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Good morning survivors and welcome

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to Mercury a broadcast of

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hope. I'm Dr. Rosalind Clark

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here today with Max O 'Brien.

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It's a 2751 to became

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back on the air Max

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the news If you

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want that done you can do it yourself, I don't

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see why it's so important fine coming to

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you live on WEHG 870

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a .m.. It's Mercury a

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broadcast of hope with

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today's news So what is it? Actually,

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the only real news I have to

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report is that we got another tome

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from Flip Wallace, the leader of

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the Zombie Friends Association. Oh.

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Are you sure you're ready to report on

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that? You usually like to finish reading

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them first. I've got the gist, although I'm

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thinking that when and if he sends another

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one that I might try to get other

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people to volunteer and we can all read

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it in sections and then report back to

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each other. I don't know where

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he finds the time for this, honestly. He must have

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his ZFA minions waiting on him hand and foot so

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that all he has to do is write this stuff.

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So what is the gist this

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time? More of the same for the most

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part, although he's ratcheting up the rhetoric a bit. He's

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saying things like how we're at an ideological

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crossroads, how the country needs to make up its

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mind about how it wants the future to

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be. Kind of

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a stretch to assume that we're still cohesive

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enough to be called a country, wouldn't you

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say? I mean, there's

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no umbrella government that we know of,

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just a bunch of independent communities

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who all seem to have their own

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rules. I don't disagree. And I think

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it's still one of the major mysteries of the

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zombie apocalypse. What happened to

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the government or law enforcement or the

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military for that matter? It's

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like they all just dissolved on Outbreak

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Day. But I have

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much bigger concerns than that about Flip's letter.

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Like what he goes on and

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on about the country being at a

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crossroads like I said He says true

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Patriots will side with the ZFA and

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that anyone who doesn't is out to

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destroy the country That's

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hardly surprising coming from

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flip You know he at least

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plays the part of a true

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believer in zombie rights even though

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he's clearly a fraud and a

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hypocrite just like the entire movement.

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True, but my concern comes from

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the fact that he doesn't define any of

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the words he uses. What is

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the country? What does it look

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like if it's destroyed? For that matter,

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what is a patriot? I know the

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classical definition is someone who loves his

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country and is prepared to defend it, but

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I think you have to define specifically what it

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is they love and want to defend. I

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agree. As a scientist,

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it's vitally important the terms be

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defined so that everyone knows what

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they're talking about, and that includes

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what units are used. One

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of the most famous examples

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of incorrect units causing a

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major problem was the Mars

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Climate Orbiter spacecraft in 1999.

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The company sending the thruster data

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to NASA was using English

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units, pounds, but

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NASA had been expecting metric

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units, which are newtons. It

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created a massive disparity, and the

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craft was very off course. Which is

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what I'm afraid of with Flip's letter. By

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not defining the terms, it creates

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an opportunity for misinterpretation. One person's

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definition of the country may be very

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different from someone else's. In this

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situation, it's vital to spell out things

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like what values are you assigning

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to the country, which laws are you

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defending, and which need to be

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scrapped. You can't just say one group

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is going to destroy the country

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and the other one will save it

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unless and until you start being

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specific about what you're talking about. Which

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is going to be even more important

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as we continue to try to rebuild

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society. It's possible that we

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might stay a group of unorganized

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communities for a while, but

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eventually we might want to get

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back to a larger system of government.

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We need to know which direction

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this newly reformed country is going

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to go in. Otherwise, we might

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end up off course, just like the

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Mars spacecraft. Exactly. It's

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a thorny issue, and one we're not

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going to solve on the air today, but it's good to

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know that it's a thing to be aware of. Now,

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if you'll excuse me, I'm going to

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get back to reading this... I

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don't even know what to call these. They're presented as

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letters, but this is hardly a letter, and I

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think it's too charitable to call it a book. I

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think a screed would be

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appropriate here. Then yes,

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let's sign off. We'll be back tomorrow

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listeners. For Mercury, a broadcast of

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hope. This has been Dr. Rosalind Clark

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and Max O 'Brien. Take care

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of each other.