A SMALL CROWD gathers around the ACTIVIST as he orates. It has become something of a rally.

ACTIVIST You're spending what? Twenty, thirty dollars a week on cigarettes? LISTENER 1 Forty LISTENER 2 Fifty-three. ACTIVIST Fifty-three dollars. Would you pay someone that much money every week to kill you? Because that's what you're doing now, by paying for the so-called priviledge to smoke! LISTENER 3 We all gotta go sometime... ACTIVIST It's that kind of mentality that allows this cancer-producing industry to thrive. Of course we're all going to die someday, but do we have to pay for it? Do we have to actually throw hard-earned dollars down on a counter and say, "Please, please Mister Merchant of Death, sir; please sell me something that will give me bad breath, stink up my clothes, and fry my lungs." LISTENER 1 It's not that easy to quit. ACTIVIST Of course it's not; not when you have people like this mindless cretin so happy and willing to sell you nails for your coffin! DANTE Hey, now wait a sec... ACTIVIST Now he's going to launch into his rap about how he's just doing his job; following orders. Friends, let me tell you about another bunch of hate mongers that were just following orders: they were called Nazis, and they practically wiped a nation of people from the Earth... just like cigarettes are doing now! Cigarette smoking is the new Holocaust, and those who partake in the practice of smoking or sell the wares that promote it are the Nazis of the nineties! He doesn't care how many people die from it! He smiles as you pay for your cancer sticks and says, "Have a nice day." DANTE I think you'd better leave now. ACTIVIST You want me to leave? Why? Because somebody is telling it like it is? Somebody's giving these fine people a wake-up call?! DANTE You're loitering in here, and causing a disturbance. ACTIVIST You're the disturbance pal! And here... (slaps a dollar on the counter) I'm buying some...what's this? ... Chewlie's Gum. There. I'm no longer loitering. I'm a customer, a customer engaged in a discussion with other customers. LISTENER 2 (to DANTE) Yeah, now shut up so he can speak! ACTIVIST Oh, he's scared now! He sees the threat we present! He smells the changes coming, and the loss of sales when the nonsmokers finally demand satisfaction. We demand the right to breathe cleaner air! LISTENER 3 Yeah! ACTIVIST We'd rather chew our gum than embrace slow death! Let's abolish this heinous practice of sucking poison, and if it means ruffling the feathers of a convinience store idiot, then so be it! DANTE That's it, everybody out. ACTIVIST We're not moving! We have a right, a constitutional right, to assemble and be heard! DANTE Yeah, but not in here. ACTIVIST What better place than this? To stamp it out, you gotta start at the source! DANTE Like I'm responsible for all the smokers! ACTIVIST The ones in this town, yes! You encourage their growth, their habit. You're the source in this area, and we're going to shut you down for good! For good, cancer-merchant! The small crowd begin to chant and jeer in DANTE's face. CROWD Cancer merchant! Cancer merchant! Cancer merchant!