Report 7: “Stand Tall” Protest Rally, Interview 1: Jennifer Sheller
As noted in the previous article included with this study that I received a few days ago, it’s increasingly apparent that my time and funds will soon be cut short. In order to maximize the breadth of information I have access to before a decision is handed down from on high regarding my future involvement with Techilogic’s Human Relations Department, I’ve resolved to change up my movements for what will probably be the final leg of my study as it is officially sanctioned by Techilogic.
Today I made my way to Washington D.C. on my own dime to help allay the curiosities of my superiors in order to attend a protest rally taking place in front of the city’s primary PMRD licensing facility.
Jennifer Sheller is a fifty-four year old lawyer and activist with “Stand Tall,” a nonprofit group specifically formed to counter the widespread use of the PMRD as a disciplinary or penal device on human beings, and coincidentally the one holding the rally today. She began as a volunteer with the group six years ago at its inception, but since then, and especially with the introduction of The Shrink Act, her political and social work has increased tirelessly such that she is now a primary coordinator of the Washington D.C. branch. Though not married, she maintains a residence in the city with her longtime stockbroker boyfriend Justin Olivar.
By the time I arrived at the area of the protest, the event was already in full swing, with upwards of five hundred people present. All were clad in the group’s spirited yellow and navy blue colors and holding a variety of homemade signs on posters and sandwich boards. The crowd was representative of a surprisingly balanced range of ages, ethnicities, and genders. Several chants were already going in unison, among them being: “Stand Up, Raise Your Voice” and “Down with Shrinking, Up with Citizens.”
Upon catching sight of Jennifer as I made my way through the protest area, I was struck by her stature. She stands at easily six feet and two inches with the active build of someone who could’ve once played basketball and very well might still on a casual basis, which made it easier to find her amongst the throng of protestors. When I first approached her, she asked that I wait for her under a tent that had been set up to hand out pamphlets and information to passerby, which was also far enough removed from the main crowd that our voices could actually be heard. She walked over about ten minutes later after temporarily handing off the lead of the protest to one of her volunteers, stating she was ready to begin.
After the interview, she insisted on being referred to in my notes as Jenny.
TC: It’s good to meet you, Ms. Sheller. I appreciate you taking time to talk to me today. I realize you’re pretty busy here today and want to let you get back to work as soon as I can.
Jenny: No problem, but you’re right, we’ve got our hands full here this morning.
TC: I’ll admit, I was surprised you were so willing to speak to me, and not just because of how much is going on this morning.
Jenny: I’m sure. When I first heard your message asking for an interview at our rally, I was tempted to call back just to leave a few choice words on your machine because of the company you come from, but, well… I did some research on you and changed my tune.
TC: I’m certainly glad you did. Could we get started?
Jenny: Please.
TC: How did you get involved with Stand Tall?
Jenny: I was there when it was started six years ago. I’d been doing some work on my own for a number of years before that, actually, since the PMRD started becoming the phenomenon that it is now. Writing letters, giving talks, getting meetings, making connections through the firm I used to work for. None of it was really getting enough traction for me to be satisfied with it, and then I got wind that they were starting up a real activist group for others like me to come together and pool our strengths, specifically designed to target the PMRD and all the mess it’s gotten this country into. It was a no-brainer for me then to get as involved as I could.
TC: Thank you. Now, moving on, I was hoping you could share something with me. Most of the people I’ve spoken to for my study are those directly impacted by The Shrink Act in some capacity, either those living under its discipline system, or those who have direct authority over these people as caretakers. Would you fit into either of those groups?
Jenny: No. I haven’t been penalized in any way by the Act, and I haven’t participated in anyone’s so-called “rehabilitation.” In fact, I make a point to form no personal relationships with those who would utilize the system to punish or otherwise denigrate people.
TC: I see. Then, of course, I have to ask: what is the interest for you? What gave you the drive to become so active with the group?
There was a pause here as she brushed her hand over her mouth, something I later interpreted as a nervous tic once I saw it happen several more times.
Jenny: I’m just someone who saw fellow citizens being cruelly mistreated and deprived of their rights to personal safety and basic human dignity. I decided that action had to be taken.
TC: Ms. Sheller, I wonder if I might be so bold as to ask about something else I came across in my research.
Jenny sighed, and visibly cringed.
Jenny: Oh. We’re going there, are we?
TC: I’m sorry if that sounds forward. I leave it entirely up to you to comment on it. Just for the sake of getting the most honest picture of the situation, though, it seemed worth asking. But if you-
Jenny: (cutting in) No. No, that’s all right. If you’re really wanting to use me as part of your study, we might as well clear the air and give you… the fuller story. Go ahead. Ask what you’re going to ask about me when I was nineteen.
TC: If you’re sure. My notes say that in your teenage years you were a personal friend of Carly Arton, perpetrator of what most just call The Carly Incident and occasion of the first documented shrinking of human beings.
Jenny: That is what they’re calling it now, isn’t it? Yes, you’re right. We were friends. Best… friends. Teammates on the basketball team in middle and high school and basically inseparable the rest of the time. Since we were twelve years old, actually, and up until we were freshmen undergrads, when everything… came out. About her. About what she did… to her brother.
Jenny’s tone became positively disgusted at the mention of this time in her life.
TC: Please correct me if this is out of order, but would it be unfair to assume that this event played a role at all in your current enthusiasm for Stand Tall?
Jenny: Not at all. I don’t bring it up if it doesn’t warrant mentioning, because I want the focus of my efforts to be on getting justice for people, not on a dramatic story from thirty years ago. But of course it played a role. And since we’re already discussing it like this, I might as well admit that it was really the main reason I started working in the first place.
TC: At what point did you realize that you wanted to do this kind of work?
Jenny: Well, obviously, this kind of work wasn’t even necessary until the PMRD could be legally used on people, but even when it first entered public use for nonorganic matter twenty years ago, it worried me a great deal and got me thinking about places they were going to start taking the technology. Just because of what I knew had happened when someone who had been… very close to me, someone who was one of the friendliest and most dedicated people I had known, was capable of… well…
TC: I see. And finding out, then, about Ms. Arton’s activities, this was what sparked that interest in fighting for social justice?
Another pause came on here. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was I could’ve said differently to illicit such discomfort from Jenny when she’d already been more than forthcoming.
Jenny: Yes. Yes, it was.
My analyst’s intuition was buzzing inside my head about the likely presence of sudden disingenuousness on the part of my interviewee, but I decided to ignore it for the time being.
TC: Fascinating.
Jenny: It was a pretty major turnaround. I needed it, honestly. To be able to keep moving.
TC: Really. I wasn’t aware of that part. Why?
Jenny: I had a lot of… problems. After Carly was found out. I… had to take some time away from it all. It wasn’t good.
TC: What do you mean?
Jenny: I had a breakdown, I guess is what you’d call it? That was what they called it. I just think of it now as the time I shut down completely.
TC: What caused it?
Another brush of the hand.
Jenny: No one thing. Really. I was just a very… different person as a teenager.
TC: Who isn’t?
Jenny: No. I mean I was something much different. I was in a bad way. Frankly, I think the breakdown needed to happen to steer me back toward anything remotely normal. I was a ticking time bomb.
TC: Are you saying it had something to do with the Artons?
Jenny blinked rapidly a few times, possibly from the sunlight streaming under the tent, but by this point I had to assume it was for other reasons.
Jenny: Somewhat. Yes. That was a… major blow to me.
TC: Having to find out about Jack Arton?
Jenny: Yes, but more just coming to terms with it. What was done to him.
TC: While he was with his sister, you mean?
Another brush of the hand.
Jenny: Yes.
TC: So how did that all go, then? Did you receive medical attention for the breakdown?
Jenny: Yes. I spent almost a year in a clinic after that. I went in a couple months after Carly was found out. All the thinking I was doing about… everything, at that time. Who I was, who I knew, some choices I’d made because I was so focused on myself. It destroyed me. I couldn’t cope anymore.
TC: If you don’t mind my asking, what was it about that time? What made you so different from the person you are today?
Jenny: There were certain things I… wanted. Certain things I thought I was entitled to, I suppose. I believed I was something much more important than I was. Than I am.
TC: I see. Were those kinds of thoughts overcome during your time at the clinic?
Jenny: Yes, they were. It was like a personal purge. When I came back out, I started doing things a lot differently. I changed schools and cut ties with almost all of the people I used to think were friends. It wasn’t an easy transition because of how long I’d been in, but eventually I learned to refocus myself. I gave up the basketball team and started putting all my effort into volunteer work and my grades. Ended up getting into law school, worked my butt off for a lot of years, and now here I am doing this.
TC: Thank you for sharing. I know it can’t be easy.
Jenny: It ought to be said now and again. I won’t be the kind of person who becomes complacent ever again.
TC: That makes sense. Now, I know about your drive to do this kind of work, but with how involved you are here, I’d think you have a decent picture of everyone else’s path too. What about the people here? Where do they come from?
Jenny: Some of them, like me, just saw a problem, but many of them have personal experience. Many were shrunken frequently in their youth as a punishment and suffered a great deal of hurt for it since then. Some were even previous wielders of the punishment coming back for redemption after realizing the damage it did. Still more of them are those that were recently released from the first sentences handed down by the Shrink Act.
TC: Interesting.
Jenny: More and more, this is happening. The Shrink Act is acting as a call to many people. It’s getting them to raise their voices. They realize the time to act is now.
TC: What would you say to the people who argue for the benefits of the Act?
Jenny: Which ones are you referring to?
TC: Well, for example, the people that say groups like yours are trying to dismantle the entire penal system and let people off scot-free.
Jenny: I see. I’ve encountered this idea quite a bit. Look, many people have done wrong. I myself have done… a great deal of wrong in my life. I don’t shy away from that, nor do many of them. Corrective measures will always be around, as I see it, because we don’t live in a perfect society, and we certainly still won’t even if the PMRD as a disciplinary weapon goes away. That’s not what this is about. This is about maintaining humanity. Basic humanity. No one deserves to have theirs stripped from them. All we want is for people to keep their ears open.
TC: Very good.
Jenny: Any other challenges you were referring to?
TC: I think another common one posed to you is the idea that the Shrink Act does seem to be having benefits for certain people from juvenile delinquents to hardened criminals. They say removing the Shrink Act would undo the good done here.
Jenny: The answer is still the same. We don’t deny the benefit of corrective measures under certain circumstances, even ones as wildly flawed as the Act. We simply need people to keep aware of what their system is doing for them. And to them. That’s all.
TC: One last question for you. Where do you see Stand Tall advancing in the next couple years? What are the goals?
Jenny: Ideally? Abolishing the Shrink Act completely, but we have to be realistic now because of the unfortunate momentum the thing has gained recently, and probably will continue to gain, especially with Judy Stevens’ senatorial campaign. There’s a list of short terms goals probably too long to get into fully, but the idea is to get people talking in the right places about what makes the Shrink Act so wrong. We need people to start understanding not just the dangers its use puts citizens in, but our entire system. The kind of mindset it’s creating on justice, on personal rights, on corrective measures… it’s sickening, and it terrifies me that so many people can’t see it yet.
TC: What is your role in all of that, then? The group itself, I mean.
Jenny: We like to see ourselves as liaisons to truth. We present the numbers, the accounts, the voices. And we hope people, even those who seem to believe they’ve achieved peace just by taping everyone’s mouths closed, can begin to see what’s happening for themselves.
TC: So you’re here to be a gateway to the information.
Jenny: Precisely. Of course, it’s not our job to just stand around, either.
TC: It’s your job to stand tall.
Jenny: (laughs) I didn’t know you Techilogic people had a sense of humor, even if it’s a terrible one.
TC: Some of us try. Thank you so much for your time, Ms. Sheller.
Jenny: Please. Just Jenny.
I thanked Jenny for her time and managed to secure a follow-up interview for an update on the progress of Stand Tall in combatting the Shrink Act in a year’s time, though I had serious doubts about whether or not the interview would still be taking place in an official context. Regardless of whether it is, I do hope to hear more from her at some point, considering how much I had the strong sense she was hiding about her youth. She is, of course, entitled to privacy about her personal matters, but there was a certain reservation she seemed to have around matters that didn’t directly involve her breakdown that give me reason to believe there’s a lot more to hear from her. It was, in my opinion, a successful preliminary interview. After confirming another meeting, Jenny returned into the crowd to push her way back to the front.
No sooner had I finished packing my briefcase back up under the tent and began peering over the heads of the crowd for the nearest way back to the parking lot when I felt a tap on my shoulder.