On the Doctor's recommendation...

[x_maker]

It was mentioned to me that Monday is the memorial of what the news likes to call the "Columbia Mutant Massacre". I'm learning that some people here were actually there, and from what I'm hearing, actually involved.

When it happened, I was in the third hospital in three days, getting passed around from trauma center to trauma center when my blood work came back as x-gene positive. Hospitals kept saying that they didn't have the necessary precautions to treat a mutant trauma victim.

They didn't let me have TV until a week or so after, and by that time the news stations wouldn't show the footage of what happened except in little three-second edited-for-prime-time sound bites. But there was the guy talking on Crossfire, I can't remember his name although I could probably look it up. The "Friends of Humanity" guy. Saying that this was a sign of things to come. Advocating camps, roundups, registration only being the beginning. Couching everything in terms of public safety.

I'd only been a mutant for a week as far as I knew, and I was already part of a public menace. Through physical therapy and all the subsequent visits to specialists and stuff, I kept getting looked as a mutant first, and as a patient second. So when they let me have a computer again, I got in touch with some people on the mutant rights websites and started learning as much as I could. By the way, there's a lot of good literature out there if anyone's interested.

What I'm saying is that I wasn't there at Columbia, and I can't pretend to empathize with what anyone here went through because of it - but outside of here in the rest of the world, it was kind of a watershed event for the mutant rights community. Most of the websites have a "Remember Columbia" banner of some sort, still.

I'm told there's a club for mutant rights that some of you belong to that does little fundraisers and benefits and stuff like that. If you're interested in getting a bit more active and political than a mutant bake sale, I think I could get on board with that.

I guess we've all got to find our causes.

Comments

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

I still have problems comprehending the venom some people spit out at mutants in this country. You would never see this sort of hatred and anger in Japan. Send the X-Men to Tokyo, and half the populace will be slipping them their cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. (I think it's because we have this obsession with the future and what's coming next, and that includes genetics. Mutants are fashionable.)

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

What gets my goat is that if someone went around and said any of this stuff about any other group (except queers, because we're special), then they would be branded a bigot and face crazy public outcry. When you call mutants animals and say that we deserve to be arrested, tortured, and eliminated? That's absolutely fine and acceptable, so go ahead and say it. Say that about black people, though, or Asians or Hispanics and you'll be treated worse than any leper in the Bible. And it's the exact same thing with fuckers like Jerry Falwell saying that I'm going to burn forever because I'm gay. He gets to say that without the country screaming back at him.

Moral of the story? People suck.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Historically, they did. It's ingrained xenophobia - only in our case, we're legitimately "xeno-". When the gay rights movement was getting started, they didn't have to deal with Elton John trying to blow up the Statue of Liberty, mind you.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

No, but we had riots of our own. Ever heard of Stonewall? Cops pissed off a whole bunch off drunk drag queens and had to deal with them for half a week.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Columbia can become to mutant rights what Stonewall was to the gay rights movement - something to rally around. A sort of "Look, we're here, get used to us" - but as long as people look at it in the same light as the stuff that happened at the Statue of Liberty (was that five years ago? I can't remember) - they're going to look at us like a threat.

It's why I want to see what Amanda has to say to them. It'll be important.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

I thought that was much more recent than that. Only two or two and a half years ago.

Ha, no pressure to Amanda, right?

[xp_daytripper]

*wry grin* Thanks, boys. When I have my nervous breakdown I'll know where to send the psych bill, yeah? ;)

What I'm going to say... I hope it sounds all right. Strange says it's a good speech, but there's bits I can't talk about, given the whole connection with certain people and the fact no-one's going to believe me if I tell them the people who attacked Columbia were from a former government black ops program designed to turn mutants into weapons. Hopefully missing that part isn't going to matter, even tho' it's a perfect example of where talks of camps and registration and the like end up.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Just had a talk with one of the teachers on that very same subject, actually. Would you mind if I took a look at that speech? May get a few ideas myself.

[xp_daytripper]

Yeah, sure. If you promise not to complain about my handwriting too much. And I could do with talkign this over with someone who doesn't think I'm a crazy suicidal idiot.

[x-mirage.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to say, Hahkota.

I didn't know. I just...I don't know.

I don't want to beleive things are like this. but they are. and I hate it.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

I think you saw enough with the other weekend. There's a lot of people out there like Sheldon. Not everyone - thinking that way leads down a pretty dark road - but there's a lot of them.

[x-mirage.livejournal.com]

he knew I was a mutant when we were dating.

it's amazing what being in control of your powers can do to a relationship. and losing control.

but you know, if he couldn't handle this, then he wouldn't've been able to handle anythign else either.

[xp_daytripper]

It's not the way things are everywhere, Dani. I lived for a couple of years in a place in England called Brighton, where basically the only thing that matters is that you don't go around stomping on other people's rights to be or do anything. Sort of 'my right to wave my fist ends at someone else's nose'. But yeah, lots of mutants there, and while there were some FoH wankers who tried to stir up trouble sometimes, they mainly got laughed at. Hell, I used to make a living doing glamours for uni kids who wanted to look like mutants for the free mutant club nights - fur, horns, tails, wings, funny colours...

Brighton's in the minority, I know, but it just goes to show that all thise shite isn't inevitable. People can be decent and tolerant, if they're taught to be.

Of course, then you have the bother boys in London who used to roll homeless mutant kids for shits and giggles, and the police used to just look the other way. And the foster families who used to freak out at the first sign I wasn't a normal kid. *shrugs* Works both ways.

[x-mirage.livejournal.com]

Brighton sounds cool.

the problem is that people don't know better and it's easy to fear what you don't understand. I was thinking about it. Shel knew I was a mutant, but he didn't hate me until he feared me. but I remember, the fear came first. I was so nutty at the time (as compared to now) that I barely registered it.

[xp_daytripper]

All the more reason for people to get used to seeing mutants around not being scary. Yeah, accidents happen with powers, same as accidents happen with cars adn the like, but there's lots more mutants out there that don't go boom in spectacular ways. If people realised that, maybe they wouldn't be as scared. That's waht the whole idea behind HeliX is - people getting the chance to see we don't all want to enslave humanity or level city blocks when we sneeze.