The Inaugural Address

PART II - ENTRY VI

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF HRH, EMPRESS ALEXANDRIA SCORPIUS

DIVINE RULER OF THE ASTROLOGICAL COMMONWEALTH

My citizens,

As addressed near the end of his updates on the train to the Virgonian Territory, my brother shared his opinion of the controversial RBB practice of separating biological twins born on astrological cusps. Since receiving this update, I have done some great review of the policies in place and have come to a much-needed conclusion on where I stand on the matter.

As the policy sits now, this particular practice of separating twins, triplets, and so on is indeed cruel, especially given that the parents of twins born within the span of a single astrological sign have the option of requiring the siblings be raised exclusively by the same family, so that they can be raised together if the biological parents wish. This policy was put in place as an amendment when the Commonwealth created the birth equality stipend during Alexander IV's reign.

Before I share my position on the matter, I must stress that any changes of this kind need to be approved by the democratically elected Directors of the RBB, one director hailing from each of our territories.

This being said, I have recently shared my policy position with the directors. As shared with these officials, I came to the following conclusion: given that parents of multiple children born at the same time usually are allowed the option to request their children grow up in the same household, parents of multiple children born during an astrological cusp should not be treated differently. In these situations, the astrological sign of the first born sibling will be honored, and the biological parents of these children will be given the option to request all children be sent to a single household in the respective territory of the first born. After all, if my brother and I could have grown up together, he would likely still be alive today. If signed into RBB policy, this new policy would be called the Philip Clause in honor of my late brother.

After presenting my position to the Directors, four directors instantly endorsed the Philip Cause, (seven endorsements are needed to pass the proposal):

Director Connie Richards of the Aquarian Territory

Director Valarie Rose of the Piscean Territory

Director Jonathan Bailey of the Sagitarian Territory

Director Olivia Ambers of the Virgonian Territory

Director Olivia Ambers of the Virgonian Territory was among those interviewed by Philip in December 2398. At the time, she was working as a tenured doctor specializing in delivering multiple children at a time, mostly twins and triplets. Before being elected Director, she travelled the country training RBB employees across the Commonwealth on how best to not only deliver multiple children at time, but also how to assist their parents in deciding whether or not to request that their children remain united as they were being processed to be sent to their respective territories. Given our situation, then Doctor Ambers almost instantly accepted Philip's request for an interview. The transcript of their interview is included in the next few pages.

If you agree that the Philip Clause is a necessary update to RBB policy and you do not see your territory represented amongst the Directors who have already endorsed it, I encourage you all to reach out to your respective Directors before their next meeting on February 4th, 2401. It is not up to any individual to see the Clause passed, instead it is up to all of us.

Now, as stated previously, in the following pages I have included the transcript of the interview between Director Ambers and Philip. For privacy reasons, I have honored the request of the other interviewees to not be included in my address. However, when asked, Director Ambers requested an unredacted copy of her interview be included. I hope the interview inspires those who read it to take action in favor of the Philip Clause.

HRH, Empress Alexandria Scorpius

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TRANSCRIPT OF MEETING WITH DOCTOR OLIVIA AMBERS & PHILIP SANGRA

P. SANGRA: Hello and thank you Dr. Ambers, for agreeing to meet with me today for an interview regarding your experiences working at the Royal Birthing Bureau...

O. AMBERS: Of course, when I got the invitation along with the description of the work you're doing to better the Commonwealth, I couldn't say no. I'm glad your colleague Brock reached out!

P. SANGRA: As am I. Given your history delivering twins for RBB hospitals as well as experience training others on how to do so as well, we thought you'd specifically be interested in meeting with me, the long lost twin of the next Divine Ruler.

O. AMBERS: I will say hearing your story and situation on Brock's invitation did catch my eye! I don't know what I would have done if I was the one to have delivered you and your sister.

P. SANGRA: I bet the nurses that worked the last shift of Scorpio season that year were quite amazed at the chances that our situation occurred. Tell me, why did you choose to work with the RBB?

O. AMBERS: Well, it's custom for Virgonian girls to either get involved with the RBB or become a housemaid of sorts, and there's no way I could sit at home all day! So I decided from an early age that the RBB would be where I ended up career wise.

P. SANGRA: Ah, okay! I imagine you excelled quickly if you managed to become the RBB's leading nurse for deliveries of twins...

O. AMBERS: Well, I don't like to boast too much. I had a lot of people all over the Commonwealth that got me to where I am today. It takes a village to raise us all.

P. SANGRA: That's true. So, not to be a downer, but are there any significant downfalls you see in the way RBB operates currently? Is there anything you could see improving for the next administration?

O. AMBERS: I love my work and my co-workers, but there's always room for improvement. Something I noticed early on is that the RBB lacks proper mental health services for families especially suffering from postpartum depression. Anytime you separate a mother from her biological child, you are going to get some major psychological and mental health problems.

P. SANGRA: Oh really, there's still not a system in place?

O. AMBERS: There are various programs across the different territories, but most are underfunded and have not seen too much success. A national effort by the federal government would really help I believe.

P. SANGRA: I see, that's good to know! Yesterday I met with Denver Jones, an adoption service specialist, who also made a comment about that. Hopefully Alexandria can create a new, national program with your suggestions in mind.

O. AMBERS: Ah, I know Denver! Speaking of adoption services, there's a lot of improvement that could be done in that department. They easily have the most complicated and difficult job at the RBB.

P. SANGRA: That's what I was told! The match between a family and a child is one of the biggest decisions of every child's life. And with a growing population, the RBB's adoption service agency is beginning to get overwhelmed and the waitlist for beginning the process of adopting a child is always extensive.

O. AMBERS: There's a controversial idea currently being developed of whether or not to try to train locals from each territory to assist more in their territory's RBB adoption services, as opposed to depending solely on Virgonian staff members. However, any real change will also have to come down from the Divine Ruler's administration or the elected Directors of the RBB.

P. SANGRA: Well there it is, exactly what we need for things to change, a new Divine Ruler with – now I guess I can only hope – an attentiveness to helping the people of the Commonwealth! Now, before we wrap things up I have to mention that, from the looks of it, we all could benefit from you joining the Directors, Doctor!

O. AMBERS: (Laughs) I'd lie if I said I hadn't thought the same exact thing a few times. We'll see where the tides take us. Thank you for the work you are doing. Please be careful of those who may want to stop you and stay safe. We'll talk soon.

END OF TRANSCRIPT.

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