Dialogue Between People Like John Locke Karl Marx Mohandas Gandhi Elizabeth Wolgast Dorothy Day

¶ … Colleen -- but then again, when you're dealing with food services, every day's a long day. As she made her way toward the stairs and away from the brooding purgatory that is the HUB (name of cafeteria), shutting off the lights behind her like a row of fluorescent dominoes, the clock on the wall read "10:45." The sound of the door shutting at the top of the stairwell signaled the end of another day at the HUB.

Actually, perhaps this was not true. Just as the door was shutting above, the lights down below flickered on once again to reveal a ghostly line of customers stretching from the "Pizza Hut" station to the cash register. Near the end of the line, Mohandas Gandhi stood with a cup of tea and a veggie wrap balanced on his tray. Martin Luther King stood next to him, his tray empty except for a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Wolgast only wanted a donut, but blocking her way was a fellow who kept droning on about justice and geometry. Behind them, Carol Gilligan was helping Dorothy Day reach a container of 2% milk. Over by the sandwich case, John Locke was speaking in an undertone with a man in a robe who. A moment before while reaching for a Greek salad, this robed character had snapped, "Hey, what's the big idea?!" when startled by Locke.

"I just don't feel comfortable coming here after the place has closed," Locke whispered. "What gives us the right to use the HUB like this? And anyway, you know that if Hayek shows up again he's going to make a scene." The man in the robe was about to tell Locke that he thought the whole thing was a little like robbing Peter to pay Paul (who was actually just coming in), when Karl Marx, who had managed to grab first place in line, snarled, "Enough, Locke! Enough of your half-baked scruples..."

In fact, Marx was just getting started on his nightly tirade against Locke's bourgeois self-deceptions. However, he was suddenly interrupted by an intense looking fellow with "Isaiah" embroidered on his bowling shirt, who, standing under the clock, announced, "I hear the footsteps of retribution descending toward us!" When Isaiah reached the staircase, he actually saw three bishops, three ministers and a rabbi coming down the stairs. "Martin!" he called out.

Despite the fact that they came from such different realms of thought and time periods, this eclectic group of individuals decided to sit down and share their meal together. Marx, who had been at the head of the line, was the first to speak. "I can't get over what I saw on the way here today! This division of haves and have nots is more pronounced now than ever! Some people are driving in $100,000 cars, while others are living in carton boxes on the streets. They're covering themselves with newspapers to keep warm."