Rinoa Heartilly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
angelo_wings) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhighdorms2012-02-28 03:10 am
angelo_wings) wrote in fandomhighdorms2012-02-28 03:10 am
Anarchist Philanthropy Club, Tuesday After Classes
This week, it wasn't the usual non-leaders coordinating (but not leading, how bourgeois) proceedings from the clandestine location that only members knew (that was perhaps just a classroom, but it was a clandestine classroom, okay?) Instead, it was a dark-haired girl who had several crates stacked behind her.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Rinoa Heartilly, and I'm in this group but I don't remember to come every week. That's because I've been working on something. It's something big, and it's kind of related to what we're doing here, so I asked Jim if I could borrow this meeting to ask for your help."
Also, Jim didn't need to hand the meeting over to her, since it was more of an autonomous collective that he and Britta coordinated, but someone had to coordinate or nothing would get done, right? She was going to assume that was understood.
"Back home, about twenty years ago, Galbadia invaded its tiny southern neighbor, Timber." She paused to hold a hand up. "I promise this is all relevant. Timber has been under martial law ever since. Most Timbrans join underground movements to fight Galbadia, and a lot of Galbadians spoke out against Galbadia's actions, as well. And those people were either executed or thrown in prison, because crazed dictators aren't too fond of dissent."
She sighed. "There were so many arrests that they built a new prison, the D-District. It was just for political prisoners at first, but over time it added overflow from other prisons, usually for their worst offenders. And 'political prisoner' already runs the spectrum from violent terrorist splinter groups who blow up a train in the name of a free Timber to someone who wrote a newspaper article attacking the president once -- they'd be in adjacent cells, right next to a serial killer whose home prison didn't have room for him. To top it all off, the D-District is legendary for its human rights abuses. I've seen the torture rooms myself."
She gave that a moment to let it sink in, and fought the small twist of nausea at the memory.
"President Deling, the crazed dictator in question, is dead. Acting President Caraway, his replacement, isn't a crazed dictator. He's actually a reasonable man, despite the fact that he's in charge right now, and I believe we can trust him, for ... various reasons." She played idly with the rings around her neck before continuing. "The anarchist in me wants to go in there, guns blazing, and break everyone people out instead of working with Galbadia, but the pragmatist thinks maybe there's a way we can do this without any loss of life. Maybe I'm delusional. We can talk about that, too, if you guys want."
This place seemed like a great place to discuss philosophy, especially the intersection of anarchy with philanthropy, and which won out.
"Anyway. Caraway stopped the abuses, and is making sure the prisoners are treated humanely. He is working to shut down D-District. He is committed to the immediate release of every nonviolent political prisoner, and is open to an honest discussion about the release of every violent political prisoner. This is a real, concrete thing. We can get those brave fighters out of a hellhole that they honestly believed they would die in."
Which was kind of amazing.
"The only hold-up right now is that the record-keeping system is a nightmare. No one in charge bothered, because prisoners going into the D-District weren't ever coming back out. There are scraps of paper, half-filed notes, additions scrawled in the margins. There is no comprehensive database of who is where. Caraway isn't willing to open the doors and release everyone carte blanche, especially since some of the people in D-District aren't even political prisoners, but violent offenders who would be a danger to society."
She indicated the crates behind her. "This is where I came in, a couple of months ago. I have been trying to sort these papers into some kind of a system. It's slow going, and it's tedious work, but I'm making progress. I'll make more if I have help. I also know that a lot of you might not agree with this, since we're working with the government that oppressed them in the first place, or because you disagree with the prison culture in whole, or -- if you have ideological issues, or you just don't want to do paperwork, that's totally fine. But if you want to help me, there are real people out there that this would make a huge difference to. I think that's all I wanted to say."
(![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
answer2bheard asked me to post something and BEHOLD, IT IS SOMETHING. Jim modded with her permission. OCD incoming!)
"Hi," she said. "I'm Rinoa Heartilly, and I'm in this group but I don't remember to come every week. That's because I've been working on something. It's something big, and it's kind of related to what we're doing here, so I asked Jim if I could borrow this meeting to ask for your help."
Also, Jim didn't need to hand the meeting over to her, since it was more of an autonomous collective that he and Britta coordinated, but someone had to coordinate or nothing would get done, right? She was going to assume that was understood.
"Back home, about twenty years ago, Galbadia invaded its tiny southern neighbor, Timber." She paused to hold a hand up. "I promise this is all relevant. Timber has been under martial law ever since. Most Timbrans join underground movements to fight Galbadia, and a lot of Galbadians spoke out against Galbadia's actions, as well. And those people were either executed or thrown in prison, because crazed dictators aren't too fond of dissent."
She sighed. "There were so many arrests that they built a new prison, the D-District. It was just for political prisoners at first, but over time it added overflow from other prisons, usually for their worst offenders. And 'political prisoner' already runs the spectrum from violent terrorist splinter groups who blow up a train in the name of a free Timber to someone who wrote a newspaper article attacking the president once -- they'd be in adjacent cells, right next to a serial killer whose home prison didn't have room for him. To top it all off, the D-District is legendary for its human rights abuses. I've seen the torture rooms myself."
She gave that a moment to let it sink in, and fought the small twist of nausea at the memory.
"President Deling, the crazed dictator in question, is dead. Acting President Caraway, his replacement, isn't a crazed dictator. He's actually a reasonable man, despite the fact that he's in charge right now, and I believe we can trust him, for ... various reasons." She played idly with the rings around her neck before continuing. "The anarchist in me wants to go in there, guns blazing, and break everyone people out instead of working with Galbadia, but the pragmatist thinks maybe there's a way we can do this without any loss of life. Maybe I'm delusional. We can talk about that, too, if you guys want."
This place seemed like a great place to discuss philosophy, especially the intersection of anarchy with philanthropy, and which won out.
"Anyway. Caraway stopped the abuses, and is making sure the prisoners are treated humanely. He is working to shut down D-District. He is committed to the immediate release of every nonviolent political prisoner, and is open to an honest discussion about the release of every violent political prisoner. This is a real, concrete thing. We can get those brave fighters out of a hellhole that they honestly believed they would die in."
Which was kind of amazing.
"The only hold-up right now is that the record-keeping system is a nightmare. No one in charge bothered, because prisoners going into the D-District weren't ever coming back out. There are scraps of paper, half-filed notes, additions scrawled in the margins. There is no comprehensive database of who is where. Caraway isn't willing to open the doors and release everyone carte blanche, especially since some of the people in D-District aren't even political prisoners, but violent offenders who would be a danger to society."
She indicated the crates behind her. "This is where I came in, a couple of months ago. I have been trying to sort these papers into some kind of a system. It's slow going, and it's tedious work, but I'm making progress. I'll make more if I have help. I also know that a lot of you might not agree with this, since we're working with the government that oppressed them in the first place, or because you disagree with the prison culture in whole, or -- if you have ideological issues, or you just don't want to do paperwork, that's totally fine. But if you want to help me, there are real people out there that this would make a huge difference to. I think that's all I wanted to say."
(
answer2bheard asked me to post something and BEHOLD, IT IS SOMETHING. Jim modded with her permission. OCD incoming!)