Makoto Priano
Priano Trans-Stellar State Services
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Posted - 2013.03.22 20:08:00 -
[1] - Quote
Let me begin by saying that I write this even as the battle unfolds, compelled to remain away by happenings beyond my control. Let me continue by saying that I'd debated a number of topics, ranging from how we validate hatred of the Empyreans, to the possible dangers to the habitability of Caldari Prime. Perhaps, though, this is simplest and best.
Now:
A friend in aerospace insurance once told me that the magnitude of a disaster -- he used the word failure, actually -- was determined by the number of safeguards that lapsed. Had even a single safeguard that lapsed been successful, that is often enough to prevent disaster.
So it is with aerospace disasters.
Had the technician performed his inspection of an airlock properly, there would be no failure. Had the airlock seals been intact, there would be no failure. Had the cabin air pressure sensors functioned, there would be no failure. Had the shuttle's autopilot medical safeties been engaged, then the crew's unconsciousness would have been enough to trigger a return to lower atmosphere, and there would be no failure. If each of those lapses happen in sequence, then twenty people die.
So it is, also, with disasters of a more human nature.
Let me be clear: what happened today at Caldari Prime is merely the latest episode of an on-going disaster.
Before you all begin your prepared speeches over who is to blame -- the State, for Heth's militant antagonism of the Federation; the Federation, for wishing to deny the Caldari people their rightful claim to their homeworld; Blaque, for his probable involvement in funding and fomenting guerrilla activity on Caldari Prime's surface; CONCORD, for making Luminaire a free-fire zone; Caldari Corporations, for a centuries-old case of tax evasion; the Federation, for a centuries-old case of overzealous, militant tax enforcement -- think for a moment that the answer is that there is blame enough for everyone.
Indeed, perhaps it's that everyone is to blame.
The unfortunate thing is that we so often gleefully participate in this violence, that we set the stage for the next act. Too few of us make that single, sane step that would avert the bloodshed we now see. Had this step been made during the first crisis, centuries of warfare could have been avoided. Were this step to be made now, perhaps we could avert centuries more of the same.
So long as the citizens of the State continue to support or at least accept Executor Heth's militarism, then we are complicit in the death of Federation and State citizens alike. So long as members of the Federation continue to fight or subvert the State's sovereign territory, then they are complicit in the death of Federation and State citizens alike.
And what seems tragic to me is that whatever my opinion of Executor Heth's policies, I can't see any other path for us to follow. My desire is simply for the safety of the Caldari State and her citizens, for the freedom to decide our future without the cultural imperialism of the Federation, and for the right to hold our ancestral home without fear of efforts to subvert the State by the Federation.
My sense of duty compels me to a path that I fear will be the undoing of all of us, just as your sense of duty compels you to the same. |