Difference between revisions of "George Madison"

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George Warren Madison (born June 12, 1968) is a political and diplomatic figure from Quintessence of Dust, currently serving as their Ambassador to the United Nations.

Early life and education

George Warren Madison was born and raised in the Regency district of Highmark City to William Madison, a lecturer in geology at University College Highmark, and Annabelle Leclerc, a classical pianist. His brother Joseph was his senior by two years. Annabelle toured widely, unfortunately meaning she was never around much; she then began drinking heavily, unfortunately meaning she was. When Madison was seven, his parents separated, and Annabelle committed suicide in the Central Hotel two years later. He and his brother attended the Highmark Primary 204 and Third Regency Upper school, where he was considered an able but unexceptional student with a particular affinity for languages. He was interested in electronics, and his first jobs were working at local repair shops.

He enrolled at the University of West Sponson, but was unenthusiastic about continuing his education, preferring to travel and find a job that interested him. Originally registered to read mathematics, he switched major twice, first to electrical engineering and then physics, although he did well in his minor, German, in which he was almost fluent. Though somewhat unhappy in his studies, he was popular among the student body, working as engineer for the college radio station and joining the university chapter of the Liberty Party, though he later admitted he knew "almost nothing about politics, and cared less" at this stage.

Military service

When the Second Colonial War broke out in 1988, Madison surprised everyone who knew him by enlisting in the Quintessential Marine Corps. He had to that point displayed no ambition to serve in the military and a distinct antipathy to the Officer Training Corps and campus recruiters; however, he ws obtaining failing grades in his studies, and the desire to see the world and possibly make use of his language skills in the Francophone Colonies was a prime motivation. He began writing regular letters to his brother, then studying to become a doctor, which chronicled his changing attitude to the war, from initial enthusiasm to complete disgust. After completing his initial training in Moria, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion 4th Marines on South Island. Until December 1988, Madison's unit saw no combat, mainly assisting in rebuilding local infrastructure, and in his letters he stated that he did not anticipate he would do so. He abandoned a brief attempt to continue his education by distance learning, but completed two Marine courses in mechanics.

The Bloody Dawn Offensive completely changed the course of the war, and Madison was caught in this tidal shift. While on sentry duty at Camp Plage Blanche he was shot in the leg by a PRA sniper and received minor shrapnel injuries later that night when a suicide bomber ran into the medical station at which he was being treated. His injuries reduced him to peripheral involvement in the initial counterassault to regain South Island. In early 1989 he was involved in Operation Clear Skies to recapture the rebel-held city of Dragard. It was during this encounter that he first killed, shooting two PRA saboteurs attempting to set off an improvised explosive device; his subsequent letters to his brother were preoccupied with repeated analysis of this event. As the South Island campaign wore on, he was awarded decorations for valour and promotions reflecting his leadership skills, but was already becoming disillusioned with military life and the political context of what he was doing.

In August, 1989, the 1st Battalion was part of the massive amphibious assault on North Island. At the Battle of Notre Dame du Mont, Sergeant Madison was forced to take command of his platoon after their commander was killed, and led the capture of one of the main PRA bases on the island, infiltrating the camp by night and taking General Mohammed el-Abbas prisoner (later admitting he had no idea he had detained such a high-ranking officer). He was awarded the Marine Cross for his actions. Over the subsequent he earned two Red Ribbons for heroic actions, and was promoted to First Sergeant; in October, he received a battlefield commission to Second Lieutenant. One week after his promotion, he was shot in the back while patrolling the Leine River, and underwent minor surgery, though he recovered and rejoined his men in January, 1990, whereupon he was made company commander.

Shortly after his return, he earned the Medal of Honour, the highest decoration of the Quodite military, for his actions at Conchou. Severely weakened after months of unsuccessful jungle warfare and under near-constant attack by guerillas, his company was in disarray, but was nonetheless ordered to destroy a facility that intelligence indicated was a PRA communications point. It quickly transired that the base was in fact a - heavily guarded - munitions store as well. Madison and two other men held down the PRA forces with suppressing fire, allowing the others to escape, firing until they ran out of ammunition and then using the machine gun of a crashed Army helicopter; they then laid explosives and fled, destroying the entire compound and the weapons stores within it.

Depression

By the close of the war, Madison had spent 35 months in the Colonies and almost two years in combat, earning a promotion to First Lieutenant. He was the most highly decorated soldier of the Second Colonial War, with awards including:

• Medal of Honour
• Marine Cross
• Red Ribbon with Star
• Medal of Merit
• White Ribbon
• Blue Ribbon
• Medal of Blood with Three Stars
• Good Conduct Medal
• Presidental Unit Citation with Star
• Colonial Campaign Medal with Five Stars
• Amphibious Assault Medal with Star
• North Island Campaign Medal
• Colonial War Victory Medal
• Peacekeeping Medal (North Island)
• Marine Combat Medal
• Marksman Badge with Star

Nonetheless, Madison had become an isolated figure, haunted by combat memories and despondent over the hopes for peace in the region. His superiors voiced concern over his growing instability and he failed a psychological evaluation for a promotion to Captain. He was nonetheless involved in the final action of the war, the capture of the PRA capital at Saint-Luc. On the morning of the attack, he was informed that Joseph, who had joined the Army Medical Corps unbeknown to his brother, had been killed when his transport was struck by a rocket propelled grenade. When his company captured the rebel radio station, Madison locked himself inside and played a recording of Hymn to Freedom by Oscar Peterson throughout the city; military police were forced to break down the door and arrest him, although he was never charged. He accepted an honourable discharge and finally returned to Highmark City.

Unaware of his acclaim as a war hero, he intended to live with his father, discovering that he too had died, in a car accident. After being ejected from the family apartment as a squatter, he lived destitute for nine months, alternating between sleeping on the streets and in shelters. He was addicted to painkillers and suffered from constant depression, which was later believed to be post-traumatic stress disorder. It was around this time he renounced his Catholicism. Ironically, his salvation was the Third Colonial War, which flared up in early 1991. When he found out about the return of war, Madison sent his medals, which he had kept hidden in a shoebox, back to Congress in protest, and was tracked down by leaders of the anti-war campaign.

Political activism

After a period in rehabilitation, Madison joined the Peace Alliance and became a prominent spokesman. As a respected veteran, he appealled to a broader cross-section of the Quodite public than the rabble of unshaven hippies that dominated the movement; perhaps more importantly, he remained a moderate and distanced himself from the more extreme demands, for example advocating statehood instead of independence and expressing his distaste for the far-left rhetoric of many protesters. He also staunchly defended veterans and criticised attacks on them as "worse than the War itself". This angered some, and his role was downplayed over time, although he was appointed Chair of Veterans For Peace shortly before the end of the war.

Following this, Madison decided to restart his education. Already 23, and with some course credits from his initial studies at West Sponson, he was accepted into a fast-tracked program at Grinwarwick Central University. After a year again cycling through majors, from political science to philosophy to psychology, he spent nine months in Ariddia at the University of Rêvane, honing his French and developing an interest in anthropology after reading about the Wymgani people. On his return, he completed his BA in Anthropology and French, and then took a professional translation course. He worked briefly on the staff of the French language newspaper La Poussière

During this time, he returned to the political scene with the Campaign for Nuclear Abolition, which he served as President of for six months. He was arrested over sixty times, mostly at protests at the Sillan Military Base, and in 1993 he was charged with assault of a policeman during a march in Highmark City, but was acquitted (and the officer suspended from duty) when the photo lab admitted they "might have got the picture the wrong way round". As before, he became frustrated with radical elements distorting the overall message of the campaign and continued to criticise such groups; however, he did acknowledge their contribution later on. When Quintessence of Dust eliminated its nuclear stockpile in 1994, he was awarded the Dove Medal by the Global Peace Strategy Institute, making him the youngest recipient in the award's history. He donated the prize money to three charity organizations. Although he continued to work with CNA for several years, assisting with disarmament and anti-testing movements in other nations, he eventually resigned after being convinced that their opposition to nuclear energy was "untenable". And "totally stupid".

Political career

State Department

Unexpectedly, give his reputation as an anti-authority figure, he was hired by the State Department in 1996 to work as an interpreter, although he was not initially assigned to an embassy and mainly worked with foreign dignitaries in Highmark City. This changed in 1998, when he was assigned to the new embassy to the Quintessential Tropics. It has been alleged that during this time he undertook intelligence work, and he has refused to comment on such speculations; however, it seems unlikely he would have been trusted with any kind of military intelligence given some of his past statements and actions. Former director of the Quintessential Intelligence Agency Robert Pauletta once remarked, "C'mon...we're not stupid, I mean, okay, we're pretty stupid, yeah, we're stupid, but we're not that stupid."

The mission ended in disaster when fighting broke out on North Island and New PRA forces seized the embassy. Madison immediately began agitating for a peaceful, diplomatic response, and was included in the subsequent negotiating mission. He remained on North Island after the Third Treaty of Saint-Luc to help set up the plebiscites, although he felt the Ninth Amendment to the Quintessential Constitution gave too much ground by treating the colonies as three separate states.

Congress

In 2000, he was nominated by the Liberal Party as a candidate for the vacant People's Assembly seat for the 22nd District in Highmark City. After enduring the least successful decade in their electoral history and with tempers running high as the Northern and Southern factions bickered intensely, they hoped to regain a significant share of Congressional Seats, and the Presidency. In the first they failed, and in the latter they failed miserably, but Madison himself did secure election in a low-key contest. He was not forced to campaign heavily and gave a tepid performance in the candidate debate in which he admitted ignorance on a range of policy issues; however, his local and national popularity ensured he won comfortably.

This popularity quickly dissipated as he became quite intensely loathed by almost every other Congressional representative. He was repeatedly cited for breaching parliamentary decorum and spent most of his time on the Small Business Committee thinking up uniquely tailored insults for all 200 of his colleagues (later adding "and the Senators are just cunts"). He was also assigned to the Education and Veterans' Affairs committees. Regarded as a political maverick, often on the losing side of votes and sponsoring numerous bills that never approached quorum,he did nonetheless succeed in getting some of his policy aims across, particularly as lead sponsor of the omnibus Veterans Act of 2002. During the floor debate he spoke movingly of his own experiences.

His reelection in 2002 was a gruelling encounter with Social Democrat Dennis Limbowsky, for which he ran as an "Independent Liberal" following the party split. A skilful campaign was mounted against him, making use of many of several ill-considered remarks, most notably "Democracy is fucking stupid" and "Who cares about taxes?"; he eventually won by only a few thousand votes, and reported himself "emotionally drained" by the contest. He was less active in his second term, although he succeeded in passing some important educational reforms, blocking a freeze on federal funding for abortion clinics, and pissing off a whole new raft of politicians. He declined renomination in 2004.

National Liberty Party Chairman

Despite not being the most popular figure in the Liberal Party nor being concerned with strictly adhering to party platform in his political stances, Madison agreed to chair a National Liberty Party convention to try to reunite the factions that had split in 2001. He was supported by powerful Senator and Presidential hopeful Eli Baker, who liked Madison's "unique brand of psychoticism". However, the convention ended in a stalemate with no solution reached. Speaking on his final day in Congress, he gave a now famous speech in which he described the situation as "disgusting" and that he would only rejoin the party "when its members passed this political puberty".

Personal life

Madison has been married and divorced twice. In 1994 he married Nicola Planck, with whom he endured three years of turbulence before they finally separated in 1997. They had one child, Elizabeth, born in 1995; he rarely sees his daughter, who lives with her mother and stepfather. In 2001 he remarried, to Peggy Anston, a trade unionist. Their marriage ended in 2005, but was always strained by his consistently anti-union stance throughout his Congressional career, which he now describes as "just a warm-up".

Unusually, Madison was raised a Catholic and received Confirmation). On his return from the war he went to Confession at his old church and found himself unable to talk to the priest about his wartime experiences; shortly afterwards, he became an atheist, which he remains to this day, despite occasional expressions of agnostic sentiment. His opposition to Quintessential Catholic teaching on a number of matters has led to his being condemned numerous times by Catholic organizations.

Politicial beliefs

Madison was a member of the Liberal Party for almost twenty years, but resigned after it became clear factional interests were unwilling to reconcile their differences. However, in Congress and elsewhere, he has often expressed opinions that diverge from orthodox Quintessential liberal politics and has generally refused to characterise himself as anything but an "anti-ideologue".