and said to his fingernails: “Exhaustive laboratory tests have proved that toxicity is no danger.”
“May I ask to be recognized,” said Chisholm, standing. “I have no objections to this meeting or to what you’ve said but may I propose a delay until our laboratory test results have been received?”
“Not until I’ve finished,” said the mayor. “This meeting has been called,” he said, “simply as a courtesy to placate a Communist-inspired conservationist, whose bread is buttered by an old man. Beasley’s Pond is like the mainstream of American thought. It accords with human nature. To interferein our improvements on Beasley’s Pond is to interfere in the fruitful union between the energies of mankind and the energies of the planet. To try and regulate with government interference the spontaneity of this union will sap its natural energy and put it at the paralyzing mercy of a costly bureaucracy financed by the taxpayer. Our improvements to Beasley’s Pond are a very good example of that free enterprise that distinguishes the economy and indeed the character of this great nation.”
“The plans for the evacuation of Janice are known to us all,” said a man who had not asked to be recognized but who stood and read from a paper. He was a tall man with gray hair and a face that, to Sears’s taste, seemed intermittently lighted.
“I have described this meeting as a courtesy,” said the mayor. “We have nothing to do with the evacuation plans.”
“The urgency of the evacuation plans,” said the stranger, “is a day-to-day matter but I only want to bring up the fallacy of a single point. As taxpayers we’ve been charged for these evacuation plans and as taxpayers gathered here together tonight we are entitled to discuss them.”
“This has nothing to do with Beasley’s Pond.”
“The possibility of detonative contaminants in the water has been admitted by your commission on hazardous wastes, and since this would put Janice into a danger area with a B classification it most definitely concerns Beasley’s Pond. But as I say my concern is over only one category in the plans. The Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters and the Concerned Citizens of Janice have all expressed their objections to the abandonment of theimprisoned and the disabled and the general ignorance the evacuation plans display of the topography of Janice, its dead-end streets, inflammable buildings and high bluffs. All of this is on record. What I am here to protest is paragraph F in clause 18. This paragraph strictly forbids any congregating excepting at designated evacuation points upon designated summons. The idea here is that if a carcinogenic element is discharged into the air there will be fewer casualties if the population remains scattered. You are familiar with this clause?”
“Of course,” said the mayor. He seemed defensive. “Of course.”
“Under the best of circumstances the evacuation plans admit that no more than twenty percent of the population can be rescued. It seems to me that since so many of us must die we ought to be allowed to gather together in some house of worship and pray for life in the world to come.”
“Who are you?” asked the mayor.
“I’m minister of the First Unitarian Church on Route 328. I speak for several other clergymen in the neighborhood.”
“Do you realize,” asked the mayor forcefully, “that the people of this great nation spend fourteen times as much money on breakfast food as they do in church contributions? The marketability of the church was exploded nearly six years ago when one of you clergymen endorsed a decaffeinated coffee and the firm went bankrupt in eight months. I can give you many more examples of how little of our national income goes into church contributions—pornographic appliances, for example—but I will confine myself to the fact that we spend fourteen times as muchon breakfast food as we do in church contributions.”
The churchman
“May I ask to be recognized,” said Chisholm, standing. “I have no objections to this meeting or to what you’ve said but may I propose a delay until our laboratory test results have been received?”
“Not until I’ve finished,” said the mayor. “This meeting has been called,” he said, “simply as a courtesy to placate a Communist-inspired conservationist, whose bread is buttered by an old man. Beasley’s Pond is like the mainstream of American thought. It accords with human nature. To interferein our improvements on Beasley’s Pond is to interfere in the fruitful union between the energies of mankind and the energies of the planet. To try and regulate with government interference the spontaneity of this union will sap its natural energy and put it at the paralyzing mercy of a costly bureaucracy financed by the taxpayer. Our improvements to Beasley’s Pond are a very good example of that free enterprise that distinguishes the economy and indeed the character of this great nation.”
“The plans for the evacuation of Janice are known to us all,” said a man who had not asked to be recognized but who stood and read from a paper. He was a tall man with gray hair and a face that, to Sears’s taste, seemed intermittently lighted.
“I have described this meeting as a courtesy,” said the mayor. “We have nothing to do with the evacuation plans.”
“The urgency of the evacuation plans,” said the stranger, “is a day-to-day matter but I only want to bring up the fallacy of a single point. As taxpayers we’ve been charged for these evacuation plans and as taxpayers gathered here together tonight we are entitled to discuss them.”
“This has nothing to do with Beasley’s Pond.”
“The possibility of detonative contaminants in the water has been admitted by your commission on hazardous wastes, and since this would put Janice into a danger area with a B classification it most definitely concerns Beasley’s Pond. But as I say my concern is over only one category in the plans. The Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters and the Concerned Citizens of Janice have all expressed their objections to the abandonment of theimprisoned and the disabled and the general ignorance the evacuation plans display of the topography of Janice, its dead-end streets, inflammable buildings and high bluffs. All of this is on record. What I am here to protest is paragraph F in clause 18. This paragraph strictly forbids any congregating excepting at designated evacuation points upon designated summons. The idea here is that if a carcinogenic element is discharged into the air there will be fewer casualties if the population remains scattered. You are familiar with this clause?”
“Of course,” said the mayor. He seemed defensive. “Of course.”
“Under the best of circumstances the evacuation plans admit that no more than twenty percent of the population can be rescued. It seems to me that since so many of us must die we ought to be allowed to gather together in some house of worship and pray for life in the world to come.”
“Who are you?” asked the mayor.
“I’m minister of the First Unitarian Church on Route 328. I speak for several other clergymen in the neighborhood.”
“Do you realize,” asked the mayor forcefully, “that the people of this great nation spend fourteen times as much money on breakfast food as they do in church contributions? The marketability of the church was exploded nearly six years ago when one of you clergymen endorsed a decaffeinated coffee and the firm went bankrupt in eight months. I can give you many more examples of how little of our national income goes into church contributions—pornographic appliances, for example—but I will confine myself to the fact that we spend fourteen times as muchon breakfast food as we do in church contributions.”
The churchman
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