Chapter 67

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Note: This character John is not the same John Smith running for president. As to who exactly John and Lenny are, I'll reveal that later.

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Lenny appeared as a speaker at a labor meeting. His "friend" John seemed uncomfortable at this meeting, and around Lenny in particular. As far as anyone could tell Lenny and John were reluctant allies in the SBA. John had been encouraging corporate leaders not to do business with Antarctica. He was definitely more comfortable around the wealthy than around the working class. He claimed to be fighting for freedom, the freedom to decide who to work for, not to have the fruits of one's labor go to foreign continents. But Lenny was definitely more charismatic, and was better at speaking to the proletariet. They were at a meeting of the Knights of Labor. The original Knights of Labor were a labor union in the 1870s and 1880s. They had some good ideas in their platform, but they were best known for supporting the Chinese Exclusion Act. This modern group took the original name, and oppossed immigration by alien refugees.

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Lenny: Fellow workers, we have heard about how this alien technology will improve our lives. But ask yourself, do you really trust them to just give us this without expecting anything in return? In the end it will be vampiric, sentancing living labor to be ruled by the dead products it is creating. We all experienced the rapture, and women have not been able to become pregnant since that day, yet people continue to die. It would therefore stand to reason that America's population would have greatly decreased since that day. And yet, we keep seeing new faces, how is that possible? At best, they come to take our jobs, which have become scarce enough. Or they are parasites, stealing what we have worked so hard for. Worked for ourselves, for our families. Why should we work to serve the wealthy on another continent? I therefore encourage all of you to look closely at who you work for. Ask, are they treating me right, giving me the recognition that I deserve. Or, and I believe this is more likely, are you working for those who exploit you and prefer you be stuck in a socially inferior state? And when you question this or complain, do they apologize and try to rectify the situation? Most of us are too afraid to find out, but really we know that it is more likely we would be fired, even blacklisted. As I came here I saw gunshops, liquor stores, ciggarette machines. They do this to keep you pacified, and to keep buying their products. I saw a courthouse, with many low level criminals. Poor people who had to jump the turnstile to get to work, low level drug users. Why do you supposse that marijuanna is illegal and ciggerettes are not? It's because the people who own tobacco companies fund the very people who make these laws, with no regard to which drugs are more harmful. On the very street as this courthouse I saw three bail bonds agencies, and only one lawfirm. They'd rather you go bankrupt than let you have compatent legal representation. People embezzle millions, even billions of dollars from our pension funds, nobody goes to prison. But if you or I stole a Big Mac and soda, we'd be on Death Row. They steal our grandmother's social security checks with the IRS scam for their profits. Now you would think a scam would target the wealthy, but the ruling class has the resources to go fter these grifters, we don't. Kidnapping is also on the rise, and these kidnappers target poor people. Why not target the wealthy? Because the wealthy can hire bodyguards, we can't. Kidnapping poor people means they can demand less ransom per victim, but it also means they can't pressure the local police to go after the kidnappers, thus the kidnappers can keep doing it with less trouble from the police. If we are all truley equal under the law, why wouldn't the police go after these grifters and kidnappers. Now, I admit that I am not a member of the Society for a Better America. I give them support only because they are currently espousing some good ideas. If that were to change, I would no longer support the organization. But they are clearly representing better ideas that president Odonnell and his liberal allies in Congress.

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After the speech Lenny and John were discussing it in the back of a limo. Now it was Lenny's turn to feel uncomfortable.

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John: The boss would have preferred you be more forceful in denouncing the alien refugees.

Lenny: My speech gave us more credibility. Besides, I know how to talk to the working class. Talk of their hardships, and let the proletariet think for themselves about how the aliens are responsible. Believe me, it's much more effective this way.

John: You might be right. Still, don't forget which side you're really on, what we both owe to him.

Lenny: That's not something that I'm likely to forget.

John: Cheer up, you'll have a position of power when we win. And this power will last much longer than what you once possessed.

Lenny: Perhaps, but I doubt it will be real power.