ORBITUARY, June 10
To colonize Mars will take money and gumption.
And the need to revisit a basic assumption.
Up for discussion among other topics:
will Martians be eating with forks or use chopsticks?
On the “red planet” will people banter in
American English or Chinese Mandarin?
As the U.S. and China race to the stars,
can we foretell the future on Mars?
In the U.S. this could be a very fraught subject,
if it turns out the Mars People's Republic.
While no one can say what the future may bring,
it will, doubtless, pain us to call Mars Huǒxīng [火星 ].
Would it ease our discomfort a little bit though,
if going forward we call Earth Dìqiú [地球]?
