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

[Ulf Gunnarsson]

Robert Fitzmorgan said:
>        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.

The one time that I had opportunity to attend a meeting, I chose not to.  I
did not want to leave the tournament I was in.  Others were held, and I
possible could have rearranged my schedules to attend one, but chose not to.
Sir Burke had already spoken to me about the things he would be presenting,
so I saw no reason to attend "another meeting".  Believe me, before long I
think every reason and procedure brought up in those meetings was recited to
me later.

To attend the meeting and "fight for my beliefs" would be to "fight".  Why
should I fight?  I see no reason for a fight between Sir Burke and myself,
or myself and anyone that was there.  If enough people had banded together
and convinced the Crown of Ansteorra that they needed a principality in this
area, I would follow my King's desire.  Until then, as I had already
counseled Sir Burke, I chose to stay out of something that would polarize
the region into armed camps before it was ready to accept principality.  We
(and other groups) had enough politics at that time that any more could
cause massive flare ups between people who normally got along quite well.  I
hate to say "I told you so".  But I cannot help but look at what has
happened since.

As far as "not allowing these discussions"... When we were asked about
having one of these discussions at Protectorate, we were going through one
of those difficult political times I just mentioned.  The last thing we
needed was for the "p-word" to spark the tinder that was in such abundance.
Nonetheless, an "informal" session was held anyway, and we had some
repercussions.

Finally, a boycott can be defined as "voting with your feet".  Deliberate
non-participation is a vote as telling (though not as official) as putting a
mark on a piece of paper.  Also, some chose not to reply simply since this
was not an "official" polling, and truly means nothing more than putting
one's finger in the wind to see which way it blows.  I am sorry that folks
didn't respond anyway.  I did.

Baron Ulf