President Badiah Sinclair addressed the planet and spoke about how the existing structure of the government remained in place, but now it belonged to us, not the Earthians. And that was comforting for the moment.
“We are a free world led by free people,” he said. If it seemed things were very much still the same, well, we still had that “free world, free people” image to fall back on. And in one mighty symbol of the difference, the Imaginary Structures plant at Ganges Pass was reopened.
Life without the tether to Earth was a bit of a challenge, especially for those whose role in life had been to pass wealth from Sirius 4 back to the old world and accept a fraction of the tribute back in return. But it wasn’t long before the treasury wasn’t paying all of the bills. To keep the new/old government running, Sinclair and his council implemented new regulations, some rationing and even curfews – so that some of the police force could have an occasional night off and still others could be laid off.
“Why do you still need all this bureaucracy, anyway?” I said during one of our increasingly rare lunches together. “Most of your government apparatus was created to facilitate the subjugation of Sirius 4 to Earth’s orbit. Not needed anymore.”
“Ray, I know it seems unnecessary,” the president said in a tone that was starting to sound like a parent lecturing a willful child. “Before you can obtain that ideal society based on liberty, there must be a period of transition to pave the way. We can’t just stop enforcing the law one day.”
“If it’s a bad or obsolete law, why not?”
My old friend laughed like my old friend, but also like someone who was getting tired of being patient. “Come on. What do you do with criminals? How do you enforce regulations?”
“You’re not hearing me, Badi. A lot of those regulations were designed to keep us in line. You’ve got a planet full of people who were tired of being told how to live their lives by someone who wasn’t here.”
“But now their leaders are here; the power is in Sirian hands.”
“The power to do what? Tell us how to live our lives? Remember the part where we were tired of that?”
“It’s only for a little while, until the people are ready for a little more autonomy,” Badi said, now approaching irritability. “You don’t just change everything overnight.”
“Well, actually, that’s the purpose of a revolution, isn’t it? When do you decide when it’s OK to loosen the chains?”
“That’s a little unfair, to talk about chains, Ray,” he said. “Really? Chains?”
“When is it OK to ‘give us a little more autonomy’?” I persisted.
“We’ll know when we’re there.”
About a year after the Earthians left, it was clear we weren’t going to get “there” anytime soon.
Entry 71
No comments:
Post a Comment