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[Editorial] You Can Prevent A Genocide
Feb. 10th, 2011 12:38 am[Picked by the NY Times via blackmail and capitalizing on her assets.]
It’s time for heroes to stand up. Given the name under the title, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t just put out the call to one of the teams I’ve worked with over the years. The answer is simple. Even if every member answered, including the reservists, they wouldn’t be enough. We need you to take a stand with us. It won’t risk your life or your health. All it takes is for you to take the time to call or email your representatives.
If you’ve made it to the paragraph after that one, I salute you. We live in a world where we get bombarded by different people’s attempt to fight various problematic systems and they can be overwhelming. This is one situation that shouldn’t take any thought at all. We have a man in public office who authorized and designed weapons that attack individuals with a specific genetic code. That is to say, these are weapons specifically designed to commit genocide. I’ll give you a moment to process that.
The weapons are code named Sentinels. They specifically target people who carry the X gene. Some of you won’t have any problem with that. It’s easy to dismiss such weapons as a way to level the playing field against individuals with more power in their hand than an armed force. They also target mutants with no greater power than changing their skin color or growing fur as well as children and infants who haven’t manifested, let alone done anything wrong. There is no due process or equal protection. If you have the gene, you’re guilty.
Fear is still letting some of you justify this program established by Boliver Trask. Sentinels are comforting because a person can assume they’re guarded and held back. A weapon of last resort, much like a nuclear bomb. Do yourself a favor and google Trask’s statement about the fact Sentinels escaped his control and attacked a charity auction to help homeless children and a boarding school. The statment enraging in Trask's calm lack of guilt or concern for anything but a delay in further development of these genocidal weapons.
Imagine the outrage if it had been a more recognizable weapon of mass destruction that had be set off at either location. As a nation, we would have received a lot more than a half hearted non-apology and a brush off. We would have had his resignation and he would have had to face possible criminal charges for his negligence. Instead, he is allowed to keep his job and issue warrants for a list of individuals, at least two of whom have absolutely no criminal record. It takes no great leap to guess their own crime is the same genetic code he created weapons to eradicate.
This is why there is a need for heroes. More heroes than we can scrape together and put in spandex. As a nation, non-mutants need to say we will not abide a government sanctioned genocide because we are afraid. As a nation, we need to say we can understand why mutants may be angry because of and just as afraid of the sentinels as any non-powered person might be of a superhuman. Weapons that will blindly destroy children are terrifying and enraging.
As a nation of individuals, we need to make the calls and contacts to let the government that is supposed to be run by and for the people that we don’t like the way it’s being run. Be a hero. Make a call. Send the emails and the letters. Help make the change. Prove that the government can be changed and made better. Or at least don’t take part in a potential genocide by virtue of being silent. Your justification doesn’t matter as much as your action. Get Boliver Trask removed from office and the Sentinel project scrapped. Then you'll be my hero.
It’s time for heroes to stand up. Given the name under the title, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t just put out the call to one of the teams I’ve worked with over the years. The answer is simple. Even if every member answered, including the reservists, they wouldn’t be enough. We need you to take a stand with us. It won’t risk your life or your health. All it takes is for you to take the time to call or email your representatives.
If you’ve made it to the paragraph after that one, I salute you. We live in a world where we get bombarded by different people’s attempt to fight various problematic systems and they can be overwhelming. This is one situation that shouldn’t take any thought at all. We have a man in public office who authorized and designed weapons that attack individuals with a specific genetic code. That is to say, these are weapons specifically designed to commit genocide. I’ll give you a moment to process that.
The weapons are code named Sentinels. They specifically target people who carry the X gene. Some of you won’t have any problem with that. It’s easy to dismiss such weapons as a way to level the playing field against individuals with more power in their hand than an armed force. They also target mutants with no greater power than changing their skin color or growing fur as well as children and infants who haven’t manifested, let alone done anything wrong. There is no due process or equal protection. If you have the gene, you’re guilty.
Fear is still letting some of you justify this program established by Boliver Trask. Sentinels are comforting because a person can assume they’re guarded and held back. A weapon of last resort, much like a nuclear bomb. Do yourself a favor and google Trask’s statement about the fact Sentinels escaped his control and attacked a charity auction to help homeless children and a boarding school. The statment enraging in Trask's calm lack of guilt or concern for anything but a delay in further development of these genocidal weapons.
Imagine the outrage if it had been a more recognizable weapon of mass destruction that had be set off at either location. As a nation, we would have received a lot more than a half hearted non-apology and a brush off. We would have had his resignation and he would have had to face possible criminal charges for his negligence. Instead, he is allowed to keep his job and issue warrants for a list of individuals, at least two of whom have absolutely no criminal record. It takes no great leap to guess their own crime is the same genetic code he created weapons to eradicate.
This is why there is a need for heroes. More heroes than we can scrape together and put in spandex. As a nation, non-mutants need to say we will not abide a government sanctioned genocide because we are afraid. As a nation, we need to say we can understand why mutants may be angry because of and just as afraid of the sentinels as any non-powered person might be of a superhuman. Weapons that will blindly destroy children are terrifying and enraging.
As a nation of individuals, we need to make the calls and contacts to let the government that is supposed to be run by and for the people that we don’t like the way it’s being run. Be a hero. Make a call. Send the emails and the letters. Help make the change. Prove that the government can be changed and made better. Or at least don’t take part in a potential genocide by virtue of being silent. Your justification doesn’t matter as much as your action. Get Boliver Trask removed from office and the Sentinel project scrapped. Then you'll be my hero.
