Ecks: "I've got some people here on the phone to talk to you.  They're
Hawaiians, and not all of them seem very keen on your plans.  Let's
start with Beth in Mililani, Beth, you're on the air!"

Beth: "Yes, I'm a small business owner; I own a dry cleaner and I'd
like Mercuriou to know that I can't afford to give away my services
for free.  I'm not some rich capitalist; I have employees that count
on me for a paycheck, and there are some months when they get paid and
I don't.  He's up there in a space capsule, down here on Earth people
just can't afford his loony ideas!"

Mercuriou:  "Well, it's about making sacrifices for what's important to
you.  If it's important to live in harmony with God, to treat others
as we're taught by Christ..."

Beth: "Look, I'm a Christian, but that doesn't mean I have give away my
livelihood so I can live like a bum on the street!"

Mercuriou: "Why is it, that when so many people say that they're a
Christian, the next word out of their mouth is 'but'?"

Ecks: "James from Kokua, you're on 'Outside the Beltway'!"

James: "I also run a small business.  I can hardly feed my own staff
because of taxes!"

Mercuriou: "If it's up to me, I'll abolish taxes!  Will you feed the
hungry then?  We'll see!"

Ecks: "Jill from Wahiawa!"

Jill: "I don't care what your stupid economic ideas are; what I like
is this political stuff!  You want to turn back the clock 100 years!"

Mercuriou: "That depends on your goal!  Are you trying to put one
group in power or do you truly want a balanced and representative
government?"

Jill: "We have a balanced government!  You want to go back to some
kind of religious oligarchy!"

Mercuriou: "I do not!  The executive is one branch of government, that
is all!  Do you think the majority is entitled to rule over every
branch of government, or do you want balance?"

Jill: "I want... I want elections!"

Mercuriou: "Well, you'll get them for the legislature, that's it!"

Jill: "This is what I'm talking about... you want us to go back 100
years!"

Mercuriou: "I want us to go forward!  I want us to lose this crazy
notion that everything had to be governed by elections and that the
majority, somehow this one group of people are entitled to rule the
world!"

Ecks: "...and Jeff from Honolulu."

Mercuriou: "I'm telling you, you better think about that real, real, hard."

Jeff: "Well..."

Mercuriou: "If you want people to respect these elections when you
win, you better respect them when we do!"

Jeff: "Now, look here!  We respect these elections, but not when you
try to rig them like this!"

Mercuriou: "Rig them how?!  It's perfectly legal!  Even when the
dissidents finally figure out how to win one of these things,
you scream foul!"

Jeff: "The elections are there to decide the will of the majority!"

Mercuriou: "Then those of us in the minority need never apply!  We'll
just have to accept majority rule!  Why should we do it peacefully?"

There was silence, then the telephone disconnected with an abbreviated
slam.

Mercuriou: "If you want us to accept the results when we lose, then
you better accept them when you do."
