[Bards] Speaking Truth to All: Our Recurring Burden

[Mike C. Baker]

> > > ... I'm already picking up on the divisions between the different
regions 
> > > in the kingdom, some of them very ugly indeed.   
> > > 	~Svetlana Andreivna Volkova
<snip> 
> > p.s. as an aside, I don't understand the comment about "divisions
between 
> > the different regions in the kingdom, some of them very ugly
indeed". 
> > Seriously. I don't understand that.
		
> By the way... I wasn't trying to minimize or dismiss your comment.
This is 
> exactly the sort of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) rumor that
certain 
> people love to repeat, especially to people who are new to the SCA (or

> Ansteorra) -- such as yourself -- who have no way of knowing whether
it's true.
>	
> Yes, I'm aware of certain in-duh-viduals who persist in whispering
into 
> newcomer's ears things like "oh, don't play with *them*... they don't
like 
> *us*...", etc., yada yada. These same people like to say things like
"all 
> Laurels are jerks, they'll make you cry if you ask for help", and "all
Kings 
> cheated to win Crown, but the Knights don't do a thing about it", or
some 
> other outrageous and utterly baseless lie. But just because someone
keeps 
> repeating the lie doesn't make it true.
>	
> Sorry for "going off" on this topic.
>	Michael  

Your Excellency, please get something straight in your mindset:  you
were not "going off".  

You were exercising an ancient right and responsibility of the bard,
something that has been described in other forums in the not-so-distant
past as "replacing bad information with better information.  Used to be
simply called speaking the truth of a thing, or some such similar
phrase.

Now, sometimes this is the matter of speaking *A* truth, as we
understand it.  There may be those out there in the wider kingdom who
truly believe that Ansteorra has regional rifts that are deep and
abiding -- you see it otherwise, I happen to agree, and Joe Stick-jock
may think something completely different yet again.  (Please, no offense
intended toward heavy weapons fighters with the generic use-name.)

The poisoned tongues of those who deliberately misinform are a risk that
it seems we must fight back again, and again, and again.  I don't know a
better way to take care of the issue other than continual vigilance and
recurring public announcements -- at least some of which are even better
when delivered in poem, tune, and tale.

Adieu, Amra / ttfn - Mike / Pax ... Kihe

Mike C. Baker
SCA: al-Sayyid Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra, F.O.B, OSCA
"Other": Reverend Kihe Blackeagle PULC (the DreamSinger Bard)
Opinions? I'm FULL of 'em
alt. e-mail: KiheBard at hotmail.com  OR MCBaker216 at cs.com
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