ANST - P-issue/Reality Check

[Deborah and Robert Wade]

At 05:11 PM 2/18/98 -0600, you wrote:

>I have seen and wrote a great deal over this issue in the last couple of
>days. I have seen point and counterpoint. For and against. What I have
>yet to see is for somebody to actually list pro's and con's for this
>matter. I bet you will find alot of interesting things come up when this
>is done. Any takers? It would probably be better if one would do pro and
>the other con.
>
>Richard Fairbourne
>

Have seen no reply to this post to date, and would like to suggest the
following for consideration.

It seems to me that the pros & cons are reducible to the single question of
self-perception.  Those who are pro feel their regional identity rivals
their local and Kingdom ones.  Those who are con do not.

All other reasons I've seen proposed seem to be moot side-issues.  To
summarize them: Establishing a new Branch neither decreases nor maintains
the current level of bureaucracy -- it increases and adds to the level of
responsibility of officers.  Similarly, the number of Events on the
calender would continually increase as the Branch forms its own traditions.
 I expect that those who are con do not feel the increase of
responisibility is a worthwhile price to pay for official recognition as a
populace.  Further, the fear in some that Principality Status means
alienation from the Kingdom is understandable, but invalid -- those who
currently want to travel within the entire Kingdom would continue to do so
regardless.

Finally, I would urge those who are pro examine the reason(s) for their
group perception and then attempt to discover the history of how they
arose.  Doing so seems to me their best chance at reasonable discussion
with others.  (An aside to any conducting polls -- I would recommend asking
non-members as well, but break down your statistics into members &
non-members.  Although only members officially count in petitions, a change
in membership within the area(s) in question wouldn't be unreasonable to
expect if a petition or vote was imminent.)

Tostig
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