Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2003-11-16 11:57 pm
edenfalling) wrote2003-11-16 11:57 pm
Entry tags:
[Fic] "Reflections of an American Auror" -- Harry Potter
A temporary fit of qualified patriotism, otherwise known as my 15-minute fic for this week. These things are like crack, I swear to God. Worse than gummi bears (which are the most addictive substance known to humankind).
So, here we have an American perspective on the Voldemort situation after the attack on the Ministry of Magic in OoP.
---------------------------------------------
Reflections of an American Auror
---------------------------------------------
"A chicken in the pot every Sunday." That's what McKinley ran on when he got himself elected President, or so my grandmother (and the history books) always said. And I used to think, what earthly good does a chicken do in a pot? You want to roast or fry it, silly!
Of course, in these times we have chickens to spare and it was years before anyone explained soup stock to me. Made a lot more sense then. If you only get a chicken once a week, you'd want to stretch it as far as you could.
My family's always been good at stretching things and making do. That's who we are. And yeah, my family voted for McKinley. Of course, back then the Republicans were still progressives of sorts, and we all vote Democrat or independent now, but we're all about spreading the wealth, serving the community, keeping things in order. You know me; just extrapolate from there. I'm the mild one, really.
But that quality, that need to serve, makes it damned hard to be a witch. Closing a whole world off from other people, keeping magic that could save thousands of lives, transportation methods that would make waste grains in the US worth shipping to starving people in Africa, ways to see the future... what right do we have to hide that? Aren't we all as bad as Voldemort in some ways?
We hear the news from England in the office. These days it's dark, and it only gets darker. There are times I start to feel at home in this crazy world I fell into the year I turned eleven, and then I hear about a madman pulling a whole nation into terrorist warfare and the only hopes of stopping him rest on an old man and a sixteen year old boy. Madness.
And of course they won't ask for international help. Oh no. They won't ask for humanitarian aid. No, not that either. "Stiff upper lip" and all that. Must keep our British pride. They're all mad, if you ask me.
We've never had much trouble with pureblood ideology over here. Totally antithetical to what the country stands for, to start with, and to end with, we simply have too many different magical traditions rubbing against each other. We have our racial problems, our Asian vs. European vs. African vs. Native American system problems, our "how shall we educate the children" problems, but purity of blood? You'd be laughed out of town.
I still think the English are all mad.
Honestly, how hard is it to let everyone get along? You don't want to associate with people, then don't. You don't have to kill them. There's more than enough to go around, particularly in our world, with so many resources for so few people. Give the purebloods their chicken on Sunday, and give one to the Muggle-born wizards too. What harm could it do?
Purebloods want to rule the people. Well, in America, we don't rule the people. We serve the people. And serving the people doesn't mean locking them up in camps (though we've done that, I know) or enslaving them (though we've done that too) or killing them out of hand (which, unfortunately, we've also done a little). But the thing is, we stopped. We admitted we were wrong. And you know, we get on a lot better now without all the fear and the death, Muggle and magical. Thank God for Lincoln and the sixties, I say.
Serve the people. Don't kill them. Kill the chickens, and give everyone soup instead. Hell, at the very least, everyone will get a good dinner on Sundays.
Lydia C. Winter, Auror
Federal Bureau of Magical Investigations
excerpted from a letter to her Muggle fiancé, Brian Biedryzycki
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 16 November 2003![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
15minuteficlets word: chicken
Further news: in a shocking development, it turns out that we don't have a VCR in the house. This is bad, since I need to watch some videos for my film course on the Holocaust. Chris tells me, however, that one of the university libraries has TVs set up for people to watch videos. *big sigh of relief*
Really, though... we have the technology to support really complicated video games, including some sort of Final Fantasy, but no VCR? I feel gypped by "improved" technology.
So, here we have an American perspective on the Voldemort situation after the attack on the Ministry of Magic in OoP.
---------------------------------------------
Reflections of an American Auror
---------------------------------------------
"A chicken in the pot every Sunday." That's what McKinley ran on when he got himself elected President, or so my grandmother (and the history books) always said. And I used to think, what earthly good does a chicken do in a pot? You want to roast or fry it, silly!
Of course, in these times we have chickens to spare and it was years before anyone explained soup stock to me. Made a lot more sense then. If you only get a chicken once a week, you'd want to stretch it as far as you could.
My family's always been good at stretching things and making do. That's who we are. And yeah, my family voted for McKinley. Of course, back then the Republicans were still progressives of sorts, and we all vote Democrat or independent now, but we're all about spreading the wealth, serving the community, keeping things in order. You know me; just extrapolate from there. I'm the mild one, really.
But that quality, that need to serve, makes it damned hard to be a witch. Closing a whole world off from other people, keeping magic that could save thousands of lives, transportation methods that would make waste grains in the US worth shipping to starving people in Africa, ways to see the future... what right do we have to hide that? Aren't we all as bad as Voldemort in some ways?
We hear the news from England in the office. These days it's dark, and it only gets darker. There are times I start to feel at home in this crazy world I fell into the year I turned eleven, and then I hear about a madman pulling a whole nation into terrorist warfare and the only hopes of stopping him rest on an old man and a sixteen year old boy. Madness.
And of course they won't ask for international help. Oh no. They won't ask for humanitarian aid. No, not that either. "Stiff upper lip" and all that. Must keep our British pride. They're all mad, if you ask me.
We've never had much trouble with pureblood ideology over here. Totally antithetical to what the country stands for, to start with, and to end with, we simply have too many different magical traditions rubbing against each other. We have our racial problems, our Asian vs. European vs. African vs. Native American system problems, our "how shall we educate the children" problems, but purity of blood? You'd be laughed out of town.
I still think the English are all mad.
Honestly, how hard is it to let everyone get along? You don't want to associate with people, then don't. You don't have to kill them. There's more than enough to go around, particularly in our world, with so many resources for so few people. Give the purebloods their chicken on Sunday, and give one to the Muggle-born wizards too. What harm could it do?
Purebloods want to rule the people. Well, in America, we don't rule the people. We serve the people. And serving the people doesn't mean locking them up in camps (though we've done that, I know) or enslaving them (though we've done that too) or killing them out of hand (which, unfortunately, we've also done a little). But the thing is, we stopped. We admitted we were wrong. And you know, we get on a lot better now without all the fear and the death, Muggle and magical. Thank God for Lincoln and the sixties, I say.
Serve the people. Don't kill them. Kill the chickens, and give everyone soup instead. Hell, at the very least, everyone will get a good dinner on Sundays.
Lydia C. Winter, Auror
Federal Bureau of Magical Investigations
excerpted from a letter to her Muggle fiancé, Brian Biedryzycki
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 16 November 2003
15minuteficlets word: chickenFurther news: in a shocking development, it turns out that we don't have a VCR in the house. This is bad, since I need to watch some videos for my film course on the Holocaust. Chris tells me, however, that one of the university libraries has TVs set up for people to watch videos. *big sigh of relief*
Really, though... we have the technology to support really complicated video games, including some sort of Final Fantasy, but no VCR? I feel gypped by "improved" technology.