The World Building Blogfest: History and Politics

It's Day #2 of The World Building Blogfest, brought to us by Sharon Bayliss!

I wanted to highlight the growing tensions between the humans and the Kentari. Gretchen Taylor is my main character.  Here she is responding to something her father wrote.  This highlights the factors that are contributing to racial tensions while also showing the division between the people who trust their neighbors and those who don't.

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I know I shouldn’t be writing this down.  If either of my parents discovers this, I’m in trouble.  Even so, I couldn’t go without responding to the letter my father had published in the newspaper earlier this week.  Though no one will know of these words, I can’t let them weigh me down anymore.

Dear Editor,

            This is a crucial time in our history.  As Terra Minor citizens, it is imperative that we do not sit idly by while our fundamental human rights are denied by alien dictators.  I was born on this world, as were most of you.  Being told where I can and cannot live on this, my homeworld, is an insult to my autonomy.

Yes Dad, it is a crucial time in our history, but not for the reasons you seem to think.  The negotiations that allowed us to settle this world, long after the Kentari settled here, allowed them to have their sacred spaces on this world.  This was not an absurd condition to set.  In order to have a peaceful coexistence, we need to respect it.  It’s an insult to the Kentari culture to presume that you deserve to encroach on things that do not belong to you.

               This is not the only way they control our daily lives.

            The Kentari carefully select who is and is not allowed to learn their language.  They release little information on their cultural practices.  They live apart from us by choice, though they claim they want to share this world in peace.  If they truly wish for this to be the case, they should abandon their secrecy. 

Words are powerful.  The Kentari understand this.  They also know our history as a people.  While they wish to maintain our friendship, they know all too well how quickly we can turn our backs on our agreements.  It’s easy to read ill intent from their actions, but a desire for privacy does not prove the presence of malice.

            I suspect this will never happen, because with all I’ve seen, I have little doubt they have something to hide.  Whatever that is remains to be seen.  This is why we must band together to demand the truth.  We will only win if we push hard enough.  Until that time, I will do all I can to keep my family separate from the Kentari.  They are too precious to risk.  I recommend all of you do the same.

-Charlie Taylor

Dad, I hate to break it to you, but I can think for myself.  You may think you’ve protected me from the Kentari, but I’ve been meeting with one of them.  Quirin is Kentari, and through him I’ve learned more about what his people are hiding.  They do have secrets, but fear of people like you acting against them is what motivates their secrecy.  I’ve also learned that Quirin is one of the most reliable, trustworthy people I’ve ever known.  If you knew how I felt about him, I doubt you could forgive me.

Don’t start a war for my benefit.  I don’t care about any of the things you’re fighting for.  I only care about living in peace.  I’ll trust people on their own merits.  I’ll make my own decisions.  People like you might be calling for war, but people like me are calling for understanding.

Though I do love you, I feel like we’ve only been growing further apart.  Do you even notice it?  If I told you the truth about what I’ve been doing for the past several months, you would, but telling you would shatter the illusion that holds our family together.

-Gretchen Taylor