Author's Note: and, presenting the other side of the argument...

Dear people of the rebellion,

You have to know, it didn't start out this way. They can't turn someone into a monster right away. You start out normal, someone you recognize, someone you know. And then it's one little thing at a time, tiny battles, things that don't seem to make any difference, until you realize that you don't know who you are anymore. Or worse, you never realize. You keep going on with your life, still thinking that you're the same, but you've changed. You've changed so much. And then it's too late.

I'd like to say that I was a pretty normal kid growing up, but it's all relative. I was born into an upper-middle-capitol-class family. I was never in want of anything my vain heart desired, and my parents kissed me goodnight, every night. At that point in my life, I had barely heard of the districts. We didn't know what they were like, or the people within them. They were never real to us children- just a strange land off in the distance.

Of course we saw them on television, everyone did. The Hunger Games were a yearly event. As a child, I watched with naive awe as the small, dirty district people were turned into magnificent creatures of delight. Like my fellows, every year since I was born, I would watch as the district people would fight to earn their freedom. To our childish minds, it was like a fairy tale. The hero would fight others to win the prize, to live like us Capitol people. It was a beautiful game to us, and one of glorious fun.

We knew that people died in the Hunger Games every year, but death is not palpable to a child. To us, things that were good were those which our parents approved of. If the government supported the Hunger Games, how could they be wrong? In addition, the tributes were never real people to us. The only ones the mattered in our lives were the victors. Their victory was celebrated monstrously. And those who won were given lives like ours, and the chance to come back to our beautiful Capitol every year.

I may not have been the most intelligent child, but even I realized that the people who were part of the government were the happy, rich, successful people. And the government didn't like people who asked too many questions. I decided, as a child, that I wanted to be an important person in the Capitol. I loved the Hunger Games, and I wanted to be a part of them. And to do that, I wouldn't ask too many questions. Ignorant, I decided, was a much easier way to live my life.

As teenagers, our rebellious nature was catered to by the other extreme. Our need to hate was satisfied by giving us an easy target. We were taught that about the first rebellion, how they had killed us, and our children, how they needed to be punished. We became blood thirsty. Our need to question and rebel was turned outwards, towards the enemies of the Capitol, the ones who had tried to destroy our utopia. Our extreme self-centeredness that all teenagers have kept us from sympathizing with the districts, the 'enemy'.

Logically speaking, the people in the Capitol who were most likely to rebel against the government would be the teenagers, and the people in their 20's. Younger, and we idealized it. Older, and we had others to protect. But our government is not unintelligent, and know us. But we were so completely brainwashed against the districts that we began to enjoy the Hunger Games because of their true purpose; to punish the districts.

As we grew older, our perspective grew wider. Capitol people do not grow up as quickly as people in the districts. And by the time we learned to empathize, it was too late. We had children of our own, children who we needed to protect. Our world was not perfect, and eventually someone would change it, but our lives were better if life stayed the way it was. We had been taught to be self-centered all our lives, and that didn't just go away.

Yes, we knew that killing children was evil and fundamentally wrong, but no one was willing to risk their own family for someone else's. How could I, so close to this evil, so dependent on it, stop it? I was just one, and no one could be trusted while the government watched our every move. Also, the districts were a powder keg of resentment, and I did not want to see the repercussions.

It was a saddening truth, but one that we all secretly accepted. Some love the Hunger Games, and they are the people who have never grown up. They resemble children in their sheep-like devotion. They are the ones who foolishly believe that the government will always be all-powerful. But other of us know better. The districts will not bow down forever. With this realization came the fear that there would come a day that someone would spark a rebellion, and there would be nothing that we could do.

So yes, I know that what I have accepted as normal has killed. I know that you may view us as evil, stupid, and weak. I can accept that. It may even be true. You say that we don't know what it is like to see our children killed on national television, but we understand the danger all too well. We have let it happen because nothing would be worse than our own children dying, a nightmare you have brought upon us. Selfish beings that we are, we were willing to sacrifice your children for the sake of our own.

A disgusting truth, but true never the less. I do not try to justify my actions, only explain my mindset.

Sincerely, Effie Trinket

Author's Note: so far, no response to this story... Anyone? Really? I can sense the tumbleweed...