order on her—
“A restraining order!”
“Yup. She couldn’t visit the school or any of the kids. To her, that was like her own children were taken from her. She couldn’t take it emotionally and eventually had to leave. We got a postcard from her a few weeks later saying she was okay, but that she couldn’t come back. She said she painfully missed us and the kids, but it would be best not to see Angie and me. There was no return address. Angie tried to track her down with no luck.”
“But why not at least keep in touch?”
“You’ll understand why she could no longer have contact with us once you hear the whole story. I don’t know…her world died here, Jake. She had to go. She was a wonderful part of our lives. We still miss her.”
The tragedy seemed huge to Jake. “But she handled the school board so well.”
“Oh yes she did! She was good; man she was good. She was a fighter. And her fearlessness was the only reason she lasted the school year.”
“What happened after the emergency school-board meeting?” Jake asked.
Jessie continued the story, “It all started the Monday morning after Thanksgiving…”
*
“Good morning, everyone,” Miss Annabelle said, feeling extra cheerful after having found two adult friends in Jessie and Angie over the long four-day weekend. “Did you all have a happy Thanksgiving?”
The twelve children looked different from the other children at Duncan Elementary School. These twelve children looked glad to be back to school. Not one child came in late. And in the hallways, Miss Annabelle’s students could be seen rushing straight to class, more interested in the lectures in the classroom than the chatter in the halls.
Miss Annabelle’s students always did their homework and did it well. After three months of school, parents still could barely
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believe their children’s enthusiasm. Her first lecture of each day was always on a general topic, and the kids were encouraged to interact during this lecture. This was the prize lecture many parents and kids not in her class listened to loyally.
The four other lectures that followed each day were science, math, literature, and history. Although those lectures were more specialized to the subject, they too were fascinating and sparkling with broad-sweeping integrations. She designed her lectures weeks, even months in advance. And it was one of those future- planned science lectures, which she was preparing for delivery on the last week of school, that was unexpectedly prompted this Monday morning during her first lecture. She started her first lecture simply enough. The topic was, fittingly, about rumors and gossip.
“How many of you know what rumors are?” About a third of the hands went up.
“How about gossip?” About half the hands went up.
She went on to explain that rumors and gossip caused appearances that we must see through…to what is. “Rumors and gossip build a big scenario about something, but they offer no evidence,” she said.
Ian Scott, who had taken a growing interest in the cosmos ever since his father took him to the observatory, raised his hand. He shocked the class and Miss Annabelle when he said, “That means God must be a rumor.”
Miss Annabelle was in a predicament. She knew that any more controversy could cause her to get fired and lose these children. And she knew that Ian, a budding scientist, was right
— there was no evidence but lots of talk, just as she had defined rumors. All eyes stared at her, waiting for her answer.
She knew that her answer had to be honest, yet an honest answer that questioned the existence of God could be used by the school board to stir up discontent and eventually to get her fired. Yet, she knew she couldn’t effectively not answer the question.
Without a choice, she started into the science lecture she was preparing for the last week of school, just before the summer break when the resulting controversy could not easily build momentum.
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“I will answer that question as honestly as I can. First, who in here believes that intelligent life exists out there on other planets?” Most if not all the children raised their hands. “When you consider the size and mass of our universe, and the ease for lower life forms to develop and start the process of evolution, it becomes statistically overwhelming that the Universe is full of intelligent beings like us. Now, I want you to consider where we are now with space travel and exploration.” Suddenly Ian’s hand went up and Miss Annabelle nodded to him.
“Oh, it’s nothing compared to what is being planned for the future. We’ve walked on the moon, but now they’re talking about commercial flights to the moon and resorts on the moon.” “Imagine that!” Miss Annabelle said. “Look how fast progress happens, especially once businesses get involved. In 1936, we completed the technology to control nature on a grand scale: we completed Hoover Dam to control the Colorado River. That accomplishment, to control nature on a grand scale, took man thousands of years — from the dawn of human consciousness to 1936. But then, it took just another thirty-three years to travel to the moon. And, as Ian opened our eyes to: when space development becomes commercial and businesses learn to profit from it, especially if left free from political agendas and if able to pursue profits that make capitalism work, then what was not long ago ‘one giant leap for mankind’ will become commonplace. …In other words, knowledge and progress when free of political forces, increase not linearly but geometrically.” Miss Annabelle went to the chalkboard and drew both the straight-line incline of a linear increase and the upward-
curving incline of a geometrical increase.
“If businesses are left alone by regulatory bureaucrats, and in several years we are vacationing on the moon, where will we be in several decades or, with geometrical increases in knowledge, even a few years after lunar vacations?”
“Vacationing on Mars!” Ian shouted out, sitting on the edge of his seat.
“Or, businesses might be corralling and harvesting asteroids for our needs — perhaps mining raw materials or setting up orbiting cities for an expanding civilization. Now, I want you to stretch your minds a bit: What will we be doing with space
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development a few hundred years ahead? What do you think Ian?”
Ian thought for a moment, then he said, “We’d probably control everything in our solar system.”
“Goodness yes, Ian…I’d say at least everything in our solar system. Now, Ian, try this question: What would we be doing with space development a few thousand years ahead?”
“We’d probably control everything in our galaxy…or maybe even sooner because of that geometric curve you drew on the board,” he said without hesitation.
“Now, Ian, what would we — or any intelligent being, for that matter — be doing with space development a few million years ahead?”
“Wow, would they control everything in our Universe?” Ian asked.
“Yes, they would,” Miss Annabelle said matter-of-factly. And when considering how big and how old our Universe is, there’s intelligent life out there not just a few years into computer-driven high technology and space exploration, but millions of years.”
“Do those super-advanced beings control the Universe?” Ian asked.
“It stands to reason, doesn’t it?” Miss Annabelle said. “They would have the technology to corral matter and create big-bang explosions, perhaps creating a galaxy for some beneficial purpose to balance gravitational forces or for other unimagined reasons. As far out as I can think, logic seems to dictate that intelligent beings like us control the cosmos.”
“Wouldn’t there be some bad star wars?” Danny asked. “Actually, no,” Miss Annabelle said, smiling. “Every planet
inhabited with intelligent beings reaches a point called the Nuclear Decision Threshold. We have reached that point on Earth. We have the nuclear power to destroy civilization. Now, we either learn how to end irrationality and war, or we will eventually destroy ourselves. To advance significantly beyond this Nuclear Threshold, our civilization must discover how to end irrational political power and its wars and terrorism. Once this is figured out, and only if it is, an intelligent civilization advances limitlessly and eternally. Those super-advanced beings then join the pure, benevolent Civilization of the Universe. In that
