A Meeting of Medicine

[Erremnart]

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Daniel J. Lennox sipped the rest of his sake and folded his arms on the table while listening to John Holliday's loud musings. While his businesslike body language and the color of his suit at the moment suggested a rather indifferent or neutral attitude about the whole issue, Lennox smiled amiably after Holliday's question.

"As in any society or community, there are only two ways a man can become a leader - he is elected or he elects himself. It's a fairly simple principle, though the execution tends to vary across communities and cultures.", Daniel J. Lennox answered his question, interlacing the thin fingers of his hands in a universally lecturing gesture, "For fundamentally disunited Zoner communities such as yours, you will have to rely on a limited number of themes in your efforts - themes that are large enough to affect all of you, without exception. Any more specific topics will overload the attention of your potential audience and be subject to controversy among them. What do you really want to give your people besides a voice? They will want to know what you have in mind, what their ultimate goal should be, and they will decide whether or not to listen to you based on that. Will you want to work with Liberty or fight for your freedom and the independence of this system? The communities here are afraid of their future because of this strange status-quo that denies them the ability to plan for the long term - will they eventually become Liberty citizens, with all the positives and negatives that entails, or will they resolve their fear of Liberty by getting a system for themselves and anyone else that respects their freedom?".

After asking his questions he paused for a moment as he considered his next words while looking John Holliday directly in the eye through his dioptric glasses, "You don't have to answer those questions right now. It's something you'll have to think about and prepare for. I don't know who will be able to help you with the first option, but my company can help you prepare your potential audience for the second option by building smaller and technologically simpler shelters disguised as, say, wine cellars, though the funding issue will have to be worked out one way or another. My company does not have unlimited financial resources and we'll be straining our resources with those two large community shelters and underground hospitals already. Another potential help for you may be the know-how of the Xenos, who are as ordinary as the people of the communities here, and there are quite a few of them among your people. And they have experience in fighting for their freedom against Liberty.".

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