Howard Stark (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} howard_stark) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} marvel_prep,@ 2013-06-19 09:02:00 |
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Characters: —
NPCs: Howard Stark, the Press, Tish Tilby
Location: The News! Internet! Everywhere!
Timeline: June 19, Morning News
Description: Howard gives a speech, points out the stupidity of all this, tells off Creed and Kelly and makes a stand.
Rating: PG
”We are reporting live from Stark Industries for a special press conference being given by Howard Stark, CEO and founder of Stark Industries. Stark recently made the news by taking in the mutant students formerly of the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. The mutant school was shut down yesterday due to a government investigation into the school’s founder, Professor Charles Xavier, who has been arrested for suspicion of involvement with the mutant terrorist, Magneto.
“Mr. Stark will be taking the podium at any moment and we are expecting him to address the criticisms that have come up recently of his actions in taking in the students of Xavier. Ah, the press conference is beginning.”
The camera switched to Howard Stark who comes to stand at a podium in the press room he has at Stark Industries. The well dressed man adjusted his tie and then placed both hands on either side of the podium. Cameras started flashing and once the press quieted down, he began.
“Ladies and gentleman of the press. I am here to speak to you today regarding the recent events that have highlighted the disgusting and revolting behavior of our country, and most especially the past few days. I start with speaking of Charles Xavier who is a most respected colleague and a man of great merit and upstanding character. Whose name has been dragged through the mud without any truth or evidence, but merely the fear-mongering of the media and most especially Senator Kelly. These groups and individuals wish you to believe Charles Xavier is a liar and supports of the terrorist actions taken by Magneto. I can verify to you he is not and will never support such a cause.
Charles Xavier puts to shame many men in this country and certainly every corrupt senator who sits in our Congress today. While people like Senator Kelly go about labeling an entire group of people based on the actions of a few, Charles Xavier was teaching his students the importance of peaceful coexistence and respect to fellow life. While Senator Kelly cried to Congress that mutants are evil these same children who now attend my institution saved the entire city of New York from a Nazi invasion. They risked their own lives for the good of humanity. Who do we thank for being such an inspiration to do good? Charles Xavier. The man willing to teach them that they needed to do what was right and just, even if the city still bore a grudge after what one rogue mutant megalomaniac, acting on his own personal agenda and only claiming to speak for a minority he has had little interaction with, did.
“What is even more disgusting is that people like Reverend Grayson Creed, a man who you expect to share the same ideas of coexistence as Charles, goes about preaching the plight of humans and villainizes mutants when humans were the ones who shoved the mutant population of Genosha down into slavery. So much for Christian charity and kindness, Mr. Creed. Was your church known as the Klu Klux Klan in its earlier incarnation? Starting a charity and a little scrub down of the radicals does not hide the true intentions of what your group stands for. Hate.
“Any and all mutants should be allowed to gain an education, to receive training to control their powers and an understanding of what is ethically and morally right so that they will not cause harm, either accidentally or on purpose. They deserve a chance to live a life in peace. I cannot defend the actions of individuals who were featured in the slanderous videos posted, but knowing the character of Charles Xavier and how they painted him in the most recent video, I would certainly question their validity. If a filmmaker can convince you in the theater that a giant meteor is hurling its way to earth, then so help me, what else can they make you believe? While science says believe your eyes, it also says to look for the answers yourself as opposed to simply taking it upon the word of another. Great advancements in this world were not made by believing in what someone else showed everyone, but the great ones who went out there to see if it was true or not. The ones who asked questions and probed at common truths to seek the real truth.
“I stand by Charles Xavier, knowing of his innocence. I do not respect someone simply by the power they hold or the position they may have, but by their character. I respect Charles Xavier, and I understand why he agreed to cooperate with the government. The best way to teach people is through your example. He does not think himself above the law and will not use any mutant ability he has to interfere.
“My school will continue to house the students of the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters until the government comes to their senses at the completion of their investigation and releases him. They will not find anything because there is nothing that Charles is hiding. His previous interactions with Magneto ceased years ago when the two realized how polar opposite their views were on the relationship between the carriers of the X-gene and those that do not carry it. Magneto wanted war and that is what he is fighting for, however, Charles has always wanted peace.
“I would like to point out to the various universities that once expected students from the Xavier school that now terminated their enrollment to take particular note of that. You could have been a part of something greater, but instead you bent to the pressure and as liberal as you might think yourselves to be, you’ve just proven how part of the flock of mindless sheep you truly are.
“There will be no questions because I believe I covered all my bases. I don’t feel the need to impress, yet again, the ridiculousness of all of this, but I will once more. If there is anyone that should be thrown into jail, it should be people like Creed, Kelly, and any other anti-mutant group out there as they’re the ones who are the terrorists. The only people that are being hurt right now are the people of the country who are being brainwashed by a media that feeds off corruption, and two men who are at the heart of it.
I’ll finish with this well known anecdote:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
“How’s that for fear-mongering, Kelly? You ever use that in one of your sermons, Creed? No, because in the end, you’re the sort of people that should be locked away. A detriment to society, dragging us back into an old mentality that only served to support and protect elitists with selfish ambition. You’re the reason this country can’t move forward and keep up with the rest of the world and why everyone thinks that America is made of backwater idiotic bigots.
“Take your sermons and angry racist rants in Congress, then shove it up your ass. Press conference adjourned..”
Howard’s voice at the end made it clear that the last bit wasn’t what was written on paper but his own thoughts. The flash of cameras erupted and Howard left the podium without another word, leaving a half stunned press conference behind.