A case brought her outside the Republic City limits, and Ling wondered to herself why she didn't take more of a vacation out this way. The United Republic was a beautiful place; the city girl in Ling would never consent to moving out of the capital permanently, but it could be a nice get away. With a small smile on her face, she entertained the idea of bringing Jia for a weekend trip to a hot spring.

As she passed a local park on her way to the nearest train station, a commotion caught her eye; some sort of stage was being set up for someone to speak. Pulling out her pocket watch, Ling rationalised that she could stay and listen for a while; the next Republic City-bound train wasn't scheduled to leave for another hour and a half, and being in a park was far more interesting than sitting in a stuffy station doing nothing.

The familiar weight of her concealed weaponry provided a small comfort as she navigated the modest crowd. Most of those gathered, like her, seemed to be mostly curious about what was going on rather than people who had planned to attend... whatever this event was.

A person came up onto the stage; their outfit didn't proclaim any particular affiliation to a nation, but with their pale skin, jet-black hair, and golden eyes, Ling could make more than an educated guess. Ink-black hair was carefully positioned to hide one eye, and as they spoke, their words were about reform, and the state of the United Republic's governance. The 'Unity Party' they called it.

As they spoke, Ling's eyebrow arched higher and higher. They advocated peace and political reform, but had said precious little about their method of achieving it. Politics were not her forte, and her main concern was always how they would affect the people she cared about — her family, primarily, and now Jia.

But the speaker's ideals seemed lofty. Join if you believe in Equality. Don't join if you want to protest, march, or use force. While Ling could get behind not using force to enact reform, how could one restructure a government system — a sociopolicial system — in place for centuries without any sort of stated action.

The speaker opened up for questions, pointing to themselves, then offered shaved ice. An odd choice for a wintertime snack, but Ling helped herself to a green tea flavoured one and raised her hand.

"Yeah, I have a question," she said. She surprised herself by asking; if she were in Republic City, she wouldn't have said a word. Perhaps it was the country air.

"What exactly are your proposals? You haven't said, you've only said what you won't do."

I forced myself to smile at hearing the first question from the audience.

"What are we proposing, you ask?" I repeated the question. I did so as loudly as possible to make sure everyone else had heard.

"What we are proposing is reforming the government. Currently the council is split up by nations. You have one.."

I raised my left hand in a fist. As I spoke I would put up one of my fingers.

"..for the Fire Nation, for the Earth Kingdom, for the Southern Water Tribe, for the Northern Water Tribe and.."

I outstretched my thumb for the last one, "... nonbenders."

"This is a poor way to represent us. There are some who believe that the problem is that only one nonbender is guaranteed a seat in the council. However the problem is much deeper than that. The problem is that it is a colonial institution that attempts to divide us by where our ancestors came from. As you can probably tell from my eyes, my ancestors are from the Fire Nation. I am best represented, our current government argues, by the Fire Nation councilmember. Why should that be though? I have never lived in the Fire Nation. I am from the United Republic. I am a-"

I stopped for a moment as someone in the crowd shouted something. I nodded.

"Pardons, you are correct. I forgot about the council seat for the Air Nation. For some reason I keep forgetting they have a seat. Who holds it right now anyway-? Oh never mind." I put down my left hand.

"My point is that our nation is the United Republic. The colonial government represented by the council may have been necessary during our early days, but we should not be bound by the past. It is time that the we be given self governance. Which is why the Unity Party advocates for the government to reform the council system into an legislature selected from among us, the people."

"Now I know this may sound like a strange idea. The other nations are ruled by Lords, Kings, and Chiefs. Some of you may ask, why not crown a King for our republic then? There are many reasons I think. For one, who would we crown? We have no princes of our own. Inviting a foreign prince to rule over us would only replace one colonial institution for another. More importantly though a King would signify that there are different classes of citizens. That is plain wrong."

"Now, now, hear me out. I am not saying we are not different in characteristics. Some of us are wealthier than others. Others of us have blue eyes and others have hazel eyes. Those types of differences exist. We are all equal in dignity though. If that is the case then political office should be open to all. The actual method of selection, and other details, is still up to debate. Maybe we should select representatives by lottery. Or maybe representatives will be selected by petition. Every representative may have to get a minimum of a hundred people to sponsor them and they will represent only those people that affirmatively select them. These details are important and should be discussed, but what matters most is that WE decide together as a nation."

Ling's eyebrow was up so high by this point she was certain it had met her hairline. She had, in theory, no problem with anything the speaker was proposing. But that's all it was, a theory. A farfetched, idealist theory.

With her keen investigative eye, she examined the speaker's clothing; they were of a respectable make — not poor, but not so fine as to be ridiculous — and well tailored. She wondered if they had any practical experience in Republic City; Ling was by far from a politically minded individual, but class and ability barriers weren't so easily overcome with talks of peace and equality.

If they were, they United Republic wouldn't be in this mess.

"And how will this be accomplished?" She surprised herself again by speaking up once more. "How will you address the fears of the nonbenders who were just brazenly attacked at their place of worship? How will you cross the divide with people who cannot read or don't have the benefit of a basic education to understand these concepts? How will the Unity Party address the obvious discrepancies between benders who think that they are, by virtue of their ability, inherently a step above anyone else without?"

Far from being aggressive, her critical questions were tinged with skeptical curiosity. They were fine ideas, fine dreams and ambitions, but — ever the pragmatist — Ling failed to see how such goals could actually be turned into action without forcing the party to move away from a truly neutral ground.

Her questions were met with a general murmur of agreement from the crowd. How indeed? Nonbenders in the United Republic already outnumbered benders in sheer body, and yet...! There was no stopping them from committing perhaps the largest post-Hundred-Years-War attack on United Republic soil, completely unprovoked.

Pale, grey-blue eyes studied the speaker intently; the freckled woman had forgotten about her train, and somewhere in the back of her head a little voice suggested that perhaps this was exactly what the speaker had intended by setting up at the park.

I bit my lip and paused for a moment. There was that word - nonbender. I keep trying to avoid it, but even in the periphery it was inescapable.

"You are right that there are differences in ability among us," I said.

"Some of us are better educated than others. I come from privilege. I was educated at Ba Sing Se University. Even among my circle I was only among a handful that got that opportunity. What can we do?" I shrugged.

"We cannot equalize outcomes. I cannot promise that a way exists to make it so that everyone reaches the same level of education as I. Nor do I think that is a goal we should strive for. What we should strive for, I think, is to give everyone the opportunity to maximize their life outcomes regardless of incidents of birth. Once this new legislature is instituted it may want to consider guaranteeing that every child receives a minimum level of education."

I bobbed my head for a moment, deciding what to say next. I really wanted to avoid addressing the nonbender issue directly.

"You bring up the recent attacks. I interpret them as a prime example of what happens when you do not have inclusive government. When individuals do not have the opportunity to resolve their differences through peaceful means, then they will resort to violence. We live in a world where peace is rarely given a chance. It is no wonder that so many feel tempted to use violence to bring about change. However the progress that comes from that type of change is an illusion."

"What we need to do is focus on reforming our government to make it more inclusive."

The other of Ling's eyebrows shot up.

It is no wonder that so many feel tempted to use violence to bring about change.

"Oh sure." Ling rested her weight on one leg, hip jutting out, arms crossed. She flashed her easy-going, gap-toothed grin, but the sarcasm dripping from her voice was thick as molasses. "Attacking the poor and bending challenged was totally about change. Definitely not about upholding the status quo." The words 'bending challenged' in particular were accompanied by a hand gesture to signify their sarcastic nature.

She laughed lightly, and tossed her unfinished shaved ice in a nearby rubbish bin. She wasn't hungry anymore.

"Look, I'm sure you have a lot of lofty ideals and exciting ideas for changing the government." Ling held up her hands, palm out, to indicate she wasn't looking for a fight. Well, not yet at any rate. "But have you ever even talked to anyone in the Dragon Flats District? Anyone being extorted by the Triads? Anyone who lost their homes and jobs because benders pushed them out?"

With a shrug, she gestured to the speaker. "I think your ideals are nice, and you know, your non-answers about what we should do and nothing about how we should do them every time I ask about what your method to achieve your goals are slide you in as a very qualified politician, at least from a public speaking aspect. It would be great if everyone had better opportunities regardless of the 'incident of their birth'. But, you know, is it feasible? I haven't heard anything yet that would suggest you even know how the rest of us feel."

It hadn't escaped her attention that the speaker had very deftly sidestepped around mentioning benders and nonbenders. It was with every intention of drawing a line that Ling othered herself, and a not insignificant portion of the crowd had murmured in agreement.

"So come on, Mx. Ba-Sing-Se-University. I cordially invite you for an afternoon in the Dragon Flats District to talk with your hopeful constituents."

I starred with a sad face as one of the shaved ices was thrown away. My inner mother cringed at the sight of food being thrown away. Did these younglings not understand how expensive food was? When I was a kid I had to bargain with my parents to get any treat. I remember once having to agree to walk the bear dog for a month. How I disliked that bear dog...

I shook my head in disapproval at the one who had thrown the shaved ice away.

"It is because I know how others feel that the Unity Party, why I, discourage militant action. Have you ever been a mother?"

I pointed toward my stomach.

"How you carried a child inside of you for months? Have you given birth to that child and cared for it against every type of threat imaginable? Have you ever had to take your child to their first day of school, and spend the rest of the day so worried that they will need you that you end up quitting your job and force the principal to hire you as a teacher? Have you spent the night at your child's bedside because they didn't listen to you and played in the rain? Every time that my child has been in danger I have felt it. Every single time. Whenever I see any chil-"

I paused.

"Whenever I see anyone in danger I feel it. It is because mothers feel that we cannot go around marching to get things changed."

"Oh sure - if we went around fighting for change we might get it done quicker, sure. We would be risking our lives, and the lives that depend on us though. What use would it be to my child if I reformed the government, but they were left motherless? I am a mother. We are mothers. Fathers. Older siblings. Grandparents. We don't have the luxury of being able to risk our lives. We have people expecting us at home."

"If you insist let us go to this district of yours, but we will have to pass by a food joint so that I can order take out for dinner."