"Kim Stanley Robinson - Sixty Days and Counting" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

DESPITE THE REESTABLISHED GULF STREAM, the jet stream still
snaked up and down the Northern Hemisphere under its own pressures, and now a
strong cold front rode it south from Hudson Bay and arrived just in time to strike the
inauguration. When the day dawned, temperatures in the capital region hovered
around zero degrees Fahrenheit, with clear sunny skies and a north wind averaging
fifteen miles an hour. Everyone out of doors had to bundle up, so it was a slow
process at all the security checkpoints. The audience settled onto the cold aluminum
risers set on the east side of the Capitol, and Phil Chase and his entourage stepped
onto the dais, tucked discreetly behind its walls of protective glass. The cold air and
PhilтАЩs happy, relaxed demeanor reminded Charlie of the Kennedy inauguration, and
images of JFK and Earl Warren and Robert Frost filled his mind as he felt Joe
kicking him in the back. He had only been a few years older than Joe when he had
seen that one on TV. Thus the generations span the years, and now his boy was
huddled against him, heavy as a rock, dragging him down but keeping him warm.
тАЬDad, letтАЩs go to the zoo! Wanna go to the zoo!тАЭ
тАЬOkay, Joe, but after this, okay? This is history!тАЭ
тАЬHis story?тАЭ
Phil stood looking out at the crowd after the oath of office was administered by the
Chief Justice, a man about ten years younger than he was. With a wave of his gloved
hand he smiled his beautiful smile.
тАЬFellow Americans,тАЭ he said, pacing his speech to the reverb of the loudspeakers,
тАЬyou have entrusted me with the job of president during a difficult time. The crisis
we face now, of abrupt climate change and crippling damage to the biosphere, is a
very dangerous one, to be sure. But we are not at war with anyone, and in fact we
face a challenge that all humanity has to meet together. On this podium, Franklin
Roosevelt said, тАШThis generation has a rendezvous with destiny.тАЩ Now itтАЩs true again.
We are the generation that has to deal with the profound destruction that will be
caused by the global warming that has already been set in motion. The potential
disruption of the natural order is so great that scientists warn of a mass extinction
event. Losses on that scale would endanger all humanity, and so we cannot fail to
address the threat. The lives of our children, and all their descendants, depend on us
doing so.
тАЬSo, like FDR and his generation, we have to face the great challenge of our time.
We have to use our government to organize a total social response to the problem.
That took courage then, and we will need courage now. In the years since we used
our government to help get us out of the Great Depression, it has sometimes been
fashionable to belittle the American government as some kind of foreign burden laid
on us. That attitude is nothing more than an attack on American history, deliberately
designed to shift power away from the American people. I want us to remember how
Abraham Lincoln said it: тАШthat government of the people, by the people, and for the
people shall not perish from this Earth.тАЩ This is the crucial concept of American
democracyтАФthat government expresses what the majority of us would like to do as
a society. ItтАЩs us. We do it to us and for us. I believe this reminder is so important
that I intend to add the defining phrase тАШof the people, by the people, and for the
peopleтАЩ every time I use the word тАШgovernment,тАЩ and I intend to do all I can to make
that phrase be a true description. It will make me even more long-winded than I was
before, but I am willing to pay that price, and you are going to have to pay it with
me.
тАЬSo, this winter, with your approval and support, I intend to instruct my team in the
executive branch of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, to