Today’s Word: Religionist


The senatorial debate was lively for the first time in several hundred years. All four hundred and eighty six representatives were present, most via Dystrem network phones, though several hundred had made the trip to Government House in Sussex. One by one the well-dressed men and women from around the solar system took their turns addressing the full senate. When all the allotted minutes had been filled, the Judicial Oversight Committee convened a record-long session of forty five minutes. When they returned to the senate floor, stoic as old-earth religionists, the eyes of an entire civilization were on Joan Elizabeth Poulenstein, Speaker for the Committee.

"It is with utmost respect to our honorable counterparts on the opposing side of this issue, that we offer our most sincere regret; but the Committee has decided by a vote of twenty one to fourteen for the complete annihilation of all non-sentient life on planet earth, making way for the further development of technological advances of the human race. Earth shall become what it was always destined to become in this senator's mind, a seed ship. One no longer bearing the garden of vegetable and bestial life of ancient days, but a new garden of man's knowledge and those technologies he creates in his own image. In time, my fellow citizens, I think you shall see that it is good."