Politics

Another work of fiction by moi... Not that anyone cares :(

It was a packed house inside the convention civic center, and justifiably so. Nathan Watkins, a political reformist was supposed to be giving a speech at the top of the hour. One of his talking points, though a minor one, was changing the shipping lanes in the Northwest so that they ran closer to shore. Up to 800 yards closer at some points, this would supposedly save on fuel costs. Another talking point, and a little bit more of a major one, was expanding the country’s use of nuclear energy.

Neither of these were acceptable to Stan. Stan was part of the eco-activist group GONAD. The Green Organization for New and Advanced Decisions, he hadn’t come up with the name, but he believed in the Cause.

Thus here he was, along with the rest of GONAD as well as a couple of other environmentalist groups to protest Watkins’ proposal. The crowd of protesters was massive; there were at least two-hundred-and-fifty men and women standing around on the glorious spring day. There purpose was twofold. They were letting the world know of Watkins’ environmentally hazardous proposals and, if it came down to it, protesting Watkins’ supposed announcement to run for president.

It was unclear whether or not he was going to make an announcement today, but after gaining much popularity with the people and starting his own political party, it seemed only natural that the odd-thinking Watkins was going to do something major in front of the huge audience today.
Stan stood near the front of the crowd, proud of all who had come. Chants of “Nukes are Flukes” and “Save our coast, we like it the most!” flooded the air. Signs were being raised, people were shouting, and several helicopters flew by overhead documenting their struggle.

GONAD had the foresight to rent some audio equipment and set up a little stage, where a rally leader could rile up the troops when the time was right. And the time was now. Rebecca, a long-time friend of Stan’s took the stage.

The crowd chanted louder, raising the energy level and encouraging Rebecca, filling her with confidence to give her speech. She looked at Stan, smiling, Stan smiled back nodding his head.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Rebecca spoke into the microphone. Her voice boomed out over the plaza. “We are here today to fight a great injustice against mother earth!”

The crowd cheered, various chants rose from the crowd for a moment or two before they quieted back down. A news van behind the crowd trained their cameras on Rebecca.

She continued. “The man speaking today, the great violator of nature, wants to bring ships closer to the shores of the Great Northwest!”

Boos rang throughout the crowd.

“He says he does it in the name of saving fuel, cutting on consumption and costs. But he is really just a corporate puppet! Saving the evil gas companies thousands and up to millions of dollars in time and fuel. What he doesn’t tell us is that he is moving the boats into a known whale migration route, and seal sanctuary. These super boats will be closer to wildlife, and they will endanger and kill hundreds of seals and whales!”

The boos rang out louder. They soon quieted down, but before Rebecca started again, Stan clearly head a voice shout “Really?”

Rebecca nodded her head, “Really. Sea Lions do not move much further than 400 yards out to sea, and the new shipping lanes will put natures children right in the middle of a ship superhighway!”

The crowd booed just as loudly as before. But the voice rang out again. “Seals or sea lions?”
Rebecca ignored the lone voice and moved on to nuclear power. “This man is not content with just killing of seals.-“

“Sea lions!” The voice shouted out.

“Sea lions. No, he won’t stop at sea lions. He wants to scatter over 120 nuclear reactors in our country. 120 nuclear reactors and 120 nuclear reactor’s worth of hazardous radioactive waste!”
Boos, very loud boos filled the plaza.

“In fifteen minutes time, this evil man is going to take the stage at the civic center across the street. We have to let him know we mean business and will fight him every step of the way!”
Rebecca raised her fist in the air, a sign of power and victory, smiled and moved to the side of the stage. The people cheered and chanted. But one voice rose above them all.

“I’m sure he’s not that bad of a guy!”

His voice reached Stan’s ears, but not Rebecca’s. Stan jumped up on stage so that he could talk without shouting at Rebecca. “Do you hear that voice? Someone in the crowd doesn’t agree with us.”

“Come on! You haven’t even met the guy and you are calling him evil!?” The voice rang out again.

Rebecca moved back to the microphone. “I assure you, fine sir, that he is an evil man.”
A small opening was appearing in the crowd. The protesters were distancing themselves from the dissenter. Stan finally had a good view of the man in the crowd. He looked somewhat familiar. The man moved his way towards the stage.

“I think to call someone evil for trying to help the country is a little shortsighted, don’t you?”
Rebecca stammered for a moment. Stan took the microphone from her. “I think someone who is trying so vehemently to destroy the environment is evil and not at all shortsighted.” The confused crowd cheered as Stan took the microphone and countered the lone man in the crowd.
The man finally reached the stage. Rather than walking around the stairs, he pressed his palms on the deck and pushed himself up.

Now Stan recognized him. It was none other than Nate Watkins. The very man they were protesting.

“How dare you come to our protest!” Stan shouted. The crowd was now silent.
Nate straightened his shorts sleeve, logoed T-shirt and adjusted his shorts. “Well, how dare you come and protest my rally. See, we are even.”

The crowd started booing and the helicopters overhead seemed to double almost instantly. Rebecca had backed herself into a corner, trying to get out of sight as Stan and Nate stared each other down.

“What are you doing? What do you hope to accomplish you whale murderer!” Stan said. The crowd supported him with a mix of cheers for Stan and boos against Nate.

“Well, I’m here because you and the rest of GONAD appear to be misinformed on a few key facts.”

“Like what! Moving the shipping lanes will kill whales and seals, nuclear reactors are horrible for the environment, look at Chernobyl!”

Nate pulled at a wedgie he had acquired while jumping on stage before he answered. “Well, I don’t know if you are aware of this, but using up too much fuel is bad for the environment. What with CO2 supposedly causing global warming and all.”

“Wait, you can’t challenge my views with environmentalist talk you pig!” Stan shouted. The crowds support wasn’t as enthusiastic this time.

“I can and I will. You see, what your misguided research doesn’t show is that the only reason that the whales migrate closer inland to start with is because the boats are already in their natural migratory route, following the current instead of the coast. Also, you continue to call the sea lions a creature completely different. Seals. Also, the sea lions of the areas in question tend to stay even closer to shore than what you think. Through thorough research, it has been concluded that these particular sea lions do not move more than 300 yards out to sea. And the sea lions are fantastic swimmers, their number one issue with humanity is nets, not boat hulls.”

Stan realized at that moment how weak his arguments were. If he had time to prepare for this unexpected visit, he figured he would have been able to wipe the floor with Nate. However, he was unprepared.

“What about the nuclear waste, huh? What are you going to do about that?”
Nate smiled, Stan realized that was exactly what he wanted to hear, but it was too late. “Well, theoretically 98% of that waste is reusable. And-“

“Theoretically? So it isn’t there yet? And may not be able to be.” The crowd felt that was a victory for Stan and they cheered vigorously.

Nate patiently waited for the crowd to die down before continuing. “Theoretically? Possibly we won’t achieve the full 98%, but we will never know unless we build some reactors and do some experiments. We are not spending anywhere close to as much money as we need to be on nuclear power. And-“ The crowd started to boo. “If I may. The space that nuclear power takes up in minimal compared the space that solar panels or wind farms take up. Plus it is much more reliable. That means that there will be far fewer of nature’s children displaced by nuclear power plants than by wind and solar farms.”

The crowd was silent. Stan could see them changing their minds. They started to murmer amongst themselves.

The anger inside Stan had been welling up ever since this insolent man Nate first shouted out. He hadn’t noticed it building, but the dam burst and the sudden outpour of anger and hate towards the man in front of him manifested itself into what could have possibly been the hardest punch Stan had ever delivered.

It landed right on Nate Watkins’ cheek. Six or seven people in the crowd cheered. A few seconds after they started cheering, the rest of the crowd started booing.

Nate picked himself up, leaned towards the microphone and said. “Excuse me, but I have to give a speech. You all are welcome to come in if you want, I saved some spots for you.”

Nate Watkins walked off the stage, Stan watched as the crowd started to walk across the street. In a few minutes he was all alone in the plaza. Only two other protestors and a news cameraman remained behind.

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I promise that next time I'll proofread, this one just kind of happened.