Senator Mann Opens the Gates in Washington BWUNN, Washington Bureau, with the International Standard Be prepared for an exhibition in hardball politics during the waning weeks of June. As Summer opens, the gates of the U.S. Senate must make way for a fearsome contest. America's struggle to find itself and its destiny in the mid Twenty-Second Century is about to climax with the debate over the passage of the Mann Act II. The controversial bill, which would enable the referendum process necessary to the adoption of the "Sentient Being Voting Rights Amendment," is the creation of a feisty ex-tubetruck operator from the mean streets of Mascoutah, Illinois. Senator Julia Mann is no stranger to divisive causes and arduous struggles, but this is undoubtedly her greatest challenge. It's the closing argument in a trial she now shares with the entire country. Given the bill's success in the House of Representatives, Senator Mann believes that her fragile senatorial coalition will win the day. Groups like the Coalition for Robotic Freedom and the A.I. Suffrage Association agree. Objective commentators are not so sure. It appears that the naysayers may have the upper hand. They are certainly capable of wielding plenty of muscle, whether it be in the streets, in the cloistered halls of congress, or on the senate floor. Some opponents, like the Anti-Robot Militia, appear radical by most American standards. Others, like the 7 to 1, maintain higher ground. Collectively, though, they are a force not easily reckoned with, and they are desperate to stop what they consider to be a hysterically dangerous tide of misconceived sympathy for inanimate machines that might ultimately replace humankind.