Though I was presumably acquiescent, I confess to being troubled about this matter. Truth has always mattered to me, dear Benita. You and I have discussed this from time to time. Even though we have agreed that real truth is hard to come by, we have also agreed that it is worth the effort. It seemed to me then, as it seems now, that we could have modified the teachings concerning Kasiwees. He might, for example, have been seeing a vision of Pistach in the guise or manner of flosti. Or a vision of the Pistach leaving the Jaupati in the future, as eventually they did. We could have admitted we did not know what the panel conveyed. The only thing at issue was whether the panel contains symbols of renewal. Does it matter whether it does or not? We believe in renewal! Must we assume our attributes are worthy only insofar as they are ancient? If we cling so tightly to the old that we do not allow ourselves to improve in both beliefs and behavior, of what value are we? Can we not say a newly achieved virtue is more worthy than a corrupted teaching?
The answer of the Chapter was that we could not. Rather than disturb the long-accepted teachings of our people, the Chapter chose to hide the bit of sky that had shown itself, and I, your friend Chiddy, was the one who hid it. For the first time in my life, I felt embarrassed, sick, vicariously humiliated at a decision of our people. I didn’t make the decision, but it hurt me nonetheless. It seemed then, as it still does, wrong.
Senator Morse—TUESDAY
When Senator Morse received Dink’s report early Tuesday morning, he barely managed to maintain his usual glacial reserve.
“So you haven’t found her.”
“No, sir, we haven’t, but believe me, these other ET’s will. Arthur isn’t sure about it, but Briess thinks it could make a lot of sense to throw in with this new bunch.”
“Give them hunting rights? Dink, have you thought for even a moment how that would look on the evening news? ‘Senator Approves Extra-Terrestrial Hunting Rights on Human Race!’“
“It wouldn’t be publicized! The agreement will be secret. They won’t make any noise about it if you don’t.”
“And the Pistach envoys? They’ll keep quiet about it? I think not.”
“According to this bunch, the Pistach won’t be able to prove anything. I get the feeling this bunch is a lot quicker on the uptake than the Pistach are. It’s like the difference between cats and cows. Or maybe goats,- the Pistach are some smarter than cows. And we could always deploy a little disinformation. Like, we claim the Pistach are doing it themselves while trying to throw suspicion on someone else.”
“There are paranoids out there who would probably believe it. Unfortunately, most of them don’t vote.”
“Senator, take a minute. Think of what they offer. Selective hunting. You got a political enemy: Bammo, he’s hamburger. You got some newsman on your tail: Zip, he’s cube steak. You get somebody in as president, somebody who’s politics-proof, like you-know-who, he meets with an unfortunate accident. That’s a good deal. Just think if we’d had this deal in the nineties! It’s too good to pass up.”
“Our polls say the public likes this Confederation idea.”
“The predators don’t care if we go ahead and join the Confederation. The predation agreement is under the table.”
“And how do we keep the Pistach from finding out?”
“We tell the predators they have to hunt in places where it won’t be noticeable. God knows there’s plenty of places like that! Hell, every year a few million people starve here and there and nobody even blinks, providing it happens in Asia or Africa. Thirty thousand some odd kids starve every day.”
“That’s not something we accept!”
“Oh, hell, Senator. Don’t feed me the party line. When was the last time any of your colleagues voted for overseas family planning programs? You guys claim it’s to prevent abortion, but you know it’s not. You know damn well cutting family planning causes more abortions than it prevents, but you still do it. Why? Because most of the pro-life people are anti-contraception, too. And anti-sex education. And anti-gay. And anti-women’s-rights. But they’re pro-gun, pro-hunting, pro-military. Killing’s part of their lives. So why not take advantage of what these critters offer?”