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shirenomadYou're one of the 10,000 occupants of the town/shelter of Fairhaven. Although the community has all the qualities you'd expect from a town of that size, it also happens to be several meters below the surface of the earth, as a contingency against the ever-growing threat of nuclear/biological/chemical attack.
- The bad news is that said attack has just happened. Biological agents have been released upon your country.
- The good news is that the initial wave of illness and death has passed with only about 15% surface casualities, and in fact it is perfectly safe to be walking around on the surface right now.
- The bad news is that it's safe on the surface because the plague is entering Stage 2: it's settled into the ground and will soon contaminate the water supply. Scientists estimate that when that occurs, surface casualities will jump to 98%.
- The good news is that the biological agent isn't as persistant as we had initially expected. Scientists estimate that the water supply, and thus the surface, will be safe again in eight years. Given that the Farihaven reserves can supply the entire population with food, water, oxygen, and so forth for twenty years, you're definitely in the clear.
But now comes the decision, and it's one other shelters across the country are making as well. It's been suggested that since we can supply ten thousand for twenty years, we can supply twenty thousand for ten years. Many citizens of Fairhaven are in favor of letting an additional ten thousand into the shelter. Yes, the quality of life down here will drop -- there will be some double-bunking involved and we'll have to convert some recreational areas into housing -- but we can manage it. And to leave people out there is as good as condemning them to death.
Others disagree. The current occupants all contributed to the construction of Fairhaven in some manner, while the people who opted to stay outside ignored the warning signs that such an attack could happen and chose not to help. More to the point, there is not enough time to give any of the new ten thousand background checks, to see if they have skills to offer the community, or even to see if they aren't former criminals or worse. The current ten thousand have the proper balance of skills, abilities, and training to make sure the entire system works properly. Double that number without putting in the same checks, and Fairhaven could degenerate into chaos.
And then there's a third option that has been put forth: that ten thousand is too much, but five hundred could be added with practically no disruption of life at all. Those in favor of an additional ten thousand, however, consider that a pointless gesture, just to make us look like we care, when if we really cared we'd let in as many people as possible. Those in favor of keeping the doors closed still have the same arguments as before: that even with only five hundred, one or two rapists or psychotics in the mix could destroy everything. And what if the scientists are wrong, and the disease is still floating around out there right now? Can we risk even opening those doors to the outside world for a minute, much less let a potentially infected person in?
[Poll #297702]
That was the question posed at church today.
The youth got together, decorated the church interior to look vault-like, and put on a forty-minute play/presentation with that scenario. The idea was that churches have this tendency to close themselves off from the outside world, happy with the group they have now, worried that letting newcomers -- especially, God forbid, non-Christians! -- into the mix will just lead to trouble. We're saved, and the rest of the world has had their chance already and rejected it, so let's isolate ourselves and stay safe as houses. Which is, of course, entirely missing the point of what church is for.
I've got to hand it to the youth group, by the way, and not just for a very creative service; they had some really good actors on the team. And I've never seen a standing ovation in church before today. :D
I hide me far away from trouble
The world outside me grows darker by the day
So I promise to stay here close beside You
Surely God would want His children safe
Then in reading, how my eyes were opened
I find that He is leading us out into the world
Into the middle of fallen saints and sinners
Where a little grace is needed most
- The bad news is that said attack has just happened. Biological agents have been released upon your country.
- The good news is that the initial wave of illness and death has passed with only about 15% surface casualities, and in fact it is perfectly safe to be walking around on the surface right now.
- The bad news is that it's safe on the surface because the plague is entering Stage 2: it's settled into the ground and will soon contaminate the water supply. Scientists estimate that when that occurs, surface casualities will jump to 98%.
- The good news is that the biological agent isn't as persistant as we had initially expected. Scientists estimate that the water supply, and thus the surface, will be safe again in eight years. Given that the Farihaven reserves can supply the entire population with food, water, oxygen, and so forth for twenty years, you're definitely in the clear.
But now comes the decision, and it's one other shelters across the country are making as well. It's been suggested that since we can supply ten thousand for twenty years, we can supply twenty thousand for ten years. Many citizens of Fairhaven are in favor of letting an additional ten thousand into the shelter. Yes, the quality of life down here will drop -- there will be some double-bunking involved and we'll have to convert some recreational areas into housing -- but we can manage it. And to leave people out there is as good as condemning them to death.
Others disagree. The current occupants all contributed to the construction of Fairhaven in some manner, while the people who opted to stay outside ignored the warning signs that such an attack could happen and chose not to help. More to the point, there is not enough time to give any of the new ten thousand background checks, to see if they have skills to offer the community, or even to see if they aren't former criminals or worse. The current ten thousand have the proper balance of skills, abilities, and training to make sure the entire system works properly. Double that number without putting in the same checks, and Fairhaven could degenerate into chaos.
And then there's a third option that has been put forth: that ten thousand is too much, but five hundred could be added with practically no disruption of life at all. Those in favor of an additional ten thousand, however, consider that a pointless gesture, just to make us look like we care, when if we really cared we'd let in as many people as possible. Those in favor of keeping the doors closed still have the same arguments as before: that even with only five hundred, one or two rapists or psychotics in the mix could destroy everything. And what if the scientists are wrong, and the disease is still floating around out there right now? Can we risk even opening those doors to the outside world for a minute, much less let a potentially infected person in?
[Poll #297702]
That was the question posed at church today.
The youth got together, decorated the church interior to look vault-like, and put on a forty-minute play/presentation with that scenario. The idea was that churches have this tendency to close themselves off from the outside world, happy with the group they have now, worried that letting newcomers -- especially, God forbid, non-Christians! -- into the mix will just lead to trouble. We're saved, and the rest of the world has had their chance already and rejected it, so let's isolate ourselves and stay safe as houses. Which is, of course, entirely missing the point of what church is for.
I've got to hand it to the youth group, by the way, and not just for a very creative service; they had some really good actors on the team. And I've never seen a standing ovation in church before today. :D
I hide me far away from trouble
The world outside me grows darker by the day
So I promise to stay here close beside You
Surely God would want His children safe
Then in reading, how my eyes were opened
I find that He is leading us out into the world
Into the middle of fallen saints and sinners
Where a little grace is needed most
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-23 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-23 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-24 02:55 am (UTC)Allowing anyone else in given that situation is likely to end up with far worse overcrowding than anticipated, increase the spped at which diseases spread through the population and could cause significant internal conflicts. You'd also be allowing in people who had been exposed to a biological attack, a very dangerous thing to do. And allowing in 10,000 extra people puts you very close to the eight years which, if it is anythign like a normal scientific prediction, is an average: unless the agent is specifically coded to die exactly 8 years after dispersal, there will still be some in the environment long after that 8 years has passed. I'd double the length to be sure it had died out.
Yes, the "moral" thing to do would be to let people in. But it wouldn't be the right thing to do - by doing so you could doom your entire population.