the newcomers

The Alberton Papers, Vol. III, #XIII
By Dick Darne 1-20-07
The Newcomers
Elder faded away and was replaced by The Lady.
"Carry on, boys" she said; "Just don’t keep it in a box."
"What do you mean?" asked Johnny; "Aren’t all the other rights worthless without the second?
"Not at all. Without the others, you’d soon find yourselves alone, divided and at each other’s throats. You boys should think about all our rights. The Old Boys who originally thought out these things; even though they all had flaws; even allowing for the mores of their times; were still the largest and best collection of brains in history."
More people had quietly drifted in. More brain power, I hoped. The Lady floated back, away from the newcomers. One of the newcomers appeared to be too young to be a thinker, college student, maybe? He carried a folded up copy of the Wall Street Journal under his arm. What kind of yuppie deal have we got here I was thinking. If the Lady called us mature citizens boys, what will she call him, Toddler?
"Todd Young’s my name, I heard there was some heavy thinking going on here and if it’s all right with you gentlemen, I’d like to join you"
"So, what are you, a frat boy of some kind, can you really understand that Wall Street Whatever you got there?" said Johnny.
"No, I was never a frat boy, I did try to go to college but it just costs too much. I’m a Union Pipefitter, money’s good but on the road a lot. Our work depends on a good economy and it seems there are a lot of things that don’t add up, like so-called free trade, outsourcing, stuff like that."
"Well, what the heck you reading that rag for, isn’t Wall Street in on the shafting of the working man?" exclaimed Johnny.
"It sure is, but in order to screw us over properly, Big Corporations need accurate facts, the WSJ provides those facts. The editorial page makes you want to barf, but there it is, advance notice of our shafting."
"Hey, this feller makes a lot of sense. I busted my butt in the woods for more years than I care to remember, always busy, had to get my news off the radio traveling to and from work, never really heard any different views, oh I’m sorry, Bill Woods’ the name, retired logger and aspiring thinker."
"Are we getting off the track?" said Johnny, " I thought we were going to discuss the Bill of Rights"
"Actually you are." The Lady was back. "Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, different views, different opinions, marketplace of ideas and hopefully, more questions than answers. Got to go now, liberty alert elsewhere calling, your homework is to think. I shall return!"
Stay tuned! dd