And Now, a Moment of Politics
Feb. 8th, 2006 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaGALVESTON, TX - All across America, these small, tightly-knit, even secretive communities are still reeling from the sudden blow delivered to them by the President's State of the Union address last week. "You just can't imagine how much we're suffering," sobbed Juliana Piscetes, 23, from this little sandbar at the mouth of Texas's busiest bay. "I mean, we were decimated by Katrina, and then the double blow of Rita, and now this - now we feel even more like we have to hide."
Joseph Tailfeather, 46, from a similar community near the great seas of grass in West Texas, agrees. "It's one thing to ignore us. That's a live-and-let-live attitude, for us, after everything else that's been heaped on us historically. But to suggest that we shouldn't be having children, that there's something unethical about our very creation - that just hits below the girth straps."
And it's not just the beleaguered merfolk communities or the historically oppressed centaurs speaking out. "At least they have traditionally decent relationships with the whole-men, as we call them," said one minotaur who asked to remain anonymous. "We've always known that you wanted to wipe us out. So, emotionally, it's probably a greater shock to them. But we're more than willing to welcome all of us who fall into the category of human-animal hybrids - not just them, but the nagas, the tengu, the sphinxes and lammasu, everyone - into the Hybrid Anti-Defamation And Protection League." The spokesbull denied the charge that HADAPL is anti-human. "We just want the same legal protections and access to the same affirmative action remedies that other historically oppressed peoples have recently gained access to. The rumor that we eat human children is, of course, completely untrue."
Ms. Piscetes would prefer to stay away from organizations that incorporate the fiercer human-animal combinations. "I mean, HADAPL is practically run by the werewolf/werecoyote special interests. What do they know about the dangers of sharks, hurricanes, and international shipping?" Still, she has recently applied for membership. "They're really the only multi-species organization out there. And it's obvious that the mermaid lobby hasn't made any impact on its own." She shakes her head as she spreads her flukes on the granite blocks at the base of the Seawall. "I mean, I wish they could see that we're all Yemaya's children, and we should all learn to get along. Everything came from the sea originally. Is it too much to ask for us to all swim together?"
Another powerful lobby agrees with her - whole-men and -women, every one of them. "It's really discouraging to have one's research cut off just at its most promising point," complains Allison Norse, 28, of Houston's FACADE Labs. "In fact, the most common interpretation of the President's message is not just that we can't expect governmental funding - which we'd all sort of resigned ourselves to - but that he actively wants to make our work illegal. Well," she modifies, as a creature that resembles a winged monkey with squidlike tentacles climbs up her desk, "at least our work involving human or modified-human tissue. Although I can't imagine Mr. Bush would be too thrilled about Tsoggi here, either." When asked what her lab would be doing now, she waved at the computer banks. "We'll have to focus on our nonhuman projects and settle for computer modeling of our human and mod-human ones. At least, for now. Here. While anyone's looking. Oh, and here's one of our plant experiments. Would you like to smell the flowers?" When our reporter woke up, he was sprawled on the bench outside with grass stains on his tie and the lab was closed, with a large "Pardon our dust while we remodel" sign posted across the door. But the potential damage, not just to small communtities but to large industries, is clear.
Joseph Tailfeather, 46, from a similar community near the great seas of grass in West Texas, agrees. "It's one thing to ignore us. That's a live-and-let-live attitude, for us, after everything else that's been heaped on us historically. But to suggest that we shouldn't be having children, that there's something unethical about our very creation - that just hits below the girth straps."
And it's not just the beleaguered merfolk communities or the historically oppressed centaurs speaking out. "At least they have traditionally decent relationships with the whole-men, as we call them," said one minotaur who asked to remain anonymous. "We've always known that you wanted to wipe us out. So, emotionally, it's probably a greater shock to them. But we're more than willing to welcome all of us who fall into the category of human-animal hybrids - not just them, but the nagas, the tengu, the sphinxes and lammasu, everyone - into the Hybrid Anti-Defamation And Protection League." The spokesbull denied the charge that HADAPL is anti-human. "We just want the same legal protections and access to the same affirmative action remedies that other historically oppressed peoples have recently gained access to. The rumor that we eat human children is, of course, completely untrue."
Ms. Piscetes would prefer to stay away from organizations that incorporate the fiercer human-animal combinations. "I mean, HADAPL is practically run by the werewolf/werecoyote special interests. What do they know about the dangers of sharks, hurricanes, and international shipping?" Still, she has recently applied for membership. "They're really the only multi-species organization out there. And it's obvious that the mermaid lobby hasn't made any impact on its own." She shakes her head as she spreads her flukes on the granite blocks at the base of the Seawall. "I mean, I wish they could see that we're all Yemaya's children, and we should all learn to get along. Everything came from the sea originally. Is it too much to ask for us to all swim together?"
Another powerful lobby agrees with her - whole-men and -women, every one of them. "It's really discouraging to have one's research cut off just at its most promising point," complains Allison Norse, 28, of Houston's FACADE Labs. "In fact, the most common interpretation of the President's message is not just that we can't expect governmental funding - which we'd all sort of resigned ourselves to - but that he actively wants to make our work illegal. Well," she modifies, as a creature that resembles a winged monkey with squidlike tentacles climbs up her desk, "at least our work involving human or modified-human tissue. Although I can't imagine Mr. Bush would be too thrilled about Tsoggi here, either." When asked what her lab would be doing now, she waved at the computer banks. "We'll have to focus on our nonhuman projects and settle for computer modeling of our human and mod-human ones. At least, for now. Here. While anyone's looking. Oh, and here's one of our plant experiments. Would you like to smell the flowers?" When our reporter woke up, he was sprawled on the bench outside with grass stains on his tie and the lab was closed, with a large "Pardon our dust while we remodel" sign posted across the door. But the potential damage, not just to small communtities but to large industries, is clear.
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