A short story courtesy of Clarkhat:
1357 U.E. (i.e. 3328 C.E., i.e. 3328 AD), Oort Cloud Commensal
After a long shift at the atelier I returned home and turned on the polyseme to catch up on the emerge re the refugee crisis.
#general
“…then we as members of the Commensal have a duty, a moral duty, to help. We’ve all experienced the wholesales of the refugee family crawling from their burned lander near the shores of the Achelous Sea, the father cradling his dead son as he steps out onto Ganymede. The time to debate is over, and the time to act -“
“Madame Secretary!”
“-the time to act is now. We must -“
The emergent raised his voice. “Madame Secretary! I must object. Before we talk about importing potentially a hundred million refugees, we have to have a serious conversation about whether they can possibly integrate into our culture.”
The secretary didn’t bother to keep the annoyance from her face. [ translator’s note: all references to physical gestures are, at best, illustrative, and – at worst – ficitive ] “You’re going to say ‘a flood of refugees’, aren’t you? I, for one find that phrasing offensive. May I remind you that exact sort of language was used just three hundred years ago when the Martian Diaspora brought so many people to us here in the OCC. Are you going to tell the many proud citizens who trace their ancestry to the M.D. that you don’t like their kind?”
The emergent shook his virtual head. “It’s inane to compare the citizens of the Martian Diaspora to the current refugee crisis. On the Barnes scale the people of the M.D. were almost all type 1 and type 2 ideologues: Nationalists, Trade Unionists, Libertarians, Atheists, Catholics. Non-totalizers, all. The Hitlerite diaspora that threatens to swamp us now -“
“Sir, I find that offensive. This is not a Hitlerite issue. This is an inner system issue. These people aren’t coming here to attack us, they’re coming here because they’re fleeing war.”
“Madame secretary I agree, they’re fleeing war – a war that the Hitlerites themselves have caused”.
The Secretary took a long breath. “I utterly reject that sort of bigotry. To call this a Hitlerite issue is to blame the victims. The problem is not Hitlerism – it’s a small evil group of people who are twisting the words – the beautiful words of an ancient faith – to their own destructive ends.”
Read the rest of the story at Popehat.