Sharon sat quietly and inwardly frowned. A lot of human facial expressions were difficult while in her wolven form. Her muzzle wouldn't allow her to truly frown or smile or do anything that a human face could so easily do. Though that didn't mean she could feel frustration on certain issues. People like Walter Moxie caused plenty of frustration given their hatred or fear, but to some extent that was expected. Werewolves had been hidden for a long time, and human myths and legends didn't treat them well. There were a handful here and there that had the werewolf as the protagonist or at least where the werewolf wasn't obviously doing anything immoral and was only suspected of such action, but most of the stories that humans had on werewolves had them as the villain. Either the werewolf was satanic or it was mindless, which in the Middle Ages didn't lead to werewolves having a good image.
Hollywood's portrayal didn't really help their image either. They rarely, if ever, had a werewolf protagonist, and when there was, more often than not, his/her battle was to get rid of the "curse" as being a werewolf often related to them being mindless monsters. The "beast within" concept wasn't necessarily a bad one, as werewolves did have to deal with instincts that weren't human in nature, but Hollywood generally over did it in that regard. Werewolves could control their instincts and weren't mindlessly controlled by them. The only movies that really treated werewolves as "good guys" were typically silly in nature and essentially made them stupid in Sharon's opinion. So, when the "Incident" happened and people saw Sally Yeller transform in front of cameras, they naturally thought of the werewolves from movies like "The Howling" or "American Werewolf in London."
That didn't remove the "fear" issue, and when combined with old myths and legends, that only made it worse. People reacted in fear because most of what they knew told them not to fully believe what werewolves said about themselves. Countering that fear would be a lengthy one and one not easily won, though there were plenty of signs of progress here or there. Though, Nate's analogy wasn't entirely helpful. Sharon had graduated near the top of her class, both in College and later in Law School, and in her human form she ran a fairly successful practice. It had to be a private practice now, but there were no laws yet that disbarred her, and she had been pleasantly surprised to find her clients to be rather loyal.
Her education was more than enough know the law and history, and the Nazis or America's war with the Native Americans wasn't entirely applicable. Their crimes and actions were state sponsored. The hatred might be similar, the governments reactions to werewolves today hadn't been outright murderous nor blatantly racist. In fact while the government hadn't been entirely supportive at first, the fact that the federal government was even debating giving them equal rights was a very different situation genocidal actions of years past, and in Sharon's legal experience, jumping to that comparison caused more trouble than it helped. At times the comparison might be accurate, but that didn't help matters, particularly if the other side was intelligent enough to know where they were different from whoever they were being compared to.
As, while werewolves hadn't launched genocidal campaigns against humanity or bombed cities because they were werewolves, that doesn't mean that they weren't involved in human squabbles. Her own grandfather had been drafted and served as a bombardier in a B-17 in World War II. From what he had told Sharon, he had shared his secret privately with the rest of his plane's crew in order to keep his secret from the general population. So, he had in a sense bombed cities, but for the same reasons that the human members of US Army Air Force had to bomb cities. Though, she figured to let that drop. Arguing with someone who had been vocally supportive would only create trouble, and while they waited for the last commercial break to end, she sat in silence...
It was an awkward silence. Walter Moxie likely wasn't going to do anything deliberate, and so long as he didn't, she didn't think Nate would do too much more. Clarence Fishborne was quietly waiting, and likely placing his thoughts for how to end the show. The one who Sharon had the most concern for, was Karl. His plea for forgiveness was so blatantly obvious that he didn't need to repeat himself. Sharon knew that he didn't want to expose them and the fact that his actions had done so were eating at him. He looked a bit better now, but that didn't change where he had come from. After a few moments she noticed the director begin to count down again, which would mean they would resume the broadcast again.
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for following another enlightening episode of the People's Talk," Clarence announced, "In this we've continued to show the opinions on all sides of the present issues regarding werewolves and their place in society. And I for one would think that even with the differing opinions that we are in a position where our political leaders in Washington can see where we are truly different and where we are not so different... and where even all sides can agree. The opinions presented tonight even show that werewolves and those that hate them can agree on certain issues, even if for different reasons. Some like Walter Moxie see their exposure as a victory for their own cause... which would lead one to think that werewolves would be hateful at being exposed."
Sharon blinked for a moment.
"And yet, Sharon has not been hateful at being exposed, and has made some interesting commentary on that as well," Clarence continued, "which could give signs of encouragement for a compromise that will satisfy all sides. Something that would give werewolves the security of knowing that they won't be persecuted for what they are..."
Sharon, Nate, and Karl nodded to that.
"Along with assurances that werewolves won't take over humanity," Clarence then continued and watched Walter nod as well. "I'd think that does represent hope for a good future on the issue. Any final thoughts?"
"I can't say I trust them," Walter spoke to Clarence, though his tone was not necessarily as confrontational as before. It was as if he had been surprised by what Clarence had said. "And on some level I wouldn't want to compromise, but if HUMAN rights and safety are protected... I suppose I could live with that."
"I'd think everyone could live with that," Karl said slowly, "assure humanity that they'll be safe and assure the werewolves that they'll be free and equal. As I said before... they've had to have lived beside us for years and caused no problems that would warrant the hatred they've received."
"Yes," Sharon agreed, "the issue at hand is fear... yes we look different in wolf form... but where it counts we are the same people our human friends knew before the incident. I'm not arguing for instant recognition, but the chance to show that people need not fear us so readily."
"And hopefully, your opinions and even your example carry influence in Washington," Clarence finished, as he noticed the far wall clock counting down. The episode was running out of time and he had to cut it short, "For the People's Talk, I'm Clarence Fishborne. Good night and good talk."