The Diego Diaries: Callow (dd8 420)

=0=The next morning

:How do you feel, Ron?:

Ron Witwicky glanced at Will and Thomas Lennox who were here with him because Judy was too nervous to come. :Pretty good all things considered:

Judy: "I'll stay here and get drunk, then watch it, Ron. Go. You're going to kill it," she'd said to him as she poured herself a glass of wine.

Huge laughter from the human contingent was had.

They were waiting in the green room with the others, No-A, Carmella, Sterno, Sirio and Timbre. It was quiet as the group geared up to do something uncommon, debate for their seat.

Sterno looked grim. He walked to the door and gestured for No-A to follow. They stepped outside a moment, then re-entered to sit.

A head popped in. "You're wanted on the stage, No-A and Sirio." As he did some kids walked in.

Coros glanced around, then walked over to sit with No-A, Carmella and Sterno who he knew from before. Presenting their Watch and Medical programs to the Board had given him a lot of confidence. Joining him were his 'campaign co-chairs', Echo and Jessine. The others were in the auditorium filming and taking notes for their further efforts beyond the debate. They were scheduled up to speak to every civic group and union in the colony.

Simby who was a very pretty confident appearing femme walked over to sit with Sirio, Timbre and Callo who had come with the two. Simby was the daughter of Piero who had debated Sunstreaker the night before.

It was very quiet as No-A turned up the sound on the monitor.

=0=Getting there

They walked out onto the stage, the hulking format of No-A who was a hugely liked bot and a force for good in the colony. He was the first mech along with Semi to be made federal judges by Optimus Prime. He'd been a heavy equipment bot both on Cybertron and in the Diaspora while studying long and hard to become a lawyer. It was his dream.

Now he walked to his podium, this father of two girls, bond of a dynamo who was an advocate of kids for the courts, federal judge and small vessel aficionado. He loved to fly.

Sirio walked to his, then turned to the crowd which was packed to the rafters for this, the last night of debates. He was a publisher as was most of his family of financial journals and business textbooks. He liked parasailing and hanging out with his own crowd. He was quiet but sharp as a razor.

The crowd beyond who was tuned in included the colony, Earth, forward bases and all the 'Con battle groups in the area. The prior debate broke viewing records for public broadcasting programming and was likely to do so tonight. A human and two kids were debating.

Debate about the debates was a hot topic on message boards and in the colony amongst the folks. Earth's social media was abuzz as well. What the slagging 'Cons thought was anyone's guess …

-*Ominous

"What the frag is a school board?" someone asked as they watched the show with some sense of confusion.

"I don't know," someone else said. "I never went to school."

"More's the pity," Ominous said as he ruminated on this compared to his own mid caste education that officially was concluded at the end of Level 3 of what was comparable to Youngling Day School on Cybertron. Intermediate and higher education was officially out of his reach unless he was gifted like Ratchet. He was but it wasn't apparent to anyone at the time. It was the bane of his existence that it had been closed to him, oddly enough.

Ominous was a smart, smart dude.

-*Razorclaw

"You're watching that again?" someone said behind him.

Razorclaw nodded. "I am."

"Why?" they asked.

"Intel. Everything is intel," Razorclaw replied.

=0=There

"I would like to welcome everyone to the second night of debates for the Autobot City Unified School District's board seats numbers 1, 2 and 5. Seats 1 and 2 are at large. That means that the two members of those seats can represent everyone in the district no matter where they live. It allows extra representation and audials to our people for their concerns, problems and suggestions.

"Seats 3, 4, 5 and 6 are districted, that is, they're large units of the colony that are subdivided into units that are assigned a representative . Each member of those districts represents the concerns of their own single district. The other two can represent everyone. This way we have it all covered.

"Tonight's debates promise to be exciting if last night was any indication of the way it's going to go. Our first debaters tonight are No-A of Slaughter City, the incumbent who is being challenged by Sirio of Iacon," Conn said.

Huge applause greeted them.

"Before we begin we wish to welcome viewers from Earth, our colony here on Mars, those on Cybertron who we serve with designated proxy members who consult adjunct until the school district is organized there and the Decepticons within reach of our broadcast," Conn said as the room erupted in laughter.

-*Ominous

"Thanks," he said with a grin.

-*Razorclaw

"Snicker."

=0=There

"The debates will go as follows. No-A of Slaughter City versus Sirio of Iacon, Carmella of Torus States versus Timbre of Praxus, then our youth representatives, Coros of Polyhex and Simby of Polyhex will debate. Finally, our last one will be between Sterno of Kaon and Ron Witwicky of Los Angeles, California of Earth."

Huge applause greeted that. Then it became quiet again.

Sitting all over the vast room were the family of Optimus and Ironhide as well as a huge contingent of humans for Ron Witwicky. The high castes who had a stake in this were as represented tonight as they were the night before. It was tense in the huge room.

"Our first question is a controversial one," Conn said. "We've asked it of all our candidates. What are your opinions of tracking, how do you feel it will work here or not and what if anything can be done to make it more effective if you feel its not a good idea? No-A?"

No-A had done his homework. The Board was aware of the push for tracking by a number of former educators from Cybertron. They were all high castes and it felt like an opening salvo to the board members that a program that had overtones of the System should be so forcefully sought to their meetings by this group. That they were educators from various high tone academies and private schools helped them speak education-speak to the issue but it still held that bad ju-ju for most of the Board. It'd been tabled until after the elections, hopefully forever.

"This has been before the Board several times," he said, a mech who was the informal lawyer for the membership. "We were presented by a number of former educators from Cybertron and they did so forcefully and well. However, we don't see the need for it given that our system is so open and responsive to our kids and what they want.

"I'll be honest. It has overtones of the System. It makes assumptions about kids that I don't like. When you're young and not beaten down by life you have the feeling that nothing is beyond you. You're the most open to your dreams than you'll ever be in your life. Its at that moment that the schools should be as helpful to you in achieving them as they can be.

"Consider if you want to have a science career and your marks aren't that good. Given the condition with which some of our kids come here, its amazing that they can function at all. They do their best, some without any formal education prior to coming here and then they get told that they'll never be a scientist but here's this work track over here. You can do something else.

"Give that kid more time and support like we do with our post graduation schools after Intermediate for kids who need the time, the Iacon Academies, then they can have that help to do better. We devised the Academies after some set up by Stephonia and the Avatar Foundation on Cybertron in the day to help mid caste kids get around the System and learn what they needed to do what they wanted.

"We have time, experts, resources and remediation to bridge this gap.

No one should be denied what they want unless they choose it, not because it was forced onto them.

"I don't like tracking and would oppose it," No-A concluded.

Huge thunderous applause greeted that.

"Sirio?" Conn asked.

He considered his reply. "I would differ with No-A on the point of the program. We are absolutely interested in kids having the life they want. But at some point some kids will find that they won't be able to take that path. There has to be some form of pathway open to them to come to a choice that they can enjoy and find fulfillment.

"I wish I could have done a number of things but I didn't have the skill set to do it. All the help in the world wouldn't make that different. I am not against the plan and I'm sure that there's a lot of ways we can do to make it better. Collaboration on this issue is a better idea, to see what we can do to make it better than banning it outright like my opponent wants."

"Anything that limits kids is not of interest to me," No-A said. "The Iacon Academies are our bridge for kids and their dreams. I won't be swayed from this position."

"Then when people bring their ideas and hopes to you, you're going to be a roadblock?" Sirio asked.

"Only if they're a beachhead for the System to return," No-A said.

A murmur rounded the room, then settled.

"The Prime has issued a Primal Directive that's backed by the Pantheon and Primus Himself that the System of Exception or any version of it is banned from our people's lives forever," No-A continued. "It's our duty as a Board to make sure that we uphold not just the Primal Directive in what we do but to honor the wishes of the Pantheon, Primus and The One.

"I was there when Primus made His decision. I feel it deeply and will always do the best I can to uphold Their wishes. It would do us all a good turn to understand that anything that even echoes the limitations of the System dishonors Primus and His sacrifices. This program is a tiny foray into bringing the System into the schools. I will never, ever be persuaded otherwise."

"Then you and I have a problem. I believe in the people who come to us with problems. I would never close the door on anyone," Sirio said.

"The caste system does that automatically," No-a said with an edge to his voice. "I don't want it back."

"Sirio?" Conn asked.

"I have nothing more to add to this," Sirio said.

"Very well," Conn said. "Our next question is from Cybertron. What would you do to include Cybertronian schools into the Board's overview and actions? No-A?"

"We expanded the School Board to Cybertron two years ago to include their concerns and needs more directly. Once every three decaorns we have them here. We also take time to go there and sit in meetings of regional educators and the adjunct board members there.

"We're working out the model for a Board for Cybertron that will oversee the system with regional representation. Given the chaos of the current moment its been a work in progress. We're going to hopefully have a fully functional board there by the end of the year."

"Sirio?" Conn asked.

=0=TBC 4-27-2022

ESL:

adjunct: (ah-junkt) a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part. For this story, they're non elected members who work for the good of Cybertron's schools until their own system is devised.