ANST - Restrictions on Reigns

[Ronnie]

>Let me try to clarify: If certain Kingdoms have problems due to Crowns
>trading back and forth every six months, then the populace of THOSE
>KINGDOMS should have the balls to go to the BoD and say, "These two
>yokels are being bullies, abusing their royal power and messing up our
>game. Make 'em sit on the bench for a while." Then the BoD should
>consider the actions of the individuals involved, and take what action
>is necessary IN THAT CASE. If we are to have a Society based on
>individual honor and not corporate conformity, that is.

I like the quality of thinking this post shows, as well as the idea it
expresses.  

The populace in a kingdom that's in the grips of the kinds of personalities,
politics, or behaviors that can lead to full-scale BoD intervention may be
relatively helpless or even inert for too many reasons to list here, to
achieve the kind of organized ground-swell suggested.  

Thus, it seems, taking the above thought a further step, that folks in
kingdoms that don't have the problems have a similar obligation.  That is,
when we learn that the BoD (by whatever method, or query) may be considering
taking a step, and that step can affect kingdoms that are free of whatever
it is the BoD's worried about, the individuals in those kingdoms should be
telling the BoD, "those yokels are being bullies, abusing their royal
power," etc. 

Again and again we hear, "the SCA belongs to its members.  We keep it
floating with dues, volunteerism, and so on."  Well, we should have the
fortitude to protect our investments in it, including by encouraging the BoD
to affect the individual kingdom(s) that are having the problem(s) that
could lead to "legislation" that could affect us.  

As you suggested, it's like Congress: if we don't run it, it will run us.  

Maybe a better idea than a blanket "time out schedule" would be a Kingdom
Sanction, based on the number of times in a given period that the same
person(s) keep showing up reigning.  It would then only affect the
kingdom(s) where it keeps happening, and the rest of us who play with honor
and grace are free of both the potential stricture, and the stigma
throughout the Knowne World.  

But then, that raises a problem of innocent members of the offending
kingdom's populace having to live with the stigma.  Well, it's an infant
thought.  On one hand, some enterprisingly dishonorable person could
probably find a way to use the sanction or the stigma to political
advantage.  On the other, both could motivate a kingdom's populace to action
that might stop and/or avoid such problems.

For me, I favor fewer laws or rules, could be happy with, "Don't infringe
anyone else's rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (happy
Independence Day!).  The problem is, laws and rules aren't written to curb
the "good guys'" behaviors.  It's to protect *their* rights from people who
*didn't* adopt values and morality as a lifestyle.
Ronnie. 

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