75th Candidate Pierce Eckhart [D6]

It seems that her lips have gone dry and still on her face. She doesn't often smile like she used to — not since six of her children died almost consecutively. But despite their deaths, despite the fact that every day she wakes up with a weight in her chest and carries their memory with her, she tries her best to carry on as usual. Negotiate her business deals, help her wife with the organization and distribution of goods. She doesn't pretend that everything is fine; she just tries to keep going when everything is falling apart.

Today, the day she will deliver her speech is no different. When she stands up on the stage, she draws her focus away from the blue feelings storming inside and to everything she's been working for — a new potential career.

It would be good to have something keeping her busy these days.

"Citizens of District Six," Pierce greets them with a small smile and a nod. "It is my belief that our district is one of the brightest and most promising. Because we are scientists, we hold the future in the palm of our hand. But District Six is not the greatest district it can be — not yet. We still have problems to face, and I believe that I may have the solution to solve them.

"One of our greatest concerns is mental health. We are scientists and doctors, and yet we seem to focus primarily on the illnesses that appear on the outside. You can see flesh wounds and disease on patients. But many of us ignore the mental scars that plague a larger number of the population than most would believe." And in this moment, she is reminded of Elvaina — her beautiful daughter who wanted to end her life so badly that she volunteered for the Games, only for Elettra and Iris to follow. She wished she had known what was going on with her before it was too late. Pierce takes a deep, shaky breath before continuing. "I propose a greater focus on psychology — more advancements in the field as well as more funding for psychological care and programs for the college. We need to wake up and realize that psychology is just as important as the other sciences."

(If we had, maybe I wouldn't have lost my daughters.)

"Science is the future of Panem, and so we must work to make that future as bright as we can. Our country, not just the Capitol, but all eleven other districts are counting on us. While we have enough funding and resources for our college, and an adequate amount for the later years of public schooling, we should try to implement science even earlier in the lives of our citizens. By that I mean in primary school, in the earliest years of a child's schooling. The sooner students are taught material, the faster they will advance in science, which will greatly benefit our district.

"However, science is not necessarily for everyone. Although some people may be raised and taught in schools to be doctors and scientists, those careers are not best suited for every single citizen. Therefore, we should broaden our horizons as well as focusing them. The best example of another field that is still economically beneficial to our district is business. While science may be the future of Panem, business is the future of District Six. We should split our focuses between bettering our country and bettering ourselves. Most of our greatest inventions are distributed more to other parts of Panem rather than to us; our medical industry is for everyone else. Therefore, business should be for us — an industry to strengthen District Six.

"I myself have been successful in the business world. I was schooled in science like the rest of you, my focus being the pharmaceutical field. Though I still work in the lab, I also run PharmaCon, one of the larger pharmaceutical businesses in the district." She doesn't mention what else she is known for — her six dead children by the entire district, and her wife's drug ring by the criminals of Six. "I am an example of business being able to be successful in our district and strengthen its economy — imagine the amount of growth if business was promoted more."

"Thank you, District Six. To a new future for our people!"