote, feed them, fix their ship and send them on their way is what should happen. I doubted any of them had marketable skills or education to make them employable on Lariat.
…
I watched the screen in my office as military shuttle after shuttle landed and offloaded hundreds and then thousands of refugees. The Budget Office was already issuing reports of the projected costs and the PLP was now talking about how to raise the revenue to pay for it. The Set Aside Fund bought them a tent city and sent tons of food but the money was dwindling rapidly.
The SQP was appalled at the income tax proposal but some of their members had crossed over and helped pass the Emergency Refugee Act. They felt responsible and, after all, it was the compassionate thing to do wasn’t it? The Temporary Income Tax Act would lapse when the refugee crisis was over, that was what the law would say. It couldn’t be helped. It had to be done.
…
The SQP was turning out to be quite the poodle for the PLP in helping pass these radical bills that required two-third majorities. Still, how to overcome the Constitutional ban on income taxes was the big question. The PLP was in favor of just pretending that it was not unconstitutional, it was to be temporary after all, so it wasn’t all that unconstitutional.
A 5% income temporary tax on individuals and businesses alike was the idea, meaning that I would be hit double.
“We are a wealthy, generous people” The Prime Minister said moments after the passage of the bill while the whole world watched. “This is a short term measure that comes from our compassion. This is not going to bring civilization crashing down on top of us”. Meanwhile viewers were treated with the images from the tent cities of the children and women and old men.
I was a backbencher and I was an independent, that’s two strikes against me already. There was little to no chance that common sense was going to prevail until many more people saw where this was going. I decided to sleep in the office again since I hadn’t spent any money at all at the local hotel.
I woke up, washed my face and turned on the screen. Before I could check my messages I noticed the headlines.
Second refugee ship enters solar system!
Medical teams stretched thin at tent city
Tent city sewage runs through open canals
…
A second ship was entering our orbit and this one looked worse off than the first one did, it was sending out pleadings for mercy. “We have a dozen dead in our freezer but that number could easily quadruple in a matter of hours” the voice of the “Captain” said as everyone listened “Please, we will all die if you send us away”.
Here we go again I thought to myself.
As we debated the income tax measure the proposed number was increased to 8%, this caused a lot of consternation on the floor. Some of the SQP were very displeased and some of the minor parties were outright furious. I might have the beginnings of a coalition coming together, and I meant to take advantage of that.
After we all went home for the night the PLP introduced a Budget Amendment Bill that would reduce funds allocated for civil defense and other things and move them into the Refugee Relief Fund. The Outland Militia would lose all of their allocation under the amendment.
The tent city was expanded to meet the new demand and the stories about Earth that the refugees were telling was heart rendering. Earth was nothing less than a hellhole according to the stories and it was a life or death struggle everywhere. The population was a tenth of what it was fifty years ago it was estimated, hundreds of cities were abandoned ruins.
“The law applies to refugees already here and those who will be here in the future, it makes no such distinction” Prime Minister Marshall Johnson told the Assembly “That is the law as it was passed. This is no time for weak spines, gentlemen. We have people who need us in this crisis and we will spare no effort. Human lives are at stake, it is the only decent thing to do”.
The refugee spokesperson for Survivors United was on the screen a lot giving interviews about Earth and the voyage and their hopes for the future.
“The toilets are backing up and the sewage runs down the middle of the sidewalks, there aren’t enough fruits and vegetables or milk for the children. Life in the camp is tough, I am simply asking for basics here. Is it too much to ask for a toilet that works or milk for a child?”
Later the press mobbed the PM who was almost happy to hear about the demands being delivered by the refugees. “We will, of course, strive to rectify those deficiencies. We are a prosperous and moral people here on Lariat and we do not begrudge bread for the starving”.
Another ship arrived the following day. We were told that dozens of decrepit vessels had been launched and that they were destined for the colony worlds. How many do they think we could take? What was the limit to our compassion? When we were all living in filthy tent cities right along with the refugees?
The head of the refugee council Survivors United was on the screen again, a news woman was sitting across from him. “Do you feel that refugees could become a burden on society?”
“A burden to the wealthy, do they wish us to go away to die somewhere else? Are they so greedy and callous that they would watch those camp children die for lack of clean water and a crust of bread?”
“Assembly member George Teague has taken the position that your ship should be repaired and you should be sent elsewhere. That your problems need not become our problem, what is your response to this?”
“I will just say this. To look upon your fellow human being as an inferior being not worthy of a chance to live decently is one of the lowest and most vile concepts I have ever heard” he said with a growl.
…
Yet another vessel full of refugees arrives.
On the hyper I see that some are calling the refugees “zombies”. Soon there are news articles about teenagers teasing and roughing up zombie kids. There are quickly more police officers assigned to full time patrols just outside the camps. Someone has to pay for all this.
“Living in tents is cruel and inhuman. Winter is coming and we have seen no signs that housing is being constructed. Are we supposed to freeze to death, cuddled up with our children, in the winter time?”
I shook my head in my office. Winters are quite mild here in the capitol city.
When the Assembly convened after the weekend a flurry of bills had been added to the docket without any of the Constitutional preliminaries. I was appalled as I read the titles.
Refugee Fair Housing Act
Refugee Guaranteed Nutrition Act
Refugee Healthcare Access Act
Refugee Mainstream Education Act
Refugee Employment and Job Training Fund Act
Department of Refugee Services Act
We were also to vote on the Income Tax Adjustment Amendment, I skimmed through that as I sat down. Then I bolted straight up again. Raise the Income Tax to 25% on individuals and 30% on businesses! Then they would have “rebates” mailed out to the “poor” who were exempted, out of fairness of course.
On the other side of town one could see dozens of cranes and a flurry of activity as crews raced to construct a dozen high-rise apartment buildings before winter. The Assembly had passed a massive bond package to pay for it. First they had to pass a law that created the ability to issue bonds to raise immediate funds.
“This is madness. This is insane!” I bellowed despite the microphone “We are heading down the road to ruin at breakneck speed and we have no brakes! I cannot be the only person here who can see where this is going. Where does it stop? How does it end? We will become what they escaped from!”
There were more jeers than applause from the rest of the Assembly but there was more support than there had been just days ago.
The Prime Minister responded with the regular bromides “We are a rich and generous people, for the most part. Yes, we are asking for you to give up a small thing to help make lives better for the refugees. Why would you deny them a roof over their head? Why would you deny to them noodles or oatmeal in their bowl? Have you no spark of decency in your soul?”
.......... THAT IS WHERE I AM ON THIS STORY ........
