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Issue Number 31
Taken from Duchess Armstrong's Address to the Constitutional Union debate at the Epicurean Society.
Constitutional Union guests, members of the Epicurean Society, Senator Wyatt, Rottweiler fans and friends: It is a pleasure to be with you tonight to celebrate the eight-month anniversary of the foundation of this debate forum. Since it was founded I believe it has fostered better understanding, cooperation and political involvement of the citizens of Regina working to make this planetary system a better place to live in.
Much that I am going to say tonight will apply with equal force to any of us living on this planet. Our particular topic tonight is our interaction with the variety of sentient species inhabiting our planet. I am inspired to speak upon this topic following the extensive debates and even brawls that have arisen following The Regina Rottweilers defeat in the sector finals. As owner of the team, I was not untouched by this defeat personally. In fact as you probably all know, I lost yet another very personal bet to Mr. Stern, owner of the Frenzy team: he is now the owner of a signed copy of "Corina at the Barricades", by D'Aubisson. However, personal chagrin aside, that loss also revealed a hidden tension in our civic life.
We have a great responsibility here on Regina because we offer the best example that exists today throughout the Marches, of the fact that if different races know each other they may live peacefully together. As the center of a flourishing hub of trade for the old neutral zone, we have many races that live here, work here or choose to spend their free time here. On the whole until now, we on this planet have lived peacefully together though we have many different races making up the citizenry of Regina. The fact that we have achieved as much as we have in understanding of each other, is no reason for feeling that our situation and our relationship are so perfect that we need not concern ourselves about making them better. In fact we know that many grave injustices are done throughout our planet to people who are citizens and who have an equal right under the laws of our country, but who are handicapped because of their non-human races. To put it frankly, non-human sophants on Regina have apparently been discriminated against as a matter of social custom. This discrimination does not appear in the law, or posted in any club's charter, but it is written in our hearts.
The genesis of this debate occurred, when in search of new talent for the Rottweilers over the last year, our team recruited a number of highly talented "non-humans". I asked my coaching staff to do this because I felt that in not recruiting aliens we were not taking advantage of a pool of highly talented individuals who had not previously been exposed to the sport. Anyone who has every served beside aliens in the military or worked beside them in space can tell you that they have the same range of talents and abilities as we humans do, within the characteristics of their races. Clearly no one can question the superior strength of a Verushi as compared to a human. Therefore I directed the staff seek out talented aliens, who might be valuable to the Rottweilers.
This was not a political choice; it was a pragmatic one. Regina’s team has a much smaller total population to recruit from than the Rim teams, and if you further limit that pool by only selecting from the human populations, we are just statistically out gunned talent wise. Frenzy’s team had beaten us last year at our best, and we certainly hadn’t been turning away talented humans from team tryouts. Following scouting of promising aliens, the actual team selections this year was done just as before. No alien was included on the team that couldn’t make the cut through their own abilities. And I think that the Rottweiler team that we fielded this season was much stronger for their presence. Their overall win/loss record reflected that improvement. The new Rottweilers were clearly the dominant team in their conference. However, their hard fought loss in double overtime to the Frenzy team in the Sector playoffs has led to public debate over whether this was "caused by the aliens".
[Corina rolled up her dress sleeve to display the Stern-Metal tattoo on her biceps]. Need I remind the Rottweiler fans that THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST LOSS TO THE FRENZY TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS! THE FIRST LOSS TO FRENZY WAS LAST YEAR, WITH AN ALL HUMAN TEAM. The easy answers are frequently not the right ones.
Although I grieve that we were defeated by the Frenzy Team, we played a good game. Perhaps given a little luck in the third period, or if our starting power forward had not been tragically killed just prior to the playoffs, I believe we would have beaten the Frenzy team this time. In spite of our defeat, I am proud of the Rottweilers performance this year.
I am far more ashamed of the performance of our fans and citizens that have been brawling about the cause of our defeat and trying to lay the blame at the feet of ‘the aliens". I hope that next year when we meet the Frenzy team we finally succeed in turning the tables on them. And nothing would make me happier than to beat them for the Sector championship next time. I’d really like to collect on a bet with Stern for a change. [Laughter from the audience].
However the problem remains. I think that in the abstract we realize the desirability today of many social changes. But we must realize that in making these changes and bridging the gap between the old team and the new, we have to accept the responsibility and assume the necessary burden of giving assistance to the sophants who have not had their fair opportunity in the past. This is not just on the Rottweilers, but on all our "teams": those at work, those levels where we live, in our neighborhood bars and in all those forums of life where we live, work and play.
No right-thinking person who picked up a paper during the attempted coup can help but be ashamed that we have shown such a lack of faith in our own institutions. We read that on Regina Prime the people were not willing to wait for the due processes of law, but went back to the rule of force, blind and unjust as force and fear usually are. Although the military coup did not appear to involve issues of race, this resort to force is a horrible thing which grows out of weakness and fear, and not out of strength and courage. It would be ugly beyond description, if this habit of power should unite with racial tensions to destroy the social fabric, which we have built on Regina. Having brought peace to the planet and scheduled new elections, I am equally concerned with bringing order to our social and racial interactions.
We have long held on this planet that ability should be the criterion on which all people are judged. It seems to me that we must come to recognize this criterion in dealing with all sophants, and not place any limitations upon their achievements except such as may be imposed by their own character and intelligence. That is why we should work for an ideal relationship between all the citizens of our planet. There is no reason why all of the races should not live together, each of them giving from their particular talents something to the other, and contributing an example to known space of equality, peace, prosperity and free trade. This emphasis on what you can do, not who you are, is one of the very special things about Regina.
Thank you for your time. The floor is now open for debate.