[Northern] A plea, (long) was hey everbody

[Fitzmorgan at cs.com]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
This is rather long but I hope you will find it worth your time.  It started
out as onr thing and turned into something else.  Though I quote H.E Maleah
it is not directed at her in particular.

In a message dated 5/14/01 7:13:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
maleah at mmcable.com writes:

      > Gwilim,
>     We would be happy to talk to you or anyone else about this subject at
> any time. We have never made a secret of our views or our reasons. The only
> way to resolve any of this in a healthy fashion is to publicly speak of our
> concerns, desires and actions. I do not now nor have I ever expected
> everyone to agree with me but I do expect everyone's views in the North to
> be considered and will fight in whatever arena necessary to make that
> happen.
>
> Yours respectfully and in service to Namron and Ansteorra,
> Maleah
>

       I'm glad to hear someone from your side of the issue say that.  I
attended several of the Principality discussions that took place over the
last year or so.  I heard a lot from people who were pro-Principality and a
lot from people who didn't really know what it was about and wanted to learn,
and a bit from people who were still trying to make up their mind.  But what
I didn't hear in the meetings I attended were people who were against us
becoming a principality at this time and were willing to stand up and say so
and why.  The people who were rumored to be anti-principality were not
attending the meetings.  The groups who's leadership were rumored to be
anti-principality were said to not be allowing these discussions to take
place at their events.  I say "rumored" and "said" because I never heard
these people stand up and say what they believed and why.  All I heard was
rumor and hearsay.  And quite frankly my attitude has been that if you won't
stand up and fight for what you believe in then why should I or anyone else
take you seriously?
       From my perspective it appears that the people who were against
principality, rather than step up and fight for their beliefs and attempt to
persuade others, chose instead to boycott the whole process.  And now point
to the number of people who didn't take part as evidence that we're not
ready.  I find it difficult to respect this.  Perhaps I'm missing something.
Perhaps people argued their positions most eloquently but always when I was
somewhere else.  If so I never heard about it.
       We have heard a lot to talk lately about the strife over this issue.
I think that a lot of that strife is because the people on opposite sides of
this issue aren't taking to each other.  I firmly believe that the vast
majority of people on both sides of this issue are people of good will doing
what they honestly believe is right.  So can anyone see any reason we can't
come togetherand discuss our differences respectfully and openly.  Let's quit
letting our differences divide us and work together to find the areas that we
can agree with one another about and work toward those goals.  We will still
find many things we disagree about, but at least we will understand each
others position and may find ways to resolve those disagreements.  We might
even find out that we don't disagree as much as we thought we did.
       Politics is the art of large numbers of people living together in
groups.  Someone once said that if politics is causing people to get hurt and
angry then you are doing it wrong.  People, WE ARE DOING IT WRONG!  The way
we allow our Landed Nobility to be treated is reprehensible.  I never heard
anyone ever say anything bad about Master Ulf before he became Baron Ulf, but
the slanderers have certainly not spared him since his elevation.  I first
met Sir Barn when he was a Squire and won Mooneschadowe Guardian many years
ago.  I was so impressed by him that I rushed right off and wrote a poem
about him.  Once I write a poem about someone I tend to feel connected
somehow and I have watched him in the years since.  I have never witnessed
that man to behave in a dishonorable or dishonest fashion.  But the things I
have heard about him since he became baron, some of them would turn your
stomach.  Thorgrim and Sigen are two of the hardest working, most dedicated,
honorable, generous and decent people it has ever been my honor to know.  I
have worked with these people for many years and I know who they are and what
kind of people they are.  But if there is a more hated and vilified person in
this region than Sigen I can't imagine who it would be.  I have heard I don't
know how many hateful, cruel, viscous and hurtful lies about her.  And I have
seen the toll it has taken.
       I've given up trying to understand why people make up this putrid
crap.  I don't think I'll ever understand it.  The best that I can come up
with is that they are vermin and vermin are just like that.  What I can't
understand is WHY WE TOLERATE IT!  This is hurtful.  This is Cruel.  This is
dishonorable.  This is WRONG!  But apparently it is not unacceptable because
we seem to have accepted it.  In a society based on Courtesy and Honor why do
we allow this to continue?  I think, I KNOW that we are better than this.
Let's prove it.  Let's make this kind of behavior unacceptable again.  We can
never entirely get rid of the vermin but we can make this a very inhospitable
place for them to live.  All it takes is for each of us to resolve that we
will not allow this kind of behavior to take place in our presence.  And I am
directing that toward myself as much as anyone.  This rant came about because
I overheard someone spreading just this kind of crap this weekend and rather
than confront them I decided that it wouldn't change anything and just let it
go by.  And I'm sorry that I didn't put a stop to it.  I will the next time.

       There's been enough fighting.  It's time for something better.

Robert Fitzmorgan