(CSPAN coverage of the Special Session on Mutants July 5, 2000*)
(Ambasador Saotome Ranma is taking the podium, gesturing Dr. Jean Grey** back
to do so.  Senator Kelly is ranting.)

SR:	Senator Kelly, the only thing that keeps that little girl from walking
	into a bank vault is the same thing that keeps me from killing all of
	you.

	Herself.

Kelly:	I don't think you could . . .

(his bluster is cut off by the sudden sound of gunfire, as Saotome's hands
blur.  They stop, the left pointing a large automatic pistol at the Senator.
One can tell from the lump on the front of the slide that it is one of the
many Dark Kindom designs that fire paint rounds as well as more lethal
ammunition)

	If I'd wanted to, I would have just killed all of the security people
	in the room.  I could pick all of you off before the guards outside
	could come in to stop me.

(she pauses, and in a quick, fluid, loud one-handed gesture changes the clip
in the right hand gun and drops the slide.  Kelly gulps.  We flash to a
different camera for an instant, which is watching one of the security people,
who's chest is covered in green paint, and is held in a loose grip by a large
youkai***)

SR:	That is if I didn't have my King's permission to try and pound some
	sense into your collective heads.

(Ranma glares around the room, the gun in her right hand disappearing)

	This is _stupid_.  These mutants are your own people, like your
	queers, like your people of color, like your own pointy-headed self,
	Senator Kelly.

	Would you rob a bank, Senator?

(Kelly shakes his head)

	Even if you were dirt-poor, as one can now only be in the US?

(Kelly blinks, starts to shake his head, pauses on seeing Ranma's finger
tighten a tiny bit, thinks for a few moments, then shakes his head again.)

	Why not?

Kelly:	Because it isn't right.

SR:	Tell the truth, Senator.

Kelly:	Because it would be embarassing!  It wouldn't fit within the image I
	hold as a Senator of the United States of America.

SR:	But you will, without even having met this girl, assume that she
	doesn't have even that much of a reason not to?

	Some people may abuse their powers, but this kind of treatment will
	not help prevent it, any more than your earlier drug policies helped
	keep people off of them.

	I think you are just trying to find a new scapegoat, since the queers,
	the druggies, and the commies are no longer acceptable targets, and
	the EDT means that if you villify the Dark Kingdom you will be left to
	your own devices so long as your government stands.

	Can you give me a good reason not to think this, Senator?

Kelly:	I . . .

(long shot of Kelly looking flustered.  Looong shot)

SR:	So, just drop this.  Mutation is a natural part of evolution, and some
	of these mutants will be much higher-function than an untrained human.
	With training, some of them may even reach my level****.  Many of them
	will be severely impaired by their mutation, however, and will need
	special training and support to prevent those needs from overpowering
	their ingrained better natures.

	First and foremost, however, is the fact that they are people, the
	ones you will mostly be dealing with are Americans, born and raised in
	this country, with all of the good things and bad things that tend to
	go with it.

	These are your citizens, and if it is not perfectly fine to
	exhaustively register everyone, it is not perfectly fine to
	exhaustively register someone because they are a mutant.

	If you are a mutant, and the government of the US cannot or will not
	put an end to the current campains of terror and intimidation, the
	Dark Kingdom accepts all comers, under the same Rules and the same
	recommendations.

	Thank you.

(Ranma disappears the moment she says that, and the cameras switch quickly a
couple times, revealing that the rest of the Dark Kingdom personnel in the
room have vanished as well)
(Dr. Grey steps forward)

Grey:	I hadn't expected that, and appologize for any inconvienience I may
	have caused.

(Dr. Grey bows slightly to the room, then turns and walks from the dias)


 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*	The US clung to the Gregorian calendar until 3178 [2012], at which
	point they gave into the global pressure and modernized.
**	Not a Ctholon, despite the name.
***	native of Wonderland, one of the fourty-seven identified subspecies of
	human to have evolved over the last twenty million years on the high
	magical radiation world.
****	proving, to many, her overbearing arrogance.  However, her comment was
	unvarnished truth ^_^

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log:
3166/last half:		plotted
3167/Chaos/36:		written
3169/Discord/15:	modded