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trans_channel2011-04-25 10:14 pm
zouichi.livejournal.com) wrote in trans_channel2011-04-25 10:14 pm
Entry tags:
[Locked to Council, Security higher-ups]
Hello. I understand that several crew members, the missing Marco and Rachel included, possess the ability to 'acquire' and take the form of animals and other members of the crew.
What I do not understand is why the Council, upon obtaining this information, chose not to inform Security.
[ooc: As a JSYK for any latecomers, Zouichi stuffed the Omnicomm back into his pocket after agreeing to talk to Ax and Eva... and then promptly got roped into the Trojan Horse plot, so that's where he's gonna be till that plot ends. I'm assuming atm it's going to run over the public Council meeting, so he probably won't be back in time for that.]
What I do not understand is why the Council, upon obtaining this information, chose not to inform Security.
[ooc: As a JSYK for any latecomers, Zouichi stuffed the Omnicomm back into his pocket after agreeing to talk to Ax and Eva... and then promptly got roped into the Trojan Horse plot, so that's where he's gonna be till that plot ends. I'm assuming atm it's going to run over the public Council meeting, so he probably won't be back in time for that.]
no subject
I do not like revealing personal information about others when it is not mine to give, and there is no threat.
They do have a rule about morphing sentient beings. Unless it is an emergency, they will ask before acquiring.
However, as you probably know by now, this is not a normal situation.
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With all due respect, there is no guarantee that any crew member is not a danger to the rest of the crew, and this incident is only the most recent example.
I understand that individual crew members may have privacy concerns that move them to conceal information about themselves. And it's unreasonable to ask people to turn in friends and family members.
However, Council members aren't ordinary crew members. They have been voted into a position of authority, presumably to safeguard the interests of everyone on the ship, not simply those to whom they feel personally loyal.
The idea that Council members have been concealing information from each other is more troubling still.
no subject
No, there is no guarantee, but that does not mean that the abilities, combat or otherwise, of every single person on this ship should be public knowledge because of the slight chance of them being dangerous. Being in a position such as this, I cannot expect others to trust me unless I trust them in return.
There is also the issue of these particular individuals having problems trusting others because of the war back on their world. If I had revealed this information, they would never have put any trust in me. The same applies to any other that would have revealed their secret.
After this, I doubt they ever will trust me again. However, I will risk losing that trust to ensure the safety of this crew.
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I am not saying that the abilities of every person on the ship should be public knowledge. What I am saying that if a Council member becomes subject to information that one of the crew members can morph Superman, Security should know. Our job is to deal with exactly these kinds of incidents, and we can do so far more efficiently if we know what we can be expected to deal with.
Sometimes this is not possible; KAIN comes to mind. But when the information is readily available, I cannot see why it should not be shared, especially among those members of the crew who need it the most.
You speak of the need to establish trust between these specific crew members and yourself. However, might I point out that in pursuing this course of action, you have violated multiple other levels of trust, levels I hope you also consider worth protecting?
- Individual crew members must trust that the Council has their best interests at heart.
- Individual departments on the ship must trust each other not to act at cross-purposes.
- Council members must trust that one of their peers is not concealing information because he personally feels that they don't need to know.
And might I further point out that despite pursuing the trusts of Marco, Rachel, and the others so closely, you have ended up wholly empty-handed?If your personal priorities are more important to you than your duty to the rest of the crew, I suggest you reevaluate your decision to represent everyone on board.
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I must also point out that our current situation is unique. Previously, we had absolutely no reason to believe that they would morph Superman, or anyone else on this ship with considerable power without permission from said person first. We had no reason to violate their privacy.
How were we to expect that crewmembers would all of a sudden start losing memories, and revert back in age? Marco and Rachel would not be acting in this manner if they hadn't lost memories. Right now, they believe falsely that certain crewmembers are still infested, and that we are allowing them to stay infested.
If you had any particularly interesting abilities that could be dangerous, yet you did not intend on using them against said crew, it would be a violation of your privacy to require you to give that information because of the slight chance of danger. It would imply that you are suspicious. And, it is not fair to violate the privacy of any of our crewmembers without probable cause.
We cannot single out particular groups out of an unfounded fear of what they might do. It would set a very dangerous precedent.
We have also had a member of Security in the past that tried to take over the ship, and used private information about powers to set bombs that nearly killed a large amount of people. For a time, we believed that Cassie Lang was dead because of the bombs.
Marco and Rachel, and the others in their group, were fighting a war for several years. If the enemy had known who they were and their capabilities, they would have been captured and infested themselves, or even killed. I don't blame them for wanting to keep their secret, especially when there are yeerks, their former enemy, counted as part of the crew.
It should be enough that someone had the information for when it was appropriate, and needed, to release.
(1/2)
[A suspicious individual might take this information and wonder, 'what else is he hiding'?]
I believe you have made it quite clear that you did not foresee current events. Which is exactly my point. No one can foresee when crew members will suddenly become possessed by magical forces or begin shedding their memories like water. One would think this situation would argue for more informational redundancy, rather than less -- you could have been affected. You could have forgotten what they'd told you about their abilities. Who, then, would be around to make a belated warning announcement to the crew? Basing your actions on the assumption that nothing will ever happen to compromise you or anyone you know is breathtakingly shortsighted.
And I would thank you not to put words in my mouth. I have already stated that it is unreasonable to ask individuals to disclose potentially damaging information about themselves, their friends, or their families. Forcing crew members to give up confidential information about their abilities is not in question here, nor should it be. Nor was it even the case in this situation, so let's not get off-topic. What happened is that they came to you and revealed information about themselves, of their own free will.
What I am saying is that your duty as a Councilor supersedes whatever personal responsibility you feel towards a handful of individuals. And that duty includes not taking what you learn in personal conversation -- not even professional, mind you -- and deciding that it isn't important enough to bother mentioning to anyone else, especially where crewmember safety is concerned.
You are not the ship's counselor. You are not part of Medical. You are not bound by professional confidence to conceal any personal information that someone drops in your lap. In fact, I would argue that a Councilor deciding unilaterally what information should and should not be shared with the rest of the ship is in itself a dangerous precedent. If there is something in the Constitution that gives Council members the ability to withhold information from other Councilors, departments, and the ship at large based on personal judgment, however, I will gladly concede this point. Otherwise, I really cannot understand why you keep framing this as an issue of privacy. Information was given freely to you, a public official. If you wish to claim the rights of a private citizen to not divulge information about those close to you, then you have put your personal feelings for them above your responsibility as an elected representative, which I assert is a violation of public trust.
You have stated that you do not want to encourage an atmosphere of fear. But I would also like to point out that your argument that Security cannot be trusted with information freely given to you is itself based on fear and emotional argument. A Security officer could certainly find themselves compromised and at odds with the crew. For that matter, so could you. This is why responsibility needs to be shared, so that the safety of the crew does not rely on the knowledge of one or two individuals. And if, indeed, you feel the Security department cannot be trusted to safeguard information -- again, information that was freely provided to you -- that needs to change.
Re: (2/2)
I find it further troubling that you argue that because nothing has happened this time, your action (or inaction) is justified. During no part of this conversation have you even demonstrated the inclination to even entertain the possibility you could be wrong. Instead you have made an argument based on framing my complaint as something it is not, insisting that your inability to predict future problems somehow justifies your decision to restrict the abilities of other members of the crew to react to those problems, and demonstrated the belief that while Security cannot be trusted, you somehow can. That is not the attitude I would expect from a Councilor -- any Councilor.
We are not all-knowing, and we cannot predict the future. The best possible course of action for us in an environment of uncertainty is to make sure all departments have the information required to do their job, that people trust their Council members not to arbitrarily restrict whatever information they become privy to based on personal loyalties, and that Council members do not act to incite distrust rather than mitigate it.
This is the best way to combat future threats. Not by creating an environment of suspicion, in which individual Councilors can take into their own hands the future of the rest of the ship, but by nurturing one in which a crew member can reasonably trust that if one of their safeguards fail, the others remain willing and able to protect them.
We need to trust each other because we are all we have. I want to work with a Council that I can trust, and who can trust me in turn. If you do not see the value of what I have suggested, I really do not know what else to say.
no subject
They did not.
I found out about them possessing the morphing ability entirely by accident, and any additional information was then given to me in complete confidence. They explicitly asked me not to share it with others. And, I'd rather one person on Council know in case of emergency and have crewmembers comfortable with talking freely to their council members, rather than letting any information we get disseminate and discouraging our crewmembers from telling us anything else of a sensitive nature.
There is also a possibility that the Daligig are lying to us all, and that upon returning to their world, the yeerks having this knowledge could have severely damaged the war effort. The yeerks did not know that humans possessed the morphing ability, and focused on searching for andalites instead.
I see that you have been receiving some of your information from Iniss. While I am in no way saying that Iniss may be lying to you, as all the information I have seen him provide you is factual, it is important to note that he fought in the same war that they did, on the opposing side. It is entirely possible that he may be twisting facts and omitting certain pieces of information.
Having fought in a war before myself, I am very familiar with such things happening. I would suspect anyone, on any side of a war, of slanting information to their benefit.
You don't know all the details about their war, and you are basing portions of your argument on assumptions. If you would like to better understand their situation, I would suggest you speak with Aximili, another member of Security, or Eva Salazar. It is never a good idea to base an argument solely on information from one party in a war.
no subject
Your argument seems to keep coming back to what you'd prefer happen, how you'd like to handle emergencies, the relationship you'd like to have with crew members. My question is, what about the rest of the crew? Or even the rest of the Council? Would they agree with your actions? Would they trust your assessments? By hoarding information from anyone who might disagree with you, you prevent them from being able to choose an alternative. You prevent them from even knowing there was a choice.
Should we all be expected to defer to your better judgment? Why, when the only thing you seem to have proven is that you believe your personal priorities eclipse those of the rest of the ship?
I am not sure what you're attempting to prove with your comment about the Yeerks -- assuming they didn't know about the morphing abilities before these events took place, they know now because you revealed them. Are you attempting to prove your dedication to the safety of the ship by demonstrating how willing you are to throw those whose secrets you previously promised to protect under the proverbial bus? Why should anyone trust you now that you've neatly displayed your willingness to betray everyone?
I freely admit that I have had to piece together the story as I know it from partial knowledge. Namely because I have been forced to do so. I would, in fact, prefer not to have to learn about circumstances such as these from a biased source. I cannot tell you how dismaying it is to learn that the one person who has been the most forthcoming to me during this entire incident has been what some would no doubt refer to as an evil alien brain slug.
Nor am I sure what you're trying to accomplish by pointing out that you've experienced war. Are you implying you're the only one that has ever fought in a war? Or that you see this situation as a wartime conflict? Who are you fighting a war with, Councilor? The Ohm? The Daligig? Or your own crew, the only people I can see here who seem to have been put at risk by your decisions?
You have offered one excellent piece of advice; I will speak with Aximili and Eva, as well as any others who care to discuss this with me. I hope they are considerably more forthcoming than you have demonstrated yourself to be.
no subject
We could require that everyone registers their abilities for purely hypothetical situations, but that would imply a lack of trust on our part, and it could very well lead to discrimination of those with particular abilities because of said hypothetical situations. The next logical step would be to require everyone to register their histories, too, to have on file the likelihood of their abilities being used for ill purposes. We cannot prosecute anyone on this ship for crimes they may have committed back in their universes, but that also could lead to discrimination based on hypothetical situations; how can we believe that a particular crewmember that has murdered in the past won't do so again here, after all?
I am not going to start going down that slippery slope.
Or, we could not require abilities to be registered, and disseminate them as soon as they are discovered, betraying people's trust in us. That is almost a guarantee that no one will ever tell us sensitive information again, and we will be left in the dark when serious situations arise.
I would rather not have revealed their morphing abilities to others, but in light of our current predicament, I felt that it was in the best interests of everyone to do so, for safety reasons.
In no way am I implying that I am the only one who has ever fought in a war on this ship. By mentioning that, I simply intended to show that I am credible on such matters. My obligation is to this crew, and I will protect them from all dangers, helping to ensure that we all survive.
You admit to not having all the information available about the subject, yet you came into this discussion immediately jumping to conclusions and making false assumptions instead of calmly asking for more information. I would have, and still will, freely give you information. I feel that I have been perfectly forthcoming with you regarding this matter.
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So your argument is that as soon as someone else found out that these folks had these powers, Security should've been informed?
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Or... did I?