pillars of salt and sand | {izar v salazar v irvine debate}

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

SHIV IRVINE

Think back on a time when you experienced great difficulty. How did you get through it?

The question is a frustrating one, if she's being honest with herself. Not the kind of question that she has any real interest in answering; she does not want to talk about the things that have made her broken, the things that have split her into smaller pieces of herself, the things that she has had to pick herself up in the aftermath of and try to be something stronger. She wants to talk about her plans, the things that she sees for the future of Nine.

But it's the one that has been asked of her, and she has never been one to back down from a challenge.

If they want to make this a debate about the things that have made them weaker, then she will turn them into things that have made her stronger. She'll use them to win sympathy, she supposes.

"I'll not pretend that I've experienced no hardships in my life," she begins, knowing that her voice is being recorded and broadcast not just here in Nine, but in Eleven and Seven as well. A strange thought, that this nation of theirs would allow such inter-district communication, but she will take what she can. "As some are aware of, my husband Elijah died in an accident at the refinery only just a few months ago now. Gone before we got the chance to build a family of our own, before we could share our lives together fully. At a young age, my sister and I's were responsible for our own well-being, both of our parents dying before we were able to finish school." She inhales, purses her lips, lets all of the pain roll off of her. "But worse than all of that, as painful as it all was and still is, the greatest difficulty has and always will be the ways in which I was met with doubt at every step in my career."

She squares her shoulders, on a stride.

"Working as a scientist in the refinery was a job dominated by men, and with every step up the ladder that I earned, it was met with constant jockeying, the people around me thinking that I couldn't do the job as well as someone else, namely a man, would have been able to do it." She pauses, thinking again of the question. "As to how I got through it, well. It involved a great deal of dedication, letting myself believe in myself and reminding myself that I was the best person for the job, and no one could convince me otherwise. I've been met with not dissimilar doubt from some people here in Nine, businessmen trying to buy my support, or worse buy me out of the race, but I've handled it the same way I handled it then: by continuing to prove that I am the best person to do this job."

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

V A S C O

"I’d like to start by saying to Ms. Irvine, I’m sorry for your loss.” What little I knew of nine were from whispers of how they’d descended into riots not long ago. A few years prior, I would’ve been conditioned to think about the troublemakers who saw it as an opportunity to smash windows, take what they could and hurt who they wanted, all the while putting the consequences on good, working people of the district.

But now?

They spoke an anguish all too familiar. One that reminded me a bit of property damage and a few lost days did not make up for the eighty-five years of oppression we’d suffered.

“You said a good deal about what makes me afraid for not just my district, but our country, too.” Was Olivia watching? Was the council listening? I held the phone receiver close and could feel my heart beating through my chest. Would Katelyn be disappointed in me?

“I wake up every morning thinking about my youngest daughter, Yani – she’s about nine, now – and the sort of things that she’ll have to face. Men who’ll pick her apart for how she talks, how she looks, or the way she carries herself. I hope she can look to people like you as an example, Ms. Irvine.” The Irvines had a name around their necks much like the Izars. Shiv was stepping into a spotlight I hoped would guide her, rather than cause a retreat.

“That’s my greatest hardship, one that for me brings together all of our stories. It’s not my own family’s tragedies, or the difficulties I’ve faced this past term. And believe you me, I’ve seen a few.” I could still picture Sampson’s face when he turned to watch me on the stage before the explosives had gone off. Satisfaction that he’d capture their attention, one way or another.

“We have to ask ourselves, how am I ever to provide a better world for my daughter, for all your sons and daughters, each of us? And I don’t mean to be pedantic, but it’s what keeps me awake each night.”

“So each morning for the past five years, I did my best to invest in people, and our district. To show them that competing with each other has not made us better, but that when we put aside our differences and stop sweating the small stuff, we open up a fountain of ideas, and possibility. It's why I've even visited other districts, to bridge the divide.”

A leap of faith.

Somehow, District Eleven had taken one with me, and even after five years of strife, had decided after looking at the distance, was worth taking again. I could’ve stayed the course, bettered what I could, and stepped aside. Let someone else raise their voice and protect my family from any more hardship.

But if I didn’t raise my voice now, with all that I had, with the world so close to where we could be, who would?

“It’s why tonight, I’d pledge to work openly and without hesitation with my fellow mayors from seven and nine. That the next five years for me are about not one, two, or five districts, but twelve. To tear down what divides us, y juntos, together, we’ll rise to find a better day.” It was amazing how freeing doing the right thing could feel.

elegant