Left on Paradise by Kirk Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

acclamation.
    As the cheers died down, Ryan stood before the lectern, grasping its sides with his hands, eyes staring straight ahead and shoulders pulled back. He panned the room slow and deliberate as he spoke.
    “It was I,” the actor declared, “who conceived this dream and it was I who purchased this island and gathered our provisions. It was I who posted announcements for this great enterprise and sorted your applications—all with Kit’s help, I hasten to add. But it was each one of you who left your comforts and security to tame a jungle. It was each one of you who uprooted yourselves from the old world to begin a new one. It was each one of you who gave up father and mother and sister and brother for the sake of this adventure. You are the true hope and destiny of all mankind. There are doctors and nurses among you who left lucrative careers to heal without pay. There are university professors who resigned tenured positions to teach mankind to live in peace and engineers who’ve forsaken family and friend to build a new civilization. The new land is you. All of you. Give yourselves a hand.”
    The crowd cheered wildly for itself. Upraised hands clapped hard and lowered hands slapped together.
    “Every one of you,” Ryan continued, “has devoted your life to this enterprise. Some have given much and others even more, but now we stand as equals: each one of us ready to sacrifice prestige, honor, and our very lives for the good of humanity. None of us has held back. What is owned by one is owned by all. What is given to one is given to all. No one will lack what he needs and no one will need what he lacks.”
    Now the crowd roared so loud Ryan couldn’t be heard. He waved several times for quiet, but each time failed to quell the enthusiasm. Finally, he stepped away from the podium and waited several minutes for the crowd to settle.
    “We have business to tend to,” Ryan said after a review of his notes. “As I explained in yesterday’s letter, the government of this island will pass from Russia to the community itself only after we’ve ratified a formal charter. Did anyone not receive a copy of the handout? Raise your hand.”
    Two hands went up and Ryan asked Kit to pass copies to them.
    “I’ll summarize,” Ryan announced, “the contents while you review. By international treaty, we need to submit a governing charter. Therefore, we intend—if you please, that is—to organize a basic charter while on this ship. A copy can be faxed to Geneva from the bridge and the captain himself will deliver the original when he returns to Russia. With that charter, we’ll cease being a party of idealistic dreamers as they call us in the old world and become a legitimate government recognized by international law—with formal rights and obligations. We are a people and we will become a state.”
    Cheers broke out once more and Ryan was forced to wait several minutes for the noise to subside.
    “And our government,” Ryan continued, “truly shall be of the people, by the people, for the people. That’s why we’ve been so careful to select only proven progressives and liberals who’ve marched against racism, campaigned against pollution, protested capital punishment, resisted militarism, and—I think that I can say it out loud in this room without fear—voted for Green and Democratic candidates. You weren’t picked on the basis of equal opportunity laws, but on the basis of your commitments and your character. Having given yourselves completely to humankind, a state of paradise now is entrusted to you. Brothers and sisters, look around. These are your executives and your legislators and your judiciary. Here are the only princes and kings and emperors and presidents and justices and mayors and bosses and fathers and mothers you’ll ever know again.”
    The crowd again broke into long applause while Ryan took a sip of coffee and exchanged a few words with his wife. When he returned to the podium and raised