Post by Nightcrawler on Mar 12, 2004 3:22:05 GMT -6
THE DAILY PLANET
The Mutant Menace, or Government Gone Mad?
By: Clark Kent
Photographs courtesy of Peter Parker
"...And that all those possessing the X-Gene shall according to this act, report themselves to the Mutant Registration Agency to be gathered into a holding facility, registered and processed as a Mutant known to the government of the United States of America."
At first glance I thought I was reading something out of a Ray Bradbury novel. Sadly no, the truth behind that quotation is much more horrifying.
Since this "merging" of our two worlds much chaos and confusion has beset the people of both our worlds. Up seemed to be Down, Left seemed to be right. But slowly we have all come together surviving this ordeal as best we can. Together.
I felt for a short while like things were almost right again, the good citizens of Metropolis and New York coming together in friendship and brotherhood. Then I saw a young child nearly stoned to death. An old man in the sewers nearly burned alive. A group of teenagers beaten, mobbed outside of town. What crimes did they commit? What transgressions? They were Mutants.
Some of you read that and nod approvingly, they got what they deserved. Those of you from my world may read that in confusion. On this other world there are people born different, without getting too technical, their simple genetic structure gives them powers. Sometimes they don't get powers, they simply get terrible physical deformations. They don't come from another planet, they didn't have nuclear waste fall on them, and they are not from some mystical ancient island where their powers derive from.
They are born that way.
As you and I are born the way we are, these mutants are born with these mutations. They cannot control them, they cannot be rid of them. It seems all they can do, is hide and hope they don't get dragged from their homes and killed by "normals".
When I first began looking into this story I uncovered the quotation the column opened with. It is an act of congress from the New York world. I stared at it in utter disbelieving shock. What I would have believed to be a proclamation of some dark evil villain was here right in front of me. A open public declaration of the Government of this fair country. Congressmen, Senators, the men you and I elect to serve us had passed this Mutant Registration Act apparently with good public support.
I don't know how much longer this merging will last, how much longer we will remain side by side. But I wont be leaving without saying my piece here on these pages.
Freedom , liberty. These are precious ideals. The ideals this country, in either reality, are based upon. Freedom is the hardest ideal to uphold. It is not simple, it is not easy, and it does not take well to being taken for granted. All of us are only as free as he who is enslaved in our society. When the very government we rely upon to protect us turns against its own citizens, for whatever the reason, not a single one of us is safe. Call it registration, containment.....it is still at its core enslavement.....imprisonment when no wrong has been transgressed.
These mutants are not evil. They are not the monstrosities everyone seems to believe. They are different yes, but different does not equate to evil by default. Are they evil because they can fly, because they can lift a car, because they can shoot red beams from their eyes.
I have a friend that does all those things. He has saved me and my world more times than I can count. His name is Superman, and if he is evil I don't want to know what you people call good.
I would like to end my column off with a quote of a much greater quality than the one that opened it. Hopefully everyone that reads this will take its words to heart.
It's from the constitution of the United States of America. The government I believe in.
"The right of citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged their civil rights by the United States or by any State on account of
Race, color, or previous condition of servitude--; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, "