Comm-Link:Congress Now - Mediation Hearing of Charon III

UEE CONGRESS (396)

2944-07-29 SET

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Proofed and Admitted –Archivist Yates (#57573BDF)

2944-07-29_13:31 – Session Begins

SPEAKER MARSHALL MADRIGAL (U-Borea-Magnus Sys): Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, so we can initiate a call.

SPEAKER MARSHALL MADRIGAL (U-Borea-Magnus Sys): As we have a quorum, we may now conduct business. I would like to recognize Dennis Yun, the Imperator’s Chief of Staff.

C.o.S. DENNIS YUN: Thank you, Speaker. Esteemed members of the Senate, we have a potential crisis on our hands. For months now, there has been a steady escalation of hostilities and isolated firefights between two states on Charon III. Imperator Costigan has expressed concern and wishes to defuse the situation before it gets worse. To that end, I have asked the two Governors to resolve their differences here today.

SPEAKER MARSHALL MADRIGAL (U-Borea-Magnus Sys): The Senate acknowledges Governor Armin Fordur of Acheron.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): Speaker and Senators, I thank you for this opportunity to speak.

SPEAKER MARSHALL MADRIGAL (U-Borea-Magnus Sys): The Senate acknowledges Governor Tarquin Klast of Dellin.

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): Thank you, Speaker.

C.o.S. DENNIS YUN: Thank you both for accepting our invitation. For the honorable senators who may not be as familiar with your situation, I would like to give each of you an opportunity to explain the growing tension between your two states. Governor Fordur, you may begin.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): My thanks, Mr. Yun. My good senators, the people of Acheron have a saying, “Right and easy are rarely the same thing.” Within our borders, we have endured both heartache and joy. Devastation, as seen in the earthquake of ’34, as well as triumph in the construction of the Phiyi Tower, widely considered to be one of the masterworks of Supermodernist architecture. We shouldered all of it for one reason: because we aspired to something right and good. So when our neighbors in the honorable state of Dellin began to falter, allowing a tyrant to usurp control of the government away from the people, we voiced our concern for their well-being. When this same tyrant instituted sweeping changes to consolidate his power and change the direction of their society, we felt obligated to step in. That is where we are now.

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): The Governor from Acheron has a gift of eloquence that has thankfully eluded me. I haven’t had the education that Governor Fordur has. My family came from nothing. I was raised with nothing. Anyone even loosely familiar with my homeworld knows the struggles that have plagued Dellin ever since the military closed down their bases after the fall of the Messers. Since then we have suffered disasters of cosmic and terrestrial origin, famine and decades of city wars that evolved into a system of government so riddled with corruption that the lawlessness of our past seemed preferable. We suffered in silence, without the aid of the other states on the planet, until the people had enough. From this frustration and anger, the people decided that there needed to be a change, a drastic fundamental change in the ‘accepted’ way of doing things. I was elected to pull our people onto a path. Now, as I mentioned before, I am not a particularly educated man, but I have read. I am not especially good at reading people. I think my real talent lies in understanding problems. That’s what is facing the state of Dellin, a problem that needs to be solved. That is what I have been doing, but now I have Acheron’s military massing in naked aggression along our borders.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): Mr. Yun, my advisers and myself have sent countless messages to Governor Klast asking for his abdication of power and returning it to the people.

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): The people put me in office. It is their benefit that I’m serving. I don’t understand why it should concern you.

C.o.S. DENNIS YUN: Governor Klast, what do you say to the allegations that you’ve removed any checks and balances that were meant to restrict the powers of your office?

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): I say that I absolutely did that.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): He admits it.

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): Yes, freely, because I realized very quickly that while most people will hope for change, a lot of people won’t give up what little they have to get it. I needed the flexibility to implement change in the government without worrying about a public losing its nerve when things did change. You said yourself, Governor, right and easy are rarely the same thing.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): I find it difficult to believe that restricting the privileges of civilians could ever be considered ‘right.’

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): I find it curious that you haven’t mentioned the message you initially sent me about joining the other governors to bid for planetary recognition. A message I also ignored. Only then, did the plight of my people become a concern.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): I sent no such message.

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): Naturally.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): I will not be slandered by a political predator and base opportunist. You have taken the voice of the people of Dellin. I aim to give it back to them.

GOVERNOR TARQUIN KLAST (CIII): The way your troops opened fire on the village of Dea Ruis? Six dead. Three times that wounded.

GOVERNOR ARMIN FORDUR (CIII): Don’t you dare talk about lives lost. What about Goshen Valley?

C.o.S. DENNIS YUN: Governors, please. Speaker Madrigal, I’d like to take a moment before we continue with the mediation.

SPEAKER MARSHALL MADRIGAL (U-Borea-Magnus Sys): This session will break for a ten minute recess.

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