Greenies

to keep Mars tied to WestHem and EastHem economically.'

There was a gasp from the crowd at Capitol Park, from most of the other inhabitants of the planet who were watching electronically. She was talking about Jack Strough! She was describing his actions months before he even began to take them!

'My greatest fear, fellow Martians, the thing that keeps me awake at night, that has put these bags you see beneath my eyes, is that you will start to listen to such a person, that you will be tempted to take what seems an easy way out of the scary, free-floating, adrift sensation you will all feel in the immediate post-revolutionary phase of our history. If you succumb to this fear, if you stray from the ideals that drove this revolution, if you allow this planet to remain tied to either WestHem or EastHem in any way other than a strict trade of goods for goods, you will eventually end up right back where we started — under corporate control, with your very lives ruled by their sacred profit margins. It may take a generation to return to this point, it may take two, but if you allow any group to take advantage of your freedom for their own means it will reinforce the negative human value of brutal self-interest and allow it to continue flourishing in human nature.

'People, this revolution was not simply about improving conditions on Mars, about getting more jobs out there, about increasing wages, or even about ending the disparity of our people. It is about freeing our people from the constraints of greed, corruption, and corporate servitude for all time! It is about coming up with a system of government, a culture, in which life is fair and just for everyone. It is about casting off the old system we've slaved under for so long and developing a new system, something unique that will ensure that fairness forever. We must develop a new way of living, adopt a new human nature, and set a course that our people can follow forever, not just for a generation or two. We must make life fair and equal and in order to do that we must disdain completely all aspects of the EastHem and WestHem system. We must remain completely independent!

'I envision a Mars in which EastHem and WestHem money is useless to us and therefore has no value to corrupt our people or influence our economic system. Our mission on this planet is to grow and produce food for the people of Earth and we must continue to do that. We must not use our food as a weapon against them, must not withhold food from them unless — as is the case now — they make war upon us. This food must be given to both EastHem and WestHem in amounts dependent upon their population and their own food production capacities, not upon what they give us in return — at least not on the basic level. Luxury item trade can be arranged but it also must be strictly goods for goods. We will pay the workers who produce this food in Martian credits at pre- determined rates.

'Right now we rely upon EastHem for hydrogen fuel — a basic staple of society in this age. That must change as quickly as possible. Within five years we must build, operate, and protect our own fuel gathering operation in the Jupiter system, or, more feasibly, in the Saturn system. This will make us completely self-sufficient for all basic needs and will remove the influence that EastHem could potentially wield over our planet. Again, we will pay the construction workers, the engineers, the ship crews, and the people who staff such an operation in Martian credits issued by the Martian government.

'Once we are completely free of both EastHem and WestHem holds on our planet we are, at that point, completely free as a people. They will have nothing they can withhold from us and we would be able to carry on without them if need be. The most important thing, however — and I don't think I can stress this enough — is that we must never accept WestHem or EastHem money and we must never let them accept ours. In order for our new government to work, in order for it to remain free and committed to its values, we must remain completely separate economically.

'That is the most important part of my vision for Mars, the part in which there can be no compromise and, unfortunately, the part that those self-centered people I mentioned will want most desperately to change. If you refuse to allow them to change this, if you stand your ground and demand complete autonomy we can have, for the first time in human history, a government that truly is for the people, a world that truly is a paradise.

'Image a world in which education is the most important, most sacred thing. This is a world where schools can be built and staffed whenever and wherever they are needed, where institutes of higher learning are free and available to whoever meets the academic qualifications to attend them. Within a generation we will become the most educated people in history. Medical advances, physics advances, transportation advances, computer advances, agricultural advances would all leap forth since — as a free and autonomous people — our scientists and researchers would no longer be held back by corporate concerns or by profit margin concerns. These advances would be made in the name of humankind, not in the name of the dollar or the pound or even the credit.

'Imagine a world where everyone who wishes will have a job, will make a decent living, will be paid in a manner that reflects their skills and experience but in which no multi-millionaires, no billionaires can exist to corrupt the government with their donations and bribes.

'Imagine a world where the government representatives themselves are scrutinized for bribes, campaign contributions, or any other form of favoritism or influence peddling, where no one has the kind of money that would even make a bribery attempt worthwhile. Imagine government representatives that stay true to the ideals of public service because they are uncorrupted, because those who are prone to corruption would not seek out the job in the first place.

'Imagine a world where there are no more corporations, where we go back to the concept of the small business owner who runs his or her own shop, his or her own restaurant, his or her own intoxicant bar, his or her own pornography distribution service. This is where those paid in Martian credits will spend them, where they will buy the luxury items that working for a living entitles you to.

'Finally, imagine a world where you can have as many children as you wish, a world in which there are brothers and sisters again, in which children grow up knowing aunts and uncles and cousins — terms that have been obsolete since the beginning of the Cold War would be commonplace again. In that world your children would have the best education in history delivered to them even in the lowliest of the public schools and then they could go on — if they qualify academically — to a free advanced education up to and including a PhD at the finest colleges in history.

'This world I am describing is within your grasp, Martians. The hard part has already been done. You have freed yourselves from WestHem. Please, I beg of you with all that I am made of, don't take the easy road now. Don't let human nature and selfishness and an ingrained belief that life is not fair turn you from your path in history at this most critical juncture. You've made yourselves free, Martians. Follow through now and make that freedom matter. Make it last. Make it an example for all humankind to live by.

'I have some basic outlines for a common sense constitution that incorporates the ideas I have just mentioned and many more. I've been working on them for most of my life. They, like the message that contained this video, have been compiled into emails and injected into the Martian Internet with specific delivery directions and dates after my death. These emails will be sent to General Jackson, and three of my most trusted legislature members who stood behind me through thick and thin since the revolution. I trust these four people to present my ideas to you, the Martian people, in my name without distortion. They will begin appearing in inboxes very soon. Please, look them over, evaluate them, consider them, and, if they seem to hold water — and I sincerely believe they do — set up a constitutional committee of legal experts, business experts, economic experts, and just plain normal people. Get these people together so they can start working to polish these ideas and then implement them.

'Don't do this for me, Martians. I gave my life to this revolution, to the hope of creating a just and prosperous and, most of all, a fair society, but don't do it for me. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your children. And do it for all the children that will follow so that they may live and grow in an existence of fairness, where common sense rules.

'Keep Mars free, people. Keep Mars free.'

The video ended, fading to a blank screen. The planet remained silent for the better part of five minutes. Finally, General Jackson stepped back to the microphone.

'I have nothing to add to that,' he said. 'I believe the Governor made her wishes quite clear. We will proceed with the funeral now.'

They proceeded. Six pallbearers, including Generals Jackson and Zoloft, picked up her casket and began to carry it. They took it through the streets, a huge crowd surging around them, most of them crying, some