9. A Year of Calmness
President Ariann Fuler began officially running Panem on July 15, 2068. The Senate and Court had to re-adjust because of the late change of leader in the nation. Regardless, this didn't affect regular meetings or anything. Ariann Fuler had a past that could help explain what happens with her later in Panem's history.
Past of Ariann Fuler
Ariann Olivia Fuler was born in Nashville, Tennessee on August 17, 2006, part of the area that would be considered District 12 as of the Thirteen District Act. Fuler always enjoyed politics. She was on her middle school and high school debate teams and Model United Nations teams. Upon her graduation from high school in 2024, she went to Harvard University for Political Science, the first president in Panem to actually go to college for politics. Upon gaining her Masters degree in 2029, she began working in governmental positions.
Her first governmental-type position was an intern to the Mayor of the city of Nashville. She would do things such as make important copies and get his coffee. It wasn't much, but it helped get her on the map as a political leader. She would, later that year, run for election as a City Council member under the Democratic ticket. She defeated her Republican opponent by a decent sized margin. The city was struggling almost as bad as Denver was, so she did the same thing Warren Monocelli did by covering a lot of the taxes with her personal salary. She did this first, though Monocelli was never aware of it when he did it. Sadly, this caused the Mayor and the rest of the council to revoke her position as a legislator. She shrugged this off and moved to the capital of the United States of America: Washington, D.C.
Starting as an intern yet again, this time to senator Arthur Perona (yes, so many connections), Fuler began to see the full view of the American government. This increased her nationalism exponentially. The grace of a capital city and government keeping afloat in a depression-strewn country; it really spoke to her. So, in 2035, when she spoke to a crowd about the importance of globalism in the economy, a topic her boss supported, the current US President, Elizabeth Hubel, approached her with a job offer. This job was different from the type of career path she was searching for; the job was as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.
She accepted President Hubel's offer and began working immediately in New York City, New York. It was just a General Assembly position, but it helped her see the true depth of foreign affairs that she could not see in Model United Nations: the true passion for the governments, the full understanding of debate. She fully enjoyed the decision.
Once World War III started, President Arthur Perona promoted her to the Security Council delegation as the head delegate. She constantly butted heads with the Chinese delegation, and vetoed any resolution that China supported. This, though, brought out Fuler's true passion in debate. Since the Peace War started in the middle of WWIII, she targetted China for causing a financial collapse in the United States, which led to a rebellion that was tearing the nation apart. She spared no feelings in shooting down everything the Chinese delegates brought to the table. She was fearless as she continuously faced off against all of them. This helps explain somethings later in history. Let's just say now that when she was passionate about something, making her mad was not the way to fight against her or her ideals.
The Peace War came and went, causing the collapse of the United States and the upbringing of Panem. Ariann Fuler, though concerned, didn't actually budge from the governmental reformation. She knew that President Peace meant well, and with the ratification of the Constitution of the Capitol, she resigned as the United States' Security Council head delegate.
Romulus Peace saw Fuler's potential and immediately hired her upon her resignation to be Panem's head delegate in the United Nations. She even obtained a legal Certificate of Recognition when the UN accepted the Capitol and Panem. As you know, she helped Peace prove it to the US Congress to get them to remove their hold on Panem's existence.
With a new nation came new policies, but she defended them just as well. She was loyal to the government and their policies, she never let her personal political views show in debate. Even though Panem was uninvolved in almost everything and their views were pretty much strictly isolationist, this did not stop Fuler from dominating in session. Many governments sent requests to the Capitol asking for them to allow her to visit for diplomacy reasons. All three Presidents rejected these requests for the reason of "preventing foreign diplomats from lobbying certain ideas into the policies of the Capitol." Fuler didn't actually care what the other governments felt about her. She only wanted to please the Capitol and the people of Panem.
Her love of defending the foreign policy of Panem began to fade right when President Morris came to power. The whole scenario of deciding if the Thirteen District Act would become law or not represented the weakness that the government of Panem was showing. She had a fear that other nations would recognize this and begin to crackdown in session on her and the Capitol, leading to a fear of a foreign military conquest in the time of weakness. So, she resigned from the position as the head delegate and began to work in the Office of the President.
During the time that the Senate debated over the Thirteen District Act under President Morris's guidance, Fuler took over as an "interim President". Since the Capitol Supreme Court ran the nation during the time, she presided over the meetings. She acted as a general President in Morris's technical absence. This proved to Panem that she was a natural born leader. After the Act passed and all of the chaos began to die down, Morris decided it was best to name Fuler the next President of Panem.
Beginning Reforms
As President, Ariann Fuler wanted to clean up the mess that President Morris caused because of the Thirteen District Act. Seeing how chaotic altering the borders into thirteen districts from 49 states was, she knew reversing the whole thing would be a call for a complete collapse. Instead, she began to back pedal on some of the other things that were put in place.
She removed the requirement for police to be present at every existing protest out there. It was costly to dispatch multiple officers to a protest when another crime could be committed somewhere close by, such as a felony like murder or domestic abuse. Plus, Fuler felt it was infringing on the rights of free speech and assembly. Also, some officers would step in when a situation wasn't dire enough and would escalate it to violence instead of preventing it. She proposed this reform to the Senate within the first week of her presidency and it passed very quickly and with little dissent.
Another reform she began working on was something I did not cover in the last few chapters, the need of a Capitol-issued visa to travel in between the districts. Morris wanted to keep track of citizen movements between the districts in order to keep track of industrial growth and decline through employment. Also, it helped him keep a census of the population. Fuler felt that this was too far. It was too nosy into the business of a citizen. So, she revoked it and offered a $50 apology check to any citizen who had to purchase the $45 visa and go through federal background checks. All of the information was returned to the respective people and was erased from the Capitol's database, except for things such as tax history and if they were employed by the Capitol's industry or if they worked as a merchant, apothecary, baker, etc.
The final major reform President Fuler would attempt to work on was the improvement of infrastructure in certain areas of the districts. The districts were mainly advanced in infrastructure, but some places were less than decent in terms of living conditions. The Capitol under Morris gave a blind eye to it because of the focus on cracking down on riots, so this part suffered. Fuler passed a law through the Senate to appoint special construction workers, mainly recruited from District Two, to help build up the lacking infrastructure. It in turn saved multiple lives that were endangered by the crumbling buildings and torn up roads. This major project boosted the economy of Two and helped advance Panem farther into the futuristic age, as the years were 2068/2069.
President Fuler's reforms were beneficial to the good being of Panem, but many people put a blind eye to her projects. Many were still enraged of the Thirteen District Act and the moves that former President Morris implemented to defend it. Protests would continue, and violence began to spread out once again. Soon, the Capitol would end up cracking under the pressure. The fear of a new civil war was on the horizon...
Note: No Dark Days, yet. But what I said at the end will be elaborated in the next chapter. Then after that, the Dark Days and the Hunger Games. Now, I understand that explaining President Fuler's upbringing might have been dry, but I felt it was necessary for certain reasons. Only her and President Peace as of now have been exclusively covered. Anyways, please review!