The phrase "oral history" is sometimes used by historians to describe an account written from the standpoint of ordinary people, rather than decision makers. There are advantages and disadvantages to oral histories. One obvious disadvantage is that they lack the perspective that can only come from access to the deliberations of decision makers. The advantage is that oral histories are less prone to efforts by decision makers to shape history to their liking.
With the intent of creating an "oral history" of sorts, here is an alternate account of select events in the region over the past several months.
-- Europeia intervenes in The South Pacific on the side of the native government. Oliver, an Admiral in the Europeian Navy at the time, participates on the other side and urges other sailors to do likewise. (Ollie has publicly acknowledged this.) His exact motives are not known, but are likely related to his affiliation with The Rejected Realms, which was one of the key players on the invader side.
-- Around the same time, Ollie leaves the region, ostensibly because of an unrelated dispute over judicial politics that turned nasty. Earth leaves at the same time as Oliver, ostensibly beause of the same dispute. Earth was active in TRR then, but to my knowledge, she has not been publicly accused on these forums of participating on the invader side in TSP.
-- Some time later, Ollie returns to the region. Soon after returning, he stands for Senate. He is -- appropriately -- asked pointed questions about his role in TSP. He is elected. At about the same time, Earth returns and takes a more low-key role, but she eventually agrees to serve in Sopo's administration (first as a Cabinet minister, and later as VP). TSP doesn't come up in the Senate in connection with either of her two confirmation votes.
-- Some time later, there is a nasty dust-up over something that happened on an IRC channel -- something to do with Earth ejecting Seymour from the chat, and people saying mean things about other people, dogs and cats living togther, etc. -- a real s--t show. Earth leaves.
-- At about the same time as the IRC dust-up, it becomes clear that Ollie can't raise any kind of criticism of government without being personally attacked for the TSP thing. In response, I post my account of the TSP affair in the EBC, hoping to clear the air. This triggers an epic s--tstorm. Ollie posts once or twice in that thread, then disappears.
-- Carra, AC and Jusduckria leave at about the same time as Earth and Ollie. To my knowledge, none had any role in TSP. A few other citizens coincidentally disapppear at about this time, but have since returned.
-- A few months later, CSP notifies us that there has been a founder-led "coup" in Kodiak, and we are cutting off relations. On other forums, it is widely reported that the founder's intervention followed alleged admin abuse by the elected President. That elected President was Seymour, and he was specifically accused of banning Earth. (In fairness to Seymour, he has consistently maintained that Earth's banning was inadvertent, and I have no evidence to the contrary.) Maybe CSP knew only part of the story, but opinion in many quarters is not so kind to us -- there are people of good will who believe Seymour acted at Europeia's behest. Given the rhetoric that has come from his Foreign Minister of late, it is not hard to see why.
-- At about the same time, CSP announced that we were breaking treaty ties with Unknown. He cites the departure of Earth as a reason for Unknown's lack of interest in keeping ties with us, with a recent diplomatic dust-up as an ancillary issue. Of course, if you read the actual thread in Unknown (which CSP links in his announcement), it's clear that Unknown's problems had nothing to do with Earth and everything to do with that dust-up, which involved Rachel, NES, and me -- though no one was kind enough to tell me what was going on until after the fact. (Hmm ... maybe criticizing the DEIA makes people think you're disloyal ... )
This is an oral history. I don't claim to have unique truth-telling abilities. There are things I don't know. I do know that beneath the platitudes about "loyalty" that we hear so much, there is a little-discussed agenda being carried out. That lack of discussion may be driven by an understandable desire not to re-live the worst moments of the past year, but there is no way to avoid such re-living so long as our government continues to place those events at the center of its agenda.
Perhaps, after the next election, we can form a government worthy of our new citizens, who have no truck for these old arguments, and whose yeoman's work has provided the foundation for our recent successes. They deserve a vision for the region that isn't rooted in the worst events of the past year.
-----------
As a postscript, I would like to note that one could make some very unfair judgments about Seymour from the foregoing account. I debated whether to include the details concerning him, ultimately deciding that such details were crucial to understanding the story -- and particularly, how that story is viewed outside these forums.
Edit: fixed typo
With the intent of creating an "oral history" of sorts, here is an alternate account of select events in the region over the past several months.
-- Europeia intervenes in The South Pacific on the side of the native government. Oliver, an Admiral in the Europeian Navy at the time, participates on the other side and urges other sailors to do likewise. (Ollie has publicly acknowledged this.) His exact motives are not known, but are likely related to his affiliation with The Rejected Realms, which was one of the key players on the invader side.
-- Around the same time, Ollie leaves the region, ostensibly because of an unrelated dispute over judicial politics that turned nasty. Earth leaves at the same time as Oliver, ostensibly beause of the same dispute. Earth was active in TRR then, but to my knowledge, she has not been publicly accused on these forums of participating on the invader side in TSP.
-- Some time later, Ollie returns to the region. Soon after returning, he stands for Senate. He is -- appropriately -- asked pointed questions about his role in TSP. He is elected. At about the same time, Earth returns and takes a more low-key role, but she eventually agrees to serve in Sopo's administration (first as a Cabinet minister, and later as VP). TSP doesn't come up in the Senate in connection with either of her two confirmation votes.
-- Some time later, there is a nasty dust-up over something that happened on an IRC channel -- something to do with Earth ejecting Seymour from the chat, and people saying mean things about other people, dogs and cats living togther, etc. -- a real s--t show. Earth leaves.
-- At about the same time as the IRC dust-up, it becomes clear that Ollie can't raise any kind of criticism of government without being personally attacked for the TSP thing. In response, I post my account of the TSP affair in the EBC, hoping to clear the air. This triggers an epic s--tstorm. Ollie posts once or twice in that thread, then disappears.
-- Carra, AC and Jusduckria leave at about the same time as Earth and Ollie. To my knowledge, none had any role in TSP. A few other citizens coincidentally disapppear at about this time, but have since returned.
-- A few months later, CSP notifies us that there has been a founder-led "coup" in Kodiak, and we are cutting off relations. On other forums, it is widely reported that the founder's intervention followed alleged admin abuse by the elected President. That elected President was Seymour, and he was specifically accused of banning Earth. (In fairness to Seymour, he has consistently maintained that Earth's banning was inadvertent, and I have no evidence to the contrary.) Maybe CSP knew only part of the story, but opinion in many quarters is not so kind to us -- there are people of good will who believe Seymour acted at Europeia's behest. Given the rhetoric that has come from his Foreign Minister of late, it is not hard to see why.
-- At about the same time, CSP announced that we were breaking treaty ties with Unknown. He cites the departure of Earth as a reason for Unknown's lack of interest in keeping ties with us, with a recent diplomatic dust-up as an ancillary issue. Of course, if you read the actual thread in Unknown (which CSP links in his announcement), it's clear that Unknown's problems had nothing to do with Earth and everything to do with that dust-up, which involved Rachel, NES, and me -- though no one was kind enough to tell me what was going on until after the fact. (Hmm ... maybe criticizing the DEIA makes people think you're disloyal ... )
This is an oral history. I don't claim to have unique truth-telling abilities. There are things I don't know. I do know that beneath the platitudes about "loyalty" that we hear so much, there is a little-discussed agenda being carried out. That lack of discussion may be driven by an understandable desire not to re-live the worst moments of the past year, but there is no way to avoid such re-living so long as our government continues to place those events at the center of its agenda.
Perhaps, after the next election, we can form a government worthy of our new citizens, who have no truck for these old arguments, and whose yeoman's work has provided the foundation for our recent successes. They deserve a vision for the region that isn't rooted in the worst events of the past year.
-----------
As a postscript, I would like to note that one could make some very unfair judgments about Seymour from the foregoing account. I debated whether to include the details concerning him, ultimately deciding that such details were crucial to understanding the story -- and particularly, how that story is viewed outside these forums.
Edit: fixed typo
