My dear, misguided uncle...

A seedling crushed underfoot in its infancy, merely because it is 'weak' or unimportant, can never grow to beome the towering redwood. A matter of years, to be certain, but the proper care, tenderness, and protection can not only assure, but accelerate it's growth into a nearly impervious monument of stoicism.

But what happens when said seedling is allowed to grow unchecked and untended, with the power of the sun and the rain at its disposal, but without the guiding stake to help it grow straight and tall, rather than bent and crooked? Or worse yet, when the hands which tend it are tainted by bitter designs, disguised beneath a *very* thin veneer of "righteousness"?

To save you the countless hours of pondering, I shall tell you, uncle. The seedling grows unchecked and heavy, and before long, its roots choke the life from the smaller plants around it, and its crooked eaves steal the sun from those nearby.

And in this fashion, you of Shallam do injustice to those who seek personal freedom from your misguided and dogmatic "ideals". You, the self-proclaimed "enlightened", are (as a group) a mockery of the ideals which you claim to represent. Your mission is a self-deluding farce, and your charge is unrequested and undesired by the world at large (a world which, I might add, is doing a much better job of tending their own seedlings than yourself and your ilk).

If you truly seek to do all of Sapience a favour, then sweep on your own proverbial porch, before you attempt to clean anyone else's.

Now, if we're done re-hashing and revoking the last 200 years worth of propaganda, perhaps you have something original to offer this forum -- or, at the least, something more productive to do with your time.


-- R. Lucoster, Master of the Iron Citadel

Penned by my hand on the 7th of Mayan, in the year 255 AF.