Senator Roger Lowe (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} xmm_lowe) wrote,@ 2004-05-12 15:26:00 |
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A fairly typical television stage, if a nice one. Techies, camerafolk, makeup artists and production assistants bustle around, trampling all those who stand in their way. Like interns. The filming area is a quiet island of calm in the midst of this organized chaos, a pair of armchairs and a coffee table arranged to pretend that the two people on film are simply having a friendly after-coffee chat.
Pair of armchairs and a coffee table. So banal. Forge has to wonder if people would watch more formal debates if the sets came from Blade Runner and, say, Senator Lowe was hanging from a parapet while Jean interrogated him on his mutant registration stance. Oh, they certainly would, and the effects would be terrific and Forge would feel like he had something more to do. Not that he isn't already intruding by running the front camera and several more innovative recording devices. The countdown is starting and Forge's palms are a bit sweaty on the camera. He's glad /he's/ not going to be out there. In front of New York . . . discussing the fate of the nation . . . well, in theory.
Jean would probably be closer to Rachael than Roy however, no matter how fine a job Rutger Hauer did with him. So no tears in the rain, although the willowy redhead would no doubt grace a corporate HQ beautifully. Today, she's arrayed in something tastefully understated, settled on her assigned chair with her ankles neatly together, her hair up in a twist and run through with some fascinatingly laquered chopsticks, and her glasses neatly on her nose to make her look older than her twenty eight years. She's chatting quietly with Lowe pre-debate. No animosity here, in fact "Yes, I have a son, myself, he's about nine months old now."
"Oh, really?" Lowe says -- no animosity here, either, but Dr. Grey is not a nice young intern bubbling with enthusiasm and at least relatively tolerant of his campaign and although she's pleasant enough off air, it's only a matter of a minute or so before off-air time ends. And he's become increasingly distant as the time approaches. "Nine months. Ah, to have them that age again." It's the default thing to say. Lowe is in a suit, with his darkest tie, best glasses, his hair well combed, but never greased, and as his ability to make small talk shrivels, Forge puts up a 3, 2, 1, set of fingers . . .
"I'll have to show you pictures after," Jean promises, exchanging a bit more small talk with the poise of someone raised in an environment where the ability to Be Polite In Any Situation is taught along with the tying of shoelaces. But as the clock ticks down, she smooths her hair once, taps her lapel microphone in a final personal sound check, and then smiles for the cameras as the moderator speaks. "Thank you for tuning in to this special Channel 3 News event, broadcasting live to CNN, NBC, ABC and other news networks." Score one for the local guys! thinks the moderator, a rather reedy young man fresh from his journalism degree. "We're pleased to bring you Senator Roger Lowe, the previously unknown Republican candidate whose run for the presidency has been dizzying to watch unfold. Here to debate with him is New York State's own Dr. Jean Grey, noted scientific researcher, activist, and former speaker at the Senate hearing on the mutant issue almost four years ago. Senator?"
"Oh..." A pause. "And I'm Larry Charleston, tonight's moderator." And the camera quickly pans away before it can catch the young newsie wincing too much over his slip of tongue.
Senator Lowe smiles at the camera -- even if millions of people may be watching now or eventually, cameras in and of themselves are very neutral pieces of hardware. "While my campaign covers a wide base of issues, I know that the main question has been and will probably continue to be, whether I get elected or not, what to do about the rise of mutants in the population and what this means for the human majority. This is a very complex issue and I welcome every opportunity to clarify my stance and answer questions and I thank Dr. Grey for agreeing to appear with me here. To begin with, let me summarize exactly what mutant registration means to me. Every mutant would be listed in a /private/ federal list and this list would be updated and consulted periodically -- for the sole purposes of information for law enforcement and keeping tabs on mutants that might be used or harmed for their powers. Mutant registration would both help law enforcement protect the populace from those mutant criminals that may arise and keep mutants from being exploited."
Jean gets her nod from the moderator, waits for the camera to pan out, and then gives Lowe a polite smile and a nod. "One of the best things about the America that I know and love is that we're free to question and criticize our political candidates' methods and motives, and to educate ourselves on their views, what they stand for, and whether we feel that those views properly represent we the people." she preambles herself, mentally flipping up a few prior post-it notes she'd left herself about the tone she wanted to convey as she tilts her head slightly, a lock of hair escaping from one of the confining chopsticks. Intelligent but approachable Dr. Grey here, about as far from a frothing demagogue as you can get, wouldn't you say? "I'd like to thank Senator Lowe for agreeing to this debate, and I hope that I'll be able to provoke some thought on an issue where it's far too easy to just let others decide your opinion for you." A pause to let that sink in, and then Jean moves smoothly to her first question. "Senator, you've talked a lot about how your proposed bill would keep mutants from being exploited, and how mutant protection laws would be brought in concurrently. What I don't quite understand is why they need to be brought in in a bundled package like that? No-one suggests that bills to protect -other- minority rights -- and mutants are on the order of something like one in every hundred thousand people, worldwide, I might add, -- No one suggests that bills to protect other minorities be paired with registering just who is of a particular race, creed, colour or sexual orientation. In fact, we'd be outraged and consider a government list to be a form or racial profiling. Can you explain?"
"Dr. Grey, from the questions I've gathered in New York -- I am beginning to get the impression that mutants are being lumped in a category that they don't belong in." Senator Lowe keeps his voice steady. Every time he starts into this particular sector of the issue, a thousand activists immediately scream racist. "A mutation, these kinds of mutations, not the sort that lead to sickle cell anemia and other genetic disorders, these mutations are not even related to all the genetic and cultural factors you're grouping them with. This is not just an issue of minority rights -- mutants have been endowed with wonderful abilities that simply aren't anything like those that any other human, regardless of minority or majority status, has. This is a completely different issue. A different skin color does not allow a person to read minds, a sexual orientation does not allow someone to walk through walls," ah, the two infamous examples, "and in a young child, these abilities are very frightening in a completely different sense than, say, puberty. They can be dangerous to themselves and to others in a completely different sense than a normal human being. This seems to me to be common sense."
Jean doesn't need to scream, her expression states it clearly enough, a look of disbelieving disgust at what she's hearing, creeping out from behind the pleasantly relaxed and serene mask she's wearing as surely as the inch of makeup and powder that the wardrobe mistress has applied to them both. "Senator..." she offers at last, the tone of one attempting to jerk their train of thought over onto completely new tracks. She pauses, shakes her head, and then regathers herself, even parting with a little laugh as she realizes that she -does- have a counter argument, the smile back in place. "Senator, I'm afraid that you've been buying into the mutant's mystique as surely as any Hollywood director out to make a best seller. Yes, there are telepaths, and there are people with the ability to phase themselves into and out of solid form, but of the approximately sixty thousand mutants on this entire -planet-, there are less than a thousand who have the -potential- to cause the sort of problems you're so happy to paint us. Less than a thousand, out of six billion souls. The majority of mutation is small, and, quite frankly, mostly useless. I know a young girl who has a similar mutation as the terrorist Eric Lensherr... however, the most -she- can do, and will ever be able to do, is push a few paperclips across a table. It's a simple matter of genetics, really." she pauses and looks directly at the camera to make her explanation, sounding properly science-byte. "The precursors to the X-Factor gene pattern are spread throughout the population. Almost anyone could have a child who's a mutant, if they're with the right person. But the human body is a design that's been in the making for millennia. The radical design changes required to create a powerful mutant just aren't likely to happen, statistically or genetically. So, most mutants out there are like a friend of mine, who has a tiny touch of precognitive ability, enough to know when something bad will happen, but not what, who, or how to stop it. The worse the event, the worse it is on him." A pause, and a sober, quiet murmur of "September 10th, 2001 was a very bad day for him." See? Mutants -feel- too. Another pause, and Jean brings herself back to topic. "Anyways, Senator, I don't buy your argument. You're proposing to register a one one-hundredth of a percent minority, because one and a half percent of -that- happens to have the -potential- for destruction. And you neatly forget about things like morals, free will, and a sense of community."
"Dr. Grey, then please explain to me how registration will do your friends any harm?" Lowe responds almost immediately. His mind has been gathering a counter argument before Jean so much as opened her mouth -- he saw something and he saw something that is going to make this debate at once more difficult and at once easier. Dr. Grey has a very strong emotional tie to mutants -- perhaps she's married to one or perhaps she's become such an intense activist that any mention of mutants as different from normal humans at all save but in the lightest and least problematic sense -- any mention of that sort puts her hackles up. Or maybe . . . "Someone who can push paperclips across a table would never have to /worry/ about registration after the fact. It could never be used against them. They could never be prosecuted for it. Dr. Grey, the reason why registration is essential is that tiny percentage that we need to know about. The rest . . . well, for the rest, it will have even less effect than checking African American on the race section of a voter registration card. Morals and free will and community . . . Dr. Grey, there is /nothing/ in what I've proposed that suggests a police state of any sort. This will be a record, nothing more. And, Dr. Grey, if I might," Senator Lowe clears his throat. "You've told us that there are approximately sixty thousand mutants on this planet, and you've told us what percentage of that is dangerous. May I ask how you got these numbers?"
"Oh, it's not my friends I fear for, Senator Lowe." Jean replies promptly, the polite relaxation dropped, and the weight of her passionate intellect being brought to bear on the man as she sits forward, keen-eyed. "Or rather, not only for them. There are very clear constitutional rights and freedoms set out in this country, and while you voiced the opinion at last week's question period that you don't feel the Constitution applies in this day and age," A pause, to let the Tradition And History And Family Values vote hear that. "I, on the other hand, think that fine legal and ethical construct is one that shouldn't be tossed aside just to suit a political platform. Personal freedoms, Senator, also include the freedom to choose who has what information about you. So no, it may not harm my young friend and her paperclips, but it infringes on freedoms that men and women have laid down blood and bone for. I fear for us all, if we disrespect them. It sets a dangerous precedent, and the person who comes after you, Senator Lowe, may not be all that interested in doing the right thing. Information is information, and not all the hands that it passes through will be ones as idealistic as yourself." She pauses at the throat-clearing, and her smile returns at the question. "Nice subject change," she even goes so far as to twinkle. "The numbers can be read in an article published in the Journal of Genetic Research by Dr. Moira MacTaggart years back, Senator. I believe she actually won her Nobel prize for it and others like it." Another little laugh.
"No, that's not what I said," Senator Lowe says firmly, leaning forward himself. "What I said was that the founding fathers did not know, nor could have known, about mutants. And we apparently don't see eye to eye on what that entails, but if you watch the amendments, Dr. Grey, the founding fathers did not and /could/ not cover everything. Mutants are, Dr. Grey, mutants are a group that could, quite potentially, set a precedent of their own. You're putting quite a lot of responsibility on me for precedents, Dr. Grey. You're ignoring some prior precedents. You are ignoring the terrorism that's been wracking this country and this very city in particular. You are ignoring what has been done by mutants who have been frightened and alone in a city with no help for them, who have lashed out with powers that normal humans, normal /pedestrians/ cannot combat. On a far, far lesser level, you are even ignoring the simple fact that we do know race federally and there's a prior precedent for you that could, I suppose, be twisted. But hasn't, you see. Understand, Dr. Grey, this is a democracy. This is a democracy with open information and open questioning of government, as you said in the very beginning. The government cannot idly decide to use this information to use mutants without so many people knowing that it wouldn't think at least twice, no matter who was president. This is the way the country is set up." And Lowe takes a breath himself to nod at Dr. Grey's answer to his sole question. "I see. So those are prospective statitistics, not actual counts."
"The amendments, however, are just that." Jean counters the counter-argument. "Amendments to existing rules, not outright contradictions. There are already circumstances set out when individual freedoms need not be respected, and I think you agree with me that martial law isn't exactly needed here," she forces herself to smile still more. "Another case is in the situation of convicted criminals. Now, I'm going to shock you here, Senator Lowe," she warns, lifting a finger before moving on. "I'm actually in extreme favour of mutant registration... of convicted criminals. If someone -is- caught abusing their gifts, I have no sympathy for them. But it's your plan to register -anyone- with a particular genetic sequence that I cannot support." That said, Jean pauses, and then addresses prior concerns. "As for your citing of mutant violence, I counter you with the fact that the Mutant Affairs division of the NYPD deals with a majority of cases where the perpetrators were not mutants, but simple baseline humans, out committing acts of hatred or fear... why, just the other night, my boyfriend and I were called upon to help out a young couple who were being menaced by a gang of mutant haters because the man of the pair had dyed his hair electric green. An unfortunate colour choice might've cost him his life if we hadn't been driving by. Mutant registration, the -knowledge- that the -government- thinks that mutants need to be 'dealt with', would lend an air of legitimacy to such activities, in the minds of their participants. I notice you've still failed to address the problem of anti-mutant violence increasing in the wake of every campaign stop you've made." There's a hard look and Jean holds eye contact until Lowe chooses to break it. "The simple fact is, the non-mutant population is far more of a threat to mutants than the mutants are to them. It's plain numbers. Which is, incidentally, what Dr. MacTaggart's research is based on." The smile, just a touch mocking of Lowe's apparent lack of homework, makes a return. "Nobel prizes aren't generally awarded for prospective statistics, Senator. The information came from a series of random population samplings, in accordance with standard scientific procedure."
"There will be no martial law," Lowe says, briefly sounding weary. "The reason why the registration needs to be so far-reaching is for the good of the mutant population, not the detriment. Because the non-mutant population does lash out in violent ways, due to fear, due to the feeling that there's nothing the non-human population can do against the mutant one should the mutant one ever band together, due to just plain bigotry and thuggery, mutants do need to be protected in a fashion that's federally employed. And, I'll mention again, race /is/ federally registered and that's a genome, isn't it? When people had that strange idea that black people would overrun the nation and take it over if they weren't kept down, there were lynchings, weren't there? And haven't things been /better/ with a full scale knowledge of how the government feels about one person being one race and not another and what the government will do if that person is attacked for that reason. You mention that people with unfortunate dye jobs are being beaten as mutants. A government 'dealing with' as you so kindly put it, would also deal with these thugs. The thugs, those with more of a brain than simply to hate and attack, are acting out of uncertainity. A beat them before they beat us. And if the nation knows that the government knows who is who and will know if mutants are abused in any fashion and report it through the registration system and that citizens are /not/ welcome to act out -- it has worked in the past." Lowe takes a breath. "The anti-mutant violence is extremely unfortunate. For every idea, there will be those who raise it into fanaticism and treat it as a banner. I believe, though, that it is merely the /issue/ of mutants being raised that spurs the violence, not any stance on it. A bigot would do exactly what they're doing now regardless of whether it was me speaking or a mutant sitcom enjoying a spurt of popularity. You might also wonder if your activities in the city to help supposed mutants out of these situations you mention /might/ be spurring some of the mutant violence, because it calls attention to how dangerous humans might be to a mutant group and we had better get them before they get us."
Lowe breathes out one more time before addressing the last. "I see. My apologies. It's been a long time since I read Dr. Moira's work. But it is ultimately irrelevant to what we're discussing -- which is action, rather than whether or not mutants are liable to become a majority any time soon."
"Thank you, Senator," Jean pauses and delivers a smiles that's actually genuine for a brief second, before it's back to keeping up her half of the posturing that's going on on both sides. "And thank you for letting me segue so nicely into my next point. Because, you see, I feel that mutant registration is unnecessary for the protection of mutants. We currently have anti-hate laws, we currently have the men and women of our police forces doing their best to keep the peace. The thugs are already being dealt with, you see." she avers, before resting her hands neatly on her lap. "Senator, if you're truly concerned about the safety and security of the American public, there are easier ways to go about it. Work within the existing framework," she encourages. "We have anti-hate laws, strengthen them. See to it that they apply to both mutants and non-mutants. Include telepathic snooping in privacy laws. Tresspassing is still tresspassing whether you cut a lock to do it or phase right through the walls. -Integration- is what stopped the lynchings of African-Americans, not government lists. The same laws and freedoms should apply to everyone, and setting aside a small portion of the population to recieve differing treatment just seems to be a proposal fraught with peril. Why is mutant registration so appealing to you, Senator?"
"Because we currently have no methods to deal with mutants who don't want to be taken in, Dr. Grey," Lowe says, and immediately knows he's treading another line. "You speak about registering criminals only, Dr. Grey. It is currently almost /impossible/ to take in mutants that do not want to be taken in. Those that are taken in tend to break out in a matter of weeks, at best. A mutant who trespasses by phasing cannot be /held/ in a jail cell. Dr. Grey, the existing framework does /not work/. And while this ... active portion of the population is able to roam free regardless of what crimes they've committed, because there's nothing else to be done, there is /nothing/ the human population can do in many cases, it's a sign that parts of the system must be reworked and I'm sorry." And the beacon that indicates the end of the session flares over Forge's head. Larry returns, closing the session with a few words that essentially translate to "that's all, folks," and the cameras go off.
