Report #004 - Text, Video Linked --BACKDATED to the 17TH - PLOT COVERAGE!

[pluckyreporter]

[This post is preceded with some internet linkage; back to the Making an imPact site for Wayne Enterprises dealing with media and their upcoming work on a new-and-imPort information channel. This post is repeated under Roxanne Ritchi's section, on her development and new blog, titled FORMERLY NORMAL TO SUDDENLY SUPER. Sure, you can't comment on

Comments

text

[pluckyreporter]

I am speaking in hypothetical because I don't know who you are, what you're doing, or are your situation is, and doubt you'd tell me straight anyway. I am, after all, a servant of The Man, apparently.

I'm sorry, but it's not a 'game'. Not enough people are capable, in their teens, to take care of themselves. That's why the system exists. You can choose to be angry about it and do nothing, or you can choose to work with it -- or there are probably other things you can choose to do that involve less legal means, attempting to circumvent the system, ignoring the system, or even working to change the system.

But the truth of the matter is -- most people are not ready at 15, 17, or even 20, to be entirely independent of the family unit and manage on their own. Most teens and young people end up in poverty, or are preyed upon by criminal elements, abusive partners, and end up having children and perpetuating a cycle that traps their children in the same low standard of living.

I have no idea where you fit in this scale. I don't know what, if any, applies to you. Only you know that, and only you can decide what you're going to do about it.

text

[hells4children]

The problem here is that you think these young people fall into the patterns you see because they're incapable of taking care of themselves instead of recognizing that it's because the system failed them. The system was never trying to help them to begin with, it's been stacked against them from the start.

It is a game, the whole thing is. And if you don't know how to play it, it will break you. That's the game's purpose, unless you're the one in control of it.

Maybe you've come through with a silver spoon in your mouth and blinders on your eyes so you can't recognize this, but that's how it works. You're just on a more favored side of it. The fact that you honestly believe change can be affected from within betrays that fact. And you're trying to tell me that I'm the naive one?

I've got a friend who's barely older than eighteen who knows it better than you ever could. See, she's one of the people the system failed. Dad was a thief, ran out when she was a kid, so when her mom died, she had little choice but to follow in his footsteps. Only given it up more recently, and it wasn't your precious system that helped there. So who's the failure in this situation? Do you want to tell me it's her fault she had to steal to survive?

text

[pluckyreporter]

There are people on both sides of the equation. Certainly the system fails young people -- and old people, and middle-age people. All systems fail eventually, somewhere, because there is no perfect system. Or rather, there is no system that can withstand people being added to it. Nearly everything is 'perfect' until you add one human to the mix, who has a different idea of how the system should work then the other human in the system.

I'm not suggesting you're naive -- I can see that you're cynical in a way I have never quite been able to attain, and don't have any desire to become. Am I aware of my WASP privilege in my personal knapsack of bonuses to being a white female raised in a good neighborhood? Yes. Am I aware that racism isn't dead in the world? Certainly. Does that mean that I believe that all is lost for anyone who isn't me? No.

I refuse to embrace your nihilism of 'there can be no change' simply because to give in to that sort of despair is to simply quit and accept that the system is going to grind everyone up and spit them out. I am unwilling to simply surrender my hope for a better tomorrow because someone told me it didn't work for them, or someone they know.

I'm afraid, however, at this point I am very done arguing. While I understand your perspective -- it's not one I choose to embrace. I'd rather hope that things can get better, that communities can work for positive change, rather then wallow in the idea that everything I do is going to be dictated to me by what I was born to, as opposed to who I am and who I have worked to become.

Yes, I believe that ideally, young people will get a strong support system of their choosing, if possible, and grow up to be healthy, well adjusted adults that can contribute to their community as their community gave to them. For imPorts, that means mentors, the right guardians or friends, and some dedicated blended families, so they have those same opportunities to not have to go it alone if they don't want, and safety nets in place if they do, and find they get in over their heads.

text

[hells4children]

Remember what you said about listening? I'm so glad to find how sincere you were being with that, because from where I'm sitting, it looks like the only thing you're listening to is the sound of your own voice. I guess no one ever taught you that brevity is the source of wit.

But, you see, all those multitude of bullshit words you just typed are basically meaningless, since they're hinging on a massive misreading of what I said. No one mentioned quitting until you brought it up.

What I did say is that trying to change the system from within is an idiotic waste of time. And I'm not saying that as someone lacking experience with it, as you may have been inclined to believe. All working the inside will achieve is making you an insider, it will change you instead of the vice versa you want. What you're missing is that doesn't mean change is impossible, it just means you have to find a better approach.

Are you aware of your privilege in this situation? That's great, just perfect! Does that excuse the way you're letting it color your opinions? Abso-fucking-lutely not. If I'm calling you naive, saying you've got blinders on, it's because you're talking like it. So, really, do whatever you want, but keep your nice, sugarcoated "good intentions" to yourself. We don't want them.

text

[pluckyreporter]

I said I was done arguing. Not listening.

At this point, I am merely coming to the comm to bang my head against the proverbial wall because apparently we don't speak the same language from the same place.

If you wish to have civil discourse, on what you'd like to see done, how you'd like to see it done -- we can get back to that. But all I'm getting is 'you're wrong' rather then 'I think you're coming from the wrong place, this is the alternative I think is better'.

So, enlighten me - how do you fix a broken system externally? How do you know what's really wrong with it without looking at it from the inside? How do you know how to fix it without opening it up on some level? What would you do?

text

[hells4children]

So, what you're saying is you're getting frustrated because the discourse is no longer playing out on your terms, so you'd rather we recenter it in a way that makes you comfortable. Yeah, I'm not feeling it.

You want some detailed outline, a plan of action, you'll have to look elsewhere. I never show my hand when the cards are still being dealt.

text

[pluckyreporter]

So you'll detail how everything is wrong, but you won't offer alternative solutions.

Yep, I'd rather be naive then cynical.

text

[hells4children]

And this is why, because you think the fact that I'm not talking about ways to fix it suddenly invalidates everything I'm saying.

Your whole approach to this discussion is entirely disingenuous. Kindly fuck yourself, madam.

text;

[pluckyreporter]

Yup, there's the response that'll get you taken seriously as an adult.

Good luck out there. You're going to need it.

text;

[hells4children]

On the list of things I'm worried about, being taken seriously by a ditzy journalist who doesn't know the first thing about the subject she's reporting on doesn't even rank.

[ things that however should maybe be on it but aren't are: THE POSSIBILITY THAT PEOPLE THINK I'M A TOOL ]