KuntaKinte Turbonigger
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
58
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Posted - 2012.02.10 16:46:00 -
[1] - Quote
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of Eve Online.
Five score years ago, a great Minmatarian, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Free Jita treaty. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Minmatar slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But years later, the player still is not free. Years later, the life of the player is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Years later, the player lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Years later, the player is still languished in the corners of EVE Onlinen society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to Jita Park to cash a check. When the architects of our gamewrote the magnificent words of the TOS and the EULA, they were signing a promissory note to which every EVE player was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Minmatar men as well as Caldari men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of oxygen isotopes." It is obvious today that New Eden has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, New Eden has given the Minmatar people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this game. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind New Eden of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of Guristas' children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Minmiatar's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 2012 is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Minmatar needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in EVE Online until the Minmatar is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into digital violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting digital force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Minmatar community must not lead us to a distrust of Minmatar people, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot fly alone.
And as we fly, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Minmatar is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of CONCORD brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the stargates and the captain's quarters of the stations. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Minmatar's basic mobility is from a smaller system to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Amarrians Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Minmatar in Rens cannot vote and a Minmatar in Null Sec believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow captain's quarters. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of CONCORD brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Lonetrek, go back to The Citadel, go back to Heimatar, go back to Delve, go back to Domain, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern stations, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the EVE Online dream |