Somewhere in America

On a busy intersection in a small city the sun is shining brightly and the streets are coming to life with the bustle of the business world. A young boy sells papers to the rushing crowd, as the smell of coffee fills the air from a street vendor's espresso machine...

"Extra, extra read all about it! Say, mister, want to buy a paper?"
"Well I should say so; better give me a second one for my neighbor."
"Golly mister that's sure swell of you."
"You're the best kid, here's a nickel for you."
"Gee thanks mister."
"Don't mention it kid."
"Mister, don't miss the story on page one about the Reverend Wright; it turns out that whatever he says can be considered to have come directly out of Senator Obama's mouth."
"Thanks kid, any other stories I shouldn't miss?"
"Golly sir, since you asked:"
- "Page two explains that Exxon has broken it's own record for annual earnings three years in a row, even as gas prices approach $4 per gallon."
-"Also on page two, many areas had their worst winter in recent history...could it be global cooling?"
"You're a wealth of knowledge kid, here's another nickel."
"Jeepers, that's swell of you mister...oh, also, they are predicting that gas could reach $10 per gallon eventually."
"Holy cow son, what should we do?"
"Well sir, if we all don't buy gas for a day the oil companies will nearly go bankrupt and will have to lower gas prices..."

EDITORS NOTE: You could almost hear the whistling air and smell the smoke as the young newsy's stock went down in flames; in one misstep he was reduced from a wealth-of-knowledge to a nuisance.

"Aw heck kid, now I can't trust anything you said; for all I know the Rev. Wright's words may not actually represent Obama's thoughts after all."
"Gee sir, you just gotta believe me about the oil companies, they are pure evil."

EDITORS NOTE: His stock leveled off with this bit of insight, and began a slow ascent back to wealth-of-knowledge status.

"All right kid, see you tomorrow."
"Have a nice day sir."

As we withdraw slowly from the scene, the young newsy is enveloped in the crowd as he subtly mops his brow and shudders at how close he came to losing his "street savvy" credibility. Now, far enough away to give us a view of the whole city, we see a string of Rolls Royces entering Exxon headquarters. As they turn their cars over to valet parking, we see that most of them have dark moustaches that are twisted and curled at the ends. As they enter the building they remove black top hats, capes and monocles; one of them kicks a nearby puppy.