by Clyde Key
* * *
“Well, that fellow Mile is sure in trouble now,” said Richie Taylor, as he switched off the video wallscreen.
“Why is that?” asked Taylor’s father.
“Insensitive comments. This business about aliens stinking will just get him assigned to a thirty hour AABC sensitivity course. And he’ll have to take it or he’ll get jerked off the air permanently. I’ll bet he winds up making a public apology.”
34
Sept. 21, 2113
Arlene Sisk declined the invitation to be seated. She preferred standing when making a point, especially if the other person was seated. She leaned on the president’s desk. “It has been a month now and nothing bad has happened. I say it’s time we allow them more room,” said Sisk. “There’s plenty of unoccupied land so I don’t see what the big problem is.”
“Sit down, Sisk. You make me uncomfortable pacing around like that and I don’t like you leaning on my desk either.” After Sisk sat in the plush chair, President Litton continued. “It is not true that nothing bad happened. In six different cities, people have been injured in the crowds around the aliens. In five more cities, people have moved out of their neighborhoods en masse for obvious reasons. And don’t forget those two children in Albuquerque who were seriously burned.”
“Okay. Some bad things happened because people were at fault, but we’ll see that they don’t happen again. In the first place, most of the problem was because of the huge crowds. Now they’re tapering off because most people who wanted to see Veezee have already seen them.”
“I agree it doesn’t take long for people to see as much as they want to, so the crowds are indeed declining. And I think we can probably keep children away from the rocket globes from now on, but that still doesn’t help the poor people who had to move away from their homes.”
Sisk started to jump up from her chair, then settled back down. “Ms. President! We will never have full profitable interaction with The Visitors if people don’t get over their insensitive attitudes! Those people should never have been allowed to move!”
“So now people have to lose their freedom just to protect alien egos?”
“Everybody has to give up a little bit for the greater good of the nation. There can’t ever be total individual freedom in a democracy anyway.”
“The way I see it is, it’s not a democracy when people have no say at all.”
“Then you’re not going to allow the orderly integration of Veezee into our society? What are we to do? Keep them fenced into the desert?” Sisk got up to leave, without being dismissed. “There are other ways, you know. Congress is a lot more sympathetic than you are, and we haven’t even tried the courts yet.”