Ashleigh’s Comments (group member since Dec 17, 2013)

Ashleigh’s comments from the On Tyrants & Tributes : Real World Lessons From The Hunger Games group.

Congressional term limits would be great. A perfect place to start.

The Beltway-- I'm from rural Virginia. The beltway is a place I don't go often.It sort of draws a circle around the city saying "Things are different here" and it (figuratively) separates DC from the rest of the country. Politicians come from wealthy upbringings. They're lawyers and big businessman. They are not common people, and this was not the way the country was intended to be run. It should be run by those who can relate to the needs and lifestyles of the masses. When politicians are so far removed from their constituents, they are bound to make careless decisions that impede on the lives of the citizenry.

The System- Just as Snow lives his "beltway" life, separated from the realities of life in the districts, Coin and District 13 do as well. This is why Coin is so willing to use violence against other districts in Mockingjay when we see Katniss really struggling with that. She doesn't want to use such violence against "the Nut" in District two because "(she's) a girl from District 12,"(p.284). "District 12 and District 2 have no fight except the one the Capitol gave us," (217). She equates blowing up the nut to a coal mining accident. She wants to keep the train tunnels open and evacuate citizens of 2 who were trapped inside. For me, this is one of the most compelling chapters because it packs in everything; Katniss as an unwilling hero, Katniss as having compassion where others have hate (i.e. Gale)and the corruption of Coin and 13.