Welcome to Gaia! ::

Just when he thought he was going to get a small break there were more questions, he had taken a sip of water pausing when someone mentioned there was no mention of how this will be handled in terms of funding. He cleared his throat, "Fund raisers are the easiest place to start." He answered looking for the lady that had spoken eyes finally landing on Liberty.

"They will be the quickest and most effective short term. However, we will also have to look towards what can be done in terms of taxes, grants and other such funding and how to apply and get those. There maybe a chance we can get a state of an emergency declared but with the terrorist only targeting what appears to be our city that is going to be nearly impossible." He answered sounding a little authoritative like his father would have being asked such a question. "In reality we all know it's going to be a difficult climb upwards to get out of this hole we're in. Unfortunately, in the end we all may have to suffer a little to gain a lot; but if everyone is willing it can be done." He added, making sure to give it a positive note.



Azzo's features softened a bit when he'd heard Aurora speak. He gave a small cough. "Sorry, I got a bit caught up in that last question." He adjusted his jacket and tie a bit. "Specifics are hard to give without knowing what will be in our power to do." He said with a small beat between. "However, I think one of the best steps we can take is to try and come to a truce with the terrorist. To see if we can bring them to our, the citizen's, side of things and see the damage they are doing. Perhaps once they've realized we want to talk to them and see if we can sort this out, they'll stop causing as much damage. We've tried to force them out, intimidate them, and arrest them. This is not working, we need a different approach to this matter."

He frowned, "It's not going to be easy to protect citizens without having some sort of incite as to why they are doing this, why here. Unfortunately I believe attempting to make peace with them and speak to them civilly to learn what is really going on between them will in the end bring us a safer home.

Marissa was bored.

Whatever hopes she’d had for this debate to turn into something genuine and human were smashed to pieces the minute the questioning started and each candidate began to open their mouths in answer. It was as typical of politics as she could expect from any electoral debate, full of posturing and long-winded speeches and questions obviously not devised by someone as young as eleven or twelve, and it annoyed her as much to sit there amidst it as it did to dwell in the comfort of her living-room while similar events aired on the television.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t rant and rave and spout off all the curses she would have hurled at the television, and instead sat with the side of her face planted firmly against one of her palms, her elbow perched on the table to keep her upright and prevent her from bashing her head against the table’s surface.

Marissa was not as formally dressed as some of her opponents, or even a few of the people she could see out in the audience. She spent enough time in suits on a day-to-day basis and she frankly found them to be more off-putting for other people than the suit-wearer might otherwise intend. When she spoke to other people, she wanted to be on their level and not seem like a distant figure who spent more time on her wardrobe than doing her actual job.

Instead she sat (perhaps displaying her boredom and annoyance a bit more prominently than she would have liked) with her legs encased in a pair of skinny jeans in a dark wash, green heels on her feet, with a nice blouse and purple blazer adding just enough class to mark the event as important without appearing too pompous. Her curly blonde hair was pulled into a nice ponytail, the weight of which she wished she could blame for the ache slowly developing in her head.

“Okay, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves,” she said, grabbing for her microphone when there was a sufficient break in the questions and answers. “Let’s look at what this really is. This isn’t Washington. This isn’t the State Legislature. This is one seat on the Destiny City Council. And my opponents here…” she paused to wave on down the long table before continuing, “… they’ve all got a lot of nice words and a lot of great plans for the city, and maybe they’ll make all the requisite promises to do this and do that in order to make the city a better place for everyone, but the fact of the matter is that it’s one seat. If anyone in this room thinks they can accomplish anything from one seat without compromising on some of the issues they’re swearing to today, I’d sure like to see how they intend to do that.

“This city doesn’t need another posturing politician,” she continued, “or a posturing student trying to be a politician without an adequate amount of experience. What this city needs is an actual human being with a willingness to take risks as well as a willingness to compromise. What this city needs is someone who knows this city’s problems, not just the terrorist threat that’s kept us occupied for the last few years, but the ones that existed before all that was brought to our attention. But we also can’t go into this thinking we can solve every problem with a snap of our fingers. Any of us up here can make whatever promises we want to get elected, but we can’t promise success after it’s over and we can’t promise that it’ll happen quickly. There are other council men and women with projects and ambitions of their own that might prevent any one of us,” she waved down the table again, “from being able to do anything at all. All any of us can really promise is to try. I’m not going to make any guarantees. I’m not going to bother with pointless detailed explanations of what I intend to do or how I intend to get it done if I can’t even promise it’ll work. In the end, I’m going to do whatever’s necessary to see to the issues facing our city in whatever way makes sense at the time. If that means listening to new ideas, then I’ll listen to new ideas. If that means compromising with opposition, then I’ll do what I can to find a compromise that works for as many of the parties involved as possible. Just… let’s be realistic. Let’s be pragmatic. No one needs to rush into this thinking any of it’s going to be easy.”

"It is indeed a part of my platform, and I think that Destiny City has taken admirable strides toward eco-efficiency, however, there is room for far more improvement. The goal is to make it so much more convenient and, eventually, automatic, to make the sustainable choice in every day life. We need better and more accessible recycling, and education for the public about how to take advantage of appliance swap programs. Most people want to help, and do their part, they just need to know how, and it needs to be practical for them to do so. I don't think that business and sustainability are opposites, and I'm confident that if the push is made by community and their representatives, our partners in government and business will be eager to reach out and take part."



"As you've probably noticed, from my platform and earlier answers, I am very pro-local and small business, and want to encourage and provide the resources for those businesses to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. My family is made up of entrepreneurs and I work for a small business in town. I shop locally whenever I can, and would prefer to see every box store replaced or countered with a local option. It makes for a better product.

Often, local businesses think they have to do things alone, they don't! I do, and will continue to, reach out to community partners to provide workshops to assist long-standing and new small businesses to form realistic business plans, acquire proper licensing and certification, defend their rights, and learn to manage their budgets. Small businesses only help communities, and the community should be helping them in turn."



Despite the slight raise of her eyebrow as Azzo referenced 'women and minorities' as a certain demographics that might need catered meetings, Avery said nothing, instead answering Arian directly.

"I completely agree with you," Avery smiled at the young man, then took a pleased look around the room, even toward her fellow candidates, "And I'm excited to see so many of our peers out here, showing how much they care. Often, young people are underestimated, both in how much we can do and how much we know, and it's our job to change that.

No one will hand us anything, we need to take it. We have to demand to be heard, and then say something worth hearing. We need to take action when we want things to change, and we have been doing that to great effect.

That means encouraging political and social activism in schools, and providing the venue for discussion and action, such as clubs and groups. The primary method I've found works for young people to get involved is to intern, to volunteer, and to use the resources available to them - which include technology and the community members already in fields of their interest - to learn more about what they can do to help. I can promise that, as your city councilwoman, I won't forget to listen to the people of Destiny City, regardless of age."



"That's a great question," Avery's smile was one in appreciation of a logical question - a realist, and it was one she was somewhat qualified to answer. As a soon to be graduate with a major in Economics, involved in several successful small businesses, and well, a fair amount of money, she knew quite a bit about acquiring it. "As I mentioned earlier regarding my thoughts on Education and Small Businesses, no one is just going to give us money without a return on their investment, and Destiny City, itself, doesn't have the budget to finance such large projects, though a hard look at the budget itself is in order.

What we need is federal and private funding, and we can get that by taking charge and asking for it. There are countless foundations that are looking to give money to those that can use it properly. We need to encourage our community to reach for that funding, and facilitate matching grants to those that are qualified to receive them.

On top of that, and more immediately, we need to revitalize this community's sense of self-care, and that means, working together, rather than tearing apart other's efforts, it means helping our neighbors, and it does mean fundraisers and organized volunteer days. Often, you can get others to donate time where they won't, or can't, donate money, and that can save local businesses and even schools myriad dollars in staffing costs, clean up efforts, and community lessons and after school programs."



"It's an unfortunate reality that Destiny City is a dangerous place to be, and I can't pretend to know the solution. There seem to be three real solutions, namely, to let them have the run of the city, to take the steps necessary - possibly extreme steps - to eradicate the issue, or to continue as we are and make what small changes we can to increase public safety."

The brunette frowned, "But I also don't agree with Candidate Crowley's proposal of appeasement and negotiation. There has been no list of demands, no sign that the various violent groups in the city desire something beyond destroying one another, and I think that the both the government and individuals need to take steps to protect their safety. Just last year, they planted explosives at a city council meeting." Her smile lacked humor, "Forgive me if I'm not keen on extending an invitation for such a thing to happen again."

"It seems more appropriate to encourage, or even enforce, certain laws to promote safety, such as curfews, and increased law enforcement and security presence in public places." Avery shook her head, "I don't know if Destiny City is ready to become militarized, to provide law enforcement with the tools and sanction to take real action against what appears to be very young groups of very violent individuals, because at the heart of it, these people are members of our community. They are people's children, brothers, and sisters, and perhaps what they really need is what I've been promoting all along: Communities that are constantly watching them, providing opportunities to do something else. Outlets for their strength and intelligence that are constructive rather than destructive, and consequences for the latter."

They all knew it wasn't an issue that any one person could solve.

Sophie watched the debate with a mix of interest, amusement, and disdain. It wasn't that politics weren't interesting to her. It was just that she couldn't bring herself to believe that legislation was all it took to fix things. Their current system of government had been around for more than two hundred years, and major social problems still existed. No, there had to be something more, something that they hadn't realized yet, that would put things right. Her recent research into the more magical happenings in Destiny City had provided her with some hints as to what that something might be, but it wasn't enough. Not yet. So she was doomed to wait while people stumbled around, doing the same things that they had been doing for centuries without making any kind of progress.

Still, there was a certain merit to being an informed citizen. Sophie's mother had said, and Sophie agreed, that one could not put down the government without knowing what they were doing. She was not going to be walking blindly in this storm. No, she knew about the issues- the ones that mattered to her, at least- and had read up on the candidates before coming to the debate. Some were better-known than others. For a few, all she could find were mentions in school newspapers and the like. That was both encouraging and worrying. The fact that so many of the candidates were her age or younger was cool, but she did wonder what that meant for the seat, if someone young but unskilled happened to win. Still, that was not her main concern that night. She was not there to probe their minds for pre-planned points on carefully decided issues.

Her real agenda was to use the debate as a way of getting other people involved. She had rather approved of the young man who asked about youth forums, and the answers to that question had been the most interesting thus far. Well, aside from the terrorism issue, which she had notes on to see if anyone mentioned any of her buzzwords. So far, all the candidates looked painfully uneducated on what was really going on. Which allowed her to focus on her real goal- making politics accessible for everyone. Clearly she was closer than she had originally thought, considering the number of young candidates, but she knew that they were the exception, rather than the rule. Most kids and teenagers thought that public policy was a boring, grown-up thing. It was time for that view to change.

When her turn to ask a question arrived, Sophie took the microphone in one hand and gestured to the stage with the other. "You've all had quite a lot to say about what you plan to do, assuming you take office. But what about what you've done already? What are your backgrounds, and how and why did you decide to run for city council? And- if I may ask a quick follow-up question- what would be your advice to young people considering a career in politics?"

There was a reason Marissa didn’t like politicians, and why she’d never tried to set her foot into the political sphere before other than the fact that she liked her job and felt the need to give it her undivided attention for the last several years. Most politicians, and most of politics in general, seemed to her to be disingenuous. She found it difficult to look at the others at the table without casting them in the same light, whether or not they’d given her sufficient proof of any insincerity.

“You’ve got some pretty words and some pretty sentiments, kid,” she said, and immediately winced at her choice of words.

She hadn’t meant to sound patronizing. Unfortunately, she couldn’t look at him without thinking of one of her own kids, who had to be about his age, and trying to imagine her own kid in any type of public office was one of the more terrifying thoughts she’d had all week.

“And I don’t doubt that your heart’s in the right place,” she added, trying to take any potential sting out of her words, “and I’m sure you believe every word you’re saying, but let’s step back for a minute and be real. That’s all I’m asking. Let’s knock it off with the flowery speeches and talk like actual people instead of political robots.”


The sudden outburst from one of the members in the audience was not surprising, and Marissa responded to it with a politely bland look that gave little of her emotions away.

She looked out into the audience to find the person in question, and then lifted her shoulders into what probably appeared to be quite a careless shrug.

“I’m not asking anyone to vote for me blindly,” she said. “I’m sure you’re all pretty capable of doing your research. It’s all out there. All anyone has to do is read it. There’s nothing I can say up here that hasn’t already been written on paper or disseminated over cyberspace. I’m a single-ish Mom. I come from a low-income area of the city. I’ve seen the effects of drugs and gang violence and the recent terrorist threat, and I’ve seen the city’s attempts to deal with each of them. I put myself through school and I worked my a** off to do it, and I struggled to raise my kid in a way I thought was best for him,” she continued, not entirely comfortable bringing anything even remotely related to her private life into the conversation, but if it was important for people to hear who she was and where she came from, then she figured it was something she’d just have to get over for the time being.

“No, legalizing marijuana is not the most important thing right now, but it is something I support. It’s something I’d like to see done down the road. My main concern relates more to my own experiences. I know how hard it often is for women, for young mothers, and for people without the proper means for success. I know our public schools aren’t up to par. I went through them. They weren’t up to par then and they aren’t up to par now. Teachers are teaching biased material out of textbooks from a biased state, schools are lacking in technology, in art programs, in opportunities for students to have a voice and make a difference. Can I fix all of that? Probably not. Do I want to? Yes. Can any of the other candidates fix all of that? Probably not. Do they want to? Some of them, yeah, I’m sure they do. What would I do to fix it? Well, that’s a complicated answer, because at the moment I don’t know what I can do. I’m not in office yet. I can make assumptions, but that’s not going to help anybody. I can put plans in place, but there’s no guarantee what’ll become of them. I want to see more technology in schools, more of a focus on actually teaching and less of a focus on test-taking. I want to see more of a focus on nutrition in schools. I want to see more opportunities for women in fields previously dominated by men, and I want to see a little more equality there when it comes to pay. I want the safety of our city improved, but I can’t tell you how to make that happen because the terrorist threat is a bit more complicated than you or I have time to discuss right now. Some people want to respond with violence, and some people want to respond with peace. Personally, I’d rather negotiate, but who am I to say that’s the right thing to do?”

Marissa cut off her rambling, lifting one of her hands to rub at her forehead. “You’ve just demonstrated exactly what I hate about the political game aside from the posturing,” she said, “and that’s the flaring tempers. I realize these are all issues that a lot of people are dead serious about, and often take pretty personally, but arguing about it isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. Not you, not me, not the rest of the people here. If you don’t want to vote for me, don’t vote for me. Vote for whoever you think’s going to do the best job.”


To Haley’s muttered insult, Marissa simply snorted. “Well, at least I’m not the first one to resort to swearing, but as the internet is so fond of saying… ‘bitches get stuff done.’”

(Also, I have to go to bed soon, so if I end up not responding to someone I am soooooooo sorry. ;; Early work is an evil thing.)

(( Doing this in chunks so I don't die. ))

Boy, this was fun! Everyone was dressed in varying degrees of formality. Some, like Avery Hollister, were the perfect image of a put-together councilperson-to-be. Wallace Suite, someone the bluenette had never heard of in her life (and that accurate described 99% of Destiny City at this point) was also rather proper in his glasses and tie. She wanted to pinch his cheek yet didn’t think that was proper when you were sitting at a debate table to answer questions about your council platform. Haley was Haley: irrepressible and frivolous.

For herself, Lena had tried to straddle the line between Haley and Avery. A short-cropped, single-button jacket was covered in splashy tropical flowers over a black blouse and matching slacks. Considering the propensity to sit oddly and potentially flash the crowd, it was a savvy move for the bluenette. Slacks allowed her to cross her legs, to relax in her chair, while tapping one sunshine-yellow heel against the stage with her enjoyment to be there.

Question 1 - Sierra

If Lena had thought that her opponents were cute, the girl who stepped up to the mic was precious. Vaguely she remembered that this was the kid who was helping Avery Hollister run her campaign, bracelets matching on both candidate and helper. Yet the question wasn’t a bad one overall and was actually something that Lena felt was important, though she couldn’t have said why. High school was one of those things that was a blur for her, with exception of a private school which had burnt to the ground in a night of horrifying screams.

She was on to you, Haley Jones.

Several of the co-candidates had excellent points, well-articulated about how to improve the Destiny City school system. “My co-candidates are all incredibly on the mark, I have little to dispute in their answers. I have to agree with Ms. Hollister about the fact that private schools, while they have the finances to support the advantages of small class sizes, technology, and well-educated teachers they are missing a critical component: diversity.” What the hell did she know about high schools? It was cobbling together something that sounded good from what she’d been hearing, from what she’d been seeing around town.

“What can Crystal Academy teach you about a young person who is the first in their home to go to college? There is a sort of dedication and drive to succeed in our public schools that they, and our community, should be proud of. Should invest in. If we have children that aren’t succeeding then we need to build services into our schools to help them. Comprehensive tests that measure learning growth, not retention are the key to our future. Tutors, counselors, after-school programs, and food assistance are key.” Food assistance was something that Lena, a girl always hungry for one reason or another, could really get behind. Zac was what had brought this to her attention, pointing out once that it was incredibly hard to find good food for reasonable prices.

If he couldn’t afford anything but ramen noodles, Chinese food, and McDonalds what were the children getting?! “Feeding children has proven, in several studies, to be directly related to their school performances. By making sure that they are not distracted by an empty stomach, that they can count on having at least two full meals when they come to school, students have the ability to be more engaged and more successful. This, more than anything, is what I find most important to add to our schools.”

Question 2 - Ian

Her most important issue? “Well, sir, I’m sure that many would agree that my ‘Kisses for Destiny City’ venture is a rather iimportant one,” she paused here to allow laughter to move through the room, “that is not what I consider my most pressing issue.” Pausing again, Lena took a drink of water. This was going to get rather exhaustive; her voice couldn’t give out in the middle of it.

“Terrorism is something that we live with every day. You’ve all felt the sting of it in our local economy, driving businesses out of town. Large businesses in fact. I agree that our small, local businesses are important but unfortunately most of the city’s livelihood and revenue will not come from them. It’s the big businesses, corporations, and tourist industry that we need to entice back to our streets. Their taxes, their jobs, will boost both the jobs and the housing in our city.” Houses that were going empty, jobs that were being lost every day now that the mortality rate had dropped drastically over the past year.

Thanks, Negaverse!

“Many of the changes we all wish to make in Destiny City require money that unfortunately the city itself does not seem to have very much of. If we want to have a surplus, then we need taxes. But raising taxes on a strained economy is rarely successful; I doubt you could get even half the votes required to raise taxes to even repair some of the streets at this point!” Her head shook, deep blue-black waves brushing around her face in dismay. “By courting businesses, tourist industries, and the like we can bring money and prosperity back to our town.”

Question 3 - Orah

Uhhh, was there a problem with the environment? Okay yeah there were short-skirted teenagers running around town wrecking the Negaverse’s mojo and all of that. Oh hell did she mean like...globally? This was something that Lena had nothing to say about. Kess had tried, bless her heart, to make Lena understand that the ozone layer was dissipating, that cars were a problem, but the captain didn’t think there was actually a problem in Destiny City with it.

“Well to be entirely honest I think that our city has done quite a bit about this. We have a very efficient public transportation system that can get you from one side of town to another with little wait. Incentivizing people to use said public transportation could perhaps be the best done on a realistic scale.” Hands folded themselves even as the bluenette shrugged. “I’d love to say that I’d take DC off the grid, make us solar-dependent and coal-independent, but I like to try to stick with realistic goals. Saving the environment is important but I don’t see it as a pressing issue in our city today.” Too brutal? Well, she was running on a platform of honesty. To embrace a topic that she didn’t care very much for was dishonest, was posturing, and it was bound to come out at some point that she wasn’t a tree-hugger.

As a matter of fact the last tree she could remember growing in the city was one that Tanz ate aliens from. Not really encouraging as an anecdote, overall.

Question 4 - Marlin

Oh look, there it was, the ubiquitous small-business, support-the-homefront question! She couldn’t deny that Lena Adler was a proponent for encouraging large business at the moment because lets face it, the tax situation in Destiny City was tragic. Businesses were leaving, shipping jobs overseas, or just getting them the hell out of Dodge and away from here which was a major problem. Small businesses could keep things going for a little while but at the end of the day they were just that -- small.

“I won’t hide that my priority is on large corporations to help boost our economy but you shouldn’t have to suffer by being the baseline, the heartbeat I suppose, of keeping that economy going in these lulls. I think the best thing to do is have the city work with insurance companies to make sure that you all receive fair and substantial coverage to take care of yourselves during these vandalism bouts.” Spreading her hands, the young woman looked apologetic.

“Overall though we have to be realistic about what it is that we have to work with. Expanding our police force with the funds at our disposal is not very realistic and that is the key to dealing with this terrorism. Insurance coverage for your business is not something the city can control, nor do I think we can afford to cut your taxes at the moment. All we can do is reassure you that we will be trying to better our city, which should make your plight much less pressing as we do so.” Realism! It was the best that you could hope for from a candidate.

Right?

'Do not lick your lips. Do not break eye contact with whomever you are speaking. Do not look nervous. Do not forget to smile. Do answer the question fully. Do invite them to follow up. Do acknowledge your opponents strengths.'

Her own private list of 'dos' and 'do nots" ran through Penelope Seneca's head, courtesy of her debate coach and her parents who had drilled her this morning before the debate. This opportunity was too important for her personally, in both her civilian and her Senshi life, to risk losing. The time for nervousness and softness, her normal venue, was over. Now she had to make sure she gave all that she had... however little that might be.

[Also answering questions in chunks since I'm playing massive catch up. I'm sorry everyone!]



The first question had to do with school funding--not exactly a subject well suited to her platform, but one that Penelope now found herself needing to answer. She was herself a student of Crystal Academy (for a little while longer, at least); maybe that would be a weakness here. But she would still do her best!

She spoke into her microphone and looked towards the questioner, keeping her tone respectful, "Money is not the only means to securing advantages--although it certainly helps, I think it's safe to say we're all suffering from our current economic downturn, as Ms. Hollister already suggested. One of the steps I would take to support our local public schools would be seeking collaborative partnerships with others in the city. We are blessed that Destiny City is diverse in terms of culture and business. Collaborative partnerships with businesses and institutions such as our local public library could offer our schools valuable allies in terms of internships, sponsoring competitive academic teams, and even securing grants to improve technology and teacher training and assessment."

Pausing for a moment to recollect her thoughts and trying to slow the heart hammering in her throat, she added, "I also think that these partnerships could aid students in forming the interpersonal skills needed for continuing in whatever path is before them after graduation."



A young man (Ian) was the next to ask a question, and Penelope sat quietly to give her mind time to come up with an answer. She did not have as diverse a platform as some of the others... but she did believe strongly in her admittedly simple stance. It showed in her voice as she again spoke into the microphone, directing her gaze towards the young man, "I feel that all of the candidates have important issues to address. However, my personal feeling is that the most important issue in my platform is greater resarch and education regarding the 'terrorist' threat."

No, she used no actual air quotes, but they were definitely implied. She may not be able to reveal herself as Eternal Sailor Pasiphae... but Penelope Seneca was just as determined to make them all see the truth! "It's always more frightening when you don't know with what you're dealing. If it's frightening for adults, then think of how much more so it must be for the children growing up with these events occuring around them. I hope that we can all work together, men and women of all ages and backgrounds, to support one another and end some of the fear. I think that would help all areas of the city."



Another question... so soon?! And now definitely not on an issue touched on her platform... Penelope sucked in a deep breath. She needed to make sure she connected them correctly... all of her opponents were consistently beating her to the punch! But that was not necessarily a bad thing... better to say something firmly, and well, then to be the one blurting out sweet nothings. "While my platform does not specifically mention environmental awareness and sustainability, it is certainly an important issue and one espeecially significant to young people such as myself. I would hope that efforts to increase civic activity among the youth of Destiny City would include education of environmental awareness and discussion and projects dealing with increased sustainability. I know that many individuals--my fellow candidates, all of you in the audience, and even people not here tonight--are full of excellent ideas that could also be shared with students and children through open forum meetings or arranged field trips. I would not expect all of these to open up at once, of course... but the ooportunities must start somewhere."



Businesses now... there was no way for her to really address this one well, Penelope feared! But she directed her gaze appropriately and smiled, an open apology on her face and in her voice as she answered, "I am sorry to hear of your fear, although I certainly understand it. I'm afraid I don't know much about business... but I do hope that, through increased research and knowledge about the causes of these incidents, that we will be able to avoid more of them in the future."



A voiced concern about young people and not getting a voice? Now that was right up the girl's alley! Some of her confidence returned to her voice as she answered, "Thank you for raising this concern; it's really a large area of concern for me as well. If I am elected, I will create a forum for young people to share their opinions and to become more involved in their government. I hope to act as their representative, a person to whom they can direct their concerns and who can raise them to other council members. Everyone's thoughts and concerns should be considered, including those of young people like you and me."



Penelope considered the question regarding funding carefully. Her own answer might not be satisfactory, but it was all she could offer, "I think that increased education itself could be valuable. Asking all who have encounters to describe what occured, having professionals examine the crime scenes; I realize of course, that all of that would cost money and would take many years to establish correctly. I think one thing we can do immediately is to establish an emergency procedure to protect individuals, just as we do with weather warnings. Destiny City's citizens should be made aware of particularly dangerous sites of activity and be given plenty of warning to stay away from them in the event of an attack. We could modify existing procedures and alert systems for this purpose, which I don't think would cost much--if anything."



Now Penelope heard a voice she recognized, and a warm smile came unbidden to her face. Aurora... dutiful, wonderful friend that she had not seen for some time. Just knowing that her friend was out there in the audience made the butterflies in the girl's stomach die down a little. No, Aurora was not just there just to support her... but Penelope took comfort in her presence none the less. "As I just mentioned, I believe an emergency broadcast system of some sort to alert citizens to current dangers would be one way to increase safety. I also think that training our civic personel--policemen, EMTs, and others--in what knowledge we already have and will hopefully continue to gain could be helpful. As they say, knowing is half the battle--and that is the half we can help our citizens with."



After listening to Ms. Reeves take the microphone... Penelope could not help but bite her lip in a sign of nervousness, however small, before she forced herself to speak. On some level the woman was right. They could all make the promises that others wanted to hear. That didn't mean anything would change. Yet... what else could she do but answer the questions put before her? If the citizen's felt that someone as down-to-earth as Ms. Reeves was better suited... or even someone a bit more out there, like the Ms. Hayley Jones, ultimately all she could do was speak as best she could.

With this renewed vigor, she turned to the next question, "I think both of those are excellent questions, and I certainly don't mind you having a follow up! Admittedly, I don't have much political experience. I am a student in my final year at Crystal Academy, and I hope to ultimately pursue a career in library and information science. I have, however, been activiely involved in debate team while there... which means I have an understanding of verbage and can use that when speaking on the council. As for why I decided to run... truthfully, it's because of my experiences growing up here. I have seen much happen due to the threats facing our city, many of them affecting youth like myself. Yet, we are never asked how to address the problems we see and experience everyday. I wish to change that, to act as someone who other students and young people can look to and see as one of them--who looks like them, lives like them, knows what they are going through, so that they will feel comfortable in becoming involved."