"If I've ever been ready for anything, I'm ready for this." He shakes hands one after another, grateful for the benediction, and heads up to the podium to begin his speech. Hesitation lasts only for the briefest moment, but then he raises up his arms and begins, like a conductor before an orchestra. His voice rings loud and clear, carried magically over even the furthest members of the crowd.
"Visiting dignitaries, fellow Party members, people of Rhy'din. Thank you for attending today. I stand before you as a common man determined as most of you are to make a better life for the world of Rhy'din. Though there are times when bias and corruption fill the air, I have seen the good of what Rhy'din can be. We as people would spend our lives to make a better society for our family and friends. One based on freedom and joy, where our children can be safe from the terrors of the world around us, so that each day their parents might watch them grow stronger and happier without fear or anxiety."
"And indeed, there is much to love about it. When I was a boy, I remember learning in school how Anastas Mikoyan, the Premier and leader of my country many years ago, remarked, "We have created in our time an accomplishment singular to all the world, a land where Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Tatars, those from the shores of the Baltic and those from the planes of Siberia, and all those who have come to our nation seeking freedom and justice live together, side-by-side, in brotherhood and contentment." However, if he were to see our city, to walk with us and live among us, I am certain beyond words that he would be surprised and overjoyed. For where else in all creation can we find the diversity of nations, races, creeds, and beliefs, joined together in friendship to share among each other what is the best of themselves" Where else in creation do those from far-away places come together to exchange goods and ideas" Where else has such a miracle occurred" Where could it, but here?"
This line gets some approval, but he quiets them down and continues.
"I say without further qualification that I love Rhydin. I am forever indebted to my home for raising me to manhood, but there is no place that I would rather live and work then right here, among you."
The crowd goes wild for a minute. Who doesn't love hearing this sort of thing" He basks in the applause before going on, and suddenly becomes more somber.
"But let us not mince words or hide our true intent. However fair our city is, and however dear it may be to us, we cannot deny that it is ridden with defilements and cancers.
There is hunger in our city " fact.
Working people go without needed medical care " fact.
There are not enough schools to educate our children " fact.
Those schools that do exist are priced beyond the reach of ordinary people " fact.
The City Watch is understaffed, underfunded, and overworked " fact."
He draws up more ominous, to lay down his next observation. The whole crowd at this point has gone dead silent.
"And in this city, right in our very midst, exists the practice of abducting people from their homes and families, stripping them of their dignity and identity, and forcing them to work against their will. There exist men and women, wealthy beyond imagining with their ill-gotten profits, who traffic in people " people who are threatened daily with violence and privation to labor in mines, in factories, on plantations, and in harems. People who grind, often 14 or more hours a day, to someone else's profit, fed only enough to keep them alive and working. People who have no expectation but to work and to suffer and to bleed until they can bleed no more. People who can only wait, in terror and in agony, until they are thrown to the wolves like a clean-picked bone."
"I don't wish to use scare tactics, ladies and gentlemen. I truly don't. But when you go home tonight, I want each of you to look at your children. How can you be sure that your son won't be pressed into service picking coffee beans until his body is destroyed and he is left to die in the fields" How can you be sure that your daughter won't be plucked into an ally and raped, not once and forgotten but day in and day out, brutally and heinously, until her captor tires of her and her corpse is dumped in the river" And if you have no children, how can you be sure that you yourself won't be a target, to work in squalor and hunger and fear for the rest of your ruined and brief life?"
He draws himself back up, clearly very emotionally spent by that last denunciation. The fire and brimstone gives way to something more corporeal.
"I don't know how you can be sure. At the present time, the law is silent on the matter of slavery. It's not a question of enforcement. It is a fact that at this time, there is no statute or decree in our laws that prohibits this practice. Provided that a person was not enslaved within our law's jurisdiction, there is no law that prevents the ownership of slaves or regulates the treatment of them. None. While there have been attempts at emancipation in the past, they only occurred rarely and none were ever comprehensive."
The crowd is becoming agitated. He could spin this into a riot.
"Some people wonder why I'm so passionate about slavery. I tell you now, good people, that I have been a victim of it. I know it's hard to believe by looking at me, but I was once a boy. When I was young, life was simple " I went to school, I got decent grades, and I worked part-time at my father's store. I figured that I would grow up, go to college, become an engineer, and make train engines. It's a simple dream, but I was a simple boy " all I wanted to do was help my country and provide for my future children."
"When I was 15, all of that was taken from me. I was dismissed from school, taken from my parents" home, and conscripted into the army. They forced me into the life of regimentation and harsh discipline. They invaded my body with surgery to make me a better soldier " better able to do what the army wanted. They put me in uniform, gave me a gun, and told me that from this day forward my only purpose in life was to kill others, and if I faltered for even a moment, there was always a man behind me to kill me instead. They took my youth, my eye, the lives of my friends, and 20 years of my life. In return, they gave me this."
He holds up a medal. It's an Order of the Red star, glimmering in the dim light.
"I know full well the horrors of slavery, because I have spent half my life under its cruel yoke. And that is why I make the following promise."
He raises high his hand.
"I, Anastas Nikolaevich Iskandorj, as Chairman of the Social Unity Party of Rhydin, do hereby pledge in front of the Gods and all of you, that if I am elected governor, my first action will be to declare an immediate, complete, and unconditional emancipation of all slaves and indentured servants, now and forever, and to draft a comprehensive set of laws protecting employees from exploitation."
That does it. The crowd goes wild, and it takes a good 20 second for them to quiet down again.
"But that's not a platform, that's a talking point. Any candidate can promise that, and many of them probably will. And any who do receive my friendship. But I have other things to say as well, that I and my party pledge to do. We have a plan " a six step plan. The first step, of course, is the emancipation, but my work cannot and will not stop there"
Uh-oh " here comes the boring part. The crowd listens but doesn't react.
"Step two is to impose a tax on currency exchanges and a general imports tariff. For too long, Rhydin has been treated as a playground, a haven for foreigners who come here to avoid the laws of their own country and live like kings at the expense of our own social prosperity. I say, if they want to benefit from us, it's time for them to pay for it. Any foreign currency converted into our own will be taxed 10% of its local value. Should they try to get around this by importing goods and selling them for our own currency, an 8% tax on the first sale of all imported goods will be levied. "
"The third will be the sale of government bonds. Let me be frank, ladies and gentlemen " the government is broke and the treasury is empty. In order to raise the much-needed funds to power my initiatives, I will authorize the bank to print and sell bonds. Any citizen who purchases them will be paid back their full value, with six-percent annual interest, when those bonds mature. This means that 100 five-year bonds purchased today will, in five years, be redeemed for 134 gold pieces. In the mean time, we'll use that money to fund much-needed public works."
"The fourth step consists of those works. Having seen first-hand the effects that a lack of education can have on a people, my government will use this money to fund literacy programs in the West End as well as the rest of the city. I conducted an informal survey a few weeks ago, and out of the 150 adults I asked, only 38 told me that they could read a newspaper without difficulty. Ladies and gentlemen, this is unacceptable. We will work with Ravensheart Academy to provide literacy to both children and adults. My goal is that by the end of the year, 75% of the adults in the West End will be able to read and write. Only through education can they acquire the skills they need to improve themselves and their communities, and only with our help can they achieve that education. By the time students graduate from this instruction, there will be trade schools set up to give them the ability to contribute to society. The days of ignorance and unemployment will be over."
This gets a good reaction and a small outbreak of applause from one corner, but he keeps going.
"The fifth step consists of improving the standard of law enforcement in our community. The Scathachians have provided invaluable assistance to the Watch, and it is my sincere hope that they will continue it under my administration. However, in order to help them in their mission, I plan to bring them on the payroll and give them aid in recruiting and training new members. This aid will not represent any attempt to assert control over the Scathachians " they will continue to function autonomously, and neither my office nor the Party will demand obedience from them save a report on how exactly they spend their grants."
"And finally, step six. With all this done, we watch, and we wait, and we see how this all comes out, and as we're doing all this the Party will plan where we will go next. And now it's time for another promise, people of Rhydin " on August 1st, I promise that I and my fellow Party members will have another plan, to continue our mission of improving the lives of the people of Rhydin, and we will bring it to referendum in front of everyone."
He begins to raise up to a crescendo.
"The first principle of the Social Unity Party is that the people cannot be marginalized and will, at all times, be in charge of their own futures as individuals and as a community. We are all bound together in our faith that is that there is no power greater than the common people working together. There is no power greater than you, and without that power there is no politics and there is no progress."
With his speech nearing its end, he extends his hand out into the audience, and looks down on them paternally. It's purposefully evocative of the statues of Lenin.
"You have heard my dream, and I thank you for it. But the time for dreams is coming fast to a close, and it is time to face tomorrow. It is time to create tomorrow. Help me, ladies and gentlemen. Help me, help the Party, and with your power we will raise our eyes to the coming dawn, and as the day banishes the night we will see, clear and pure, that tomorrow belongs to everyone!?
And right on cue, the crowd, of course, goes wild.
