SR - A Question Concern

[Dennis and Dory Grace]

Aquilanne here.

First off, I'm not sure I have the right Crystal in mind here; I'm assuming
that the Crystal I'm responding to is Baroness Crystal of Raven's Fort. If
not, let me know, ok? The names thing always bites me in the butt. ;->

Crystal wrote:
>1)  You accuse me of making an "Unfounded emotional appeal." - I am emotional
>about this.

That's ok. Life is a little bland if we don't have passion somewhere. I
just think we need to be careful about forcing our personal emotions onto a
whole region. It's not fair to anyone in that it can cloud any salient
point you might try to make (and mars credibility) and leaves folks
incompletely informed.

>I love being an Ansteorran.  Maybe you don't understand how I
>feel because you aren't from Ansteorra.  When I graduated from College, I
>started looking for a job, and I wouldn't even consider anything outside
of TX
>and OK because I won't leave Ansteorra.

Well, you're not alone in that love. We've been in Austin for five years.
My husband just left college short of a PhD because it wasn't worth the
extra time and academic political hassle. Why? Because the career he would
have needed a PhD for wasn't available here, and here is where we've chosen
to stay. I think that our making life decisions based on where we want to
live is no less valid than your making life decisions based on where you
want to live. I'm no less Ansteorran than you are; I just apparently happen
to have a wider knowne-world-view than you do (unless I'm assuming wrongly;
have you lived in any other kingdom?).

>2) You say the Populus supports the opinion.  - But how much of does the
>populous know about this? The first I heard about it was yesterday when I
>subscribed to this list.  Are you sure that "the populus" knows about this? 
>Is it possible that the people for the principality knew that you would be
>discussing it at these meetings, so that came.  While the people opposing
this
>(like me) didn't know about the meetings?  So your votes are squewed???

I've stated clearly--and more than once--where I got my numbers. They're
not "my" votes, they're the votes recorded from different meetings. Are the
votes represented on the SR page skewed? Perhaps. I know that all votes
from every group's straw polls aren't there. Though I think it's fair to
say that the populace at large is aware of principality discussions. I know
that seneschals of all the SR groups were asked to bring it up for
discussion at business/populace meetings. I know that both official and
unofficial opinion polls have been held in Tempio, Fynnon Gath,
Shadowlands, Raven's Fort, Middleford, Bjornsborg, and Bryn Gwlad. That
covers every group in the Southern Region (though I don't recall numbers
for any but the ones recorded on the SR page). Like I said, I might be
talking to the wrong Crystal, but if you're Baroness of Raven's Fort, I
don't know how you could be unaware of the poll reported on the SR page.

>I have two comments in responce to this:
>1) Last I checked, I was a paid member and therefore part of the populace. So
>I think that my opinion counts just as much as anyone elses in this region
and
>from talking to some of the other people I know in this region yesterday,
they
>didn't know about this either and they are also against the principality.

Of course your opinion counts as much as any other individual in the group.
However, *if* the majority want a principality, what's more important? Your
emotions/opinions, or the welfare and growth of the group as a whole?

>2) Why can't you "do the work and coordinate the events and contribute the
>time and the money to support projects aimed at better informing our populace
>and nurturing our regional identity" as a REGION?  Why do you have to have a
>principality to do this? 

Couple of responses here. First off, we *are* doing the work and
coordinating regional events and raising money to support projects aimed at
better informing our populace and nurturing our regional identity. We're
doing it right now *as a region.* Admittedly, a lot of this activity is in
response to the interest and excitement about the possibility of a
principality. My question to you would be "why haven't you done it before?" 

Change needn't be a bad, scary thing.

Aquilanne


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