Intergalactic Summit

When I gained my freedom, I detested the Amarr pure and simple. In a sea of raised fists, I was just another face in the crowd; we stood a unity of discontented Minmatar joined in a univocal cry of rage.

My first thoughts when I took up arms were not of kin... I simply hated. I felt disgusted by the Empire, by their allies in the State - who of at the time I knew absolutely nothing. My heart yearned for revenge. My fists desired to strike a blow to the Empire as it had to my youth.

I was not alone... many of us were in this together, Minmatar collectively rallied behind this banner of kinship. But we were never there for our people, only to carry out a vendetta against a people we did not take the time to understand. It was a cruel lie I couldn't remain a part of.

Over the last two years, I have gotten better... Now, do I care for my people? Of course I do, which is why I share any knowledge I can with my kin, why I desire a higher focus on infrastructure in the Republic, why I wish for a peaceful resolution between the Republic and the Empire. I'm sickened looking back at the destructive creature that I was - that many of my brothers still are.

You come 'for your people', but our people are at home, many living out their lives of poverty.

Yet... I have continued to stress that 'our people' being returned from the Empire is a good thing, and for that I apologize, I have not been completely honest.

My heart has never been in it. On one hand, I have commended the efforts of freedom fighters, but on the same turn I have stressed how harmful a unilinear release would be to both the Empire and the Minmatar. I have raised concerns that many Minmatar do take up the faith and desire to stay within the Empire. I have criticized severely the war effort and the senseless causalities on both sides that are catalyzed mostly by the Republic.

Yet still as I've spun argument after argument about why we should focus inwardly, towards the homestead, I've continued to be stone-faced, I've continued to say 'but of course, it's imperative that we free our brothers and sisters in binds'. And it's a painful reality for me to swallow, especially as a woman free only because of the efforts of freedom fighters, but... No. No, we shouldn't. We need to stop this.

We've caused too much suffering. I can't continue to watch Minmatar rip other Minmatar from their homes, denounce their faith and inflict violence upon each other. I can't deny that the pain that I feel when I work with victims of the war in slums across the cluster is getting on top of me - because I know that it is the fault of Minmatar, not Amarr, that these people are in such grievous conditions.

You have hungry families to feed. Feed them. Do not destroy others' families in the name of a war we lost almost a millennium ago.

I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset anybody. I tried to go through the motions, but I can't abide this anymore. I'm sorry for lying, again and again.

Thank-you for your response, Aelisha. It wasn't easy for me. I really do hope that this will sway the perspectives of at least some of my kin, but I know that it is going to take a lot more than one person's epiphany for us to see progress.

This is called maturity, Ms. Halete.

Treasure it, for it won't steer you wrong.

But Sam's right, too, after a fashion.

We need to stop blaming the Amarr for...well...everything, but that doesn't mean we should stop watching them. Very closely watching them.

Halete, I salute your bravery in taking this stand. It is a shame that the Empire's version of it, the decision to take no more Slaves from outside our borders, isn't completely universally held yet, but I think it is a wise move and I hope the Empress resists any pressure that might be on her to rescind it - which she seems to be doing admirably.

It is my hope that the Reclaiming could be achieved with grain barges and missionaries where force has failed - but for such an approach to be seen as even sane there would have to be many changes and compromises in the relationship between our factions.

Captain Sam, I understand your feelings, but you must remember that to us Slavery isn't a simple economic principle. It is based on the core article of our Faith. If you don't share it, I don't see HOW you can understand it - but the key to ending Slavery is in the Faith of the Empire, failing your God is a terrible thing.

Captain Blackshell, I also understand your feelings, but I have to ask why a useless struggle aimed at impossible goals is preferable to a staged procession of interim goals. Your Freedom Fighters barely seem even aware that their biggest success to date was when the Cluster faced down the Empire and made them recognise the Republic as a legal faction, signing treaties that led to the pronouncement of a moratorium on legal Slaving outside the Empire.

Nothing you have done since has been so significant.

A large number of Slaves of Minmatar descent were recently released. We know the reception they got, the beatings at the hands of tribesmen who don't feel they should have the right to freely choose their own religion. The poor conditions in the refugee camps. There is little to encourage the expectation that further releases would lead to happy endings for those that chose to settle in the Republic, rather than the Empire and the Federation.

The Republic needs balance, which is obvious. Although it saddens me that the images of slaver hounds disemboweling men, women and children, of reproduction camps and slave crews on Amarr warships... It saddens me that you would look on your own nation with such an outlook yet seek to uplift the opposition in your own eyes. Is it because you feel you need a neutral outlook to feel mature and wise? Every Minmatar descendant who lives happily in the Empire has been indoctrinated, every Ammatar who seeks the blood of their free kin was brainwashed by Amarr.

While I do applaud your new found outlook on life, I find myself skeptical. Maybe it's because I was freed later than you it's still fresh in my mind. Maybe because I fly for the TLF and regularly have to shift slaves out of disgusting conditions to those 'horrible' refugee camps you mention, I find your words don't hold much merit. I am all for peace and a stop to the war, how about a compromise? They educate the slaves about their actual history then give them a choice whether they want to leave or not. That way the lost can choose to stay and we can get our people back. The Amarr religion says it wants to uplift all of man, tell that to the women constantly being impregnated then having their children taken off them.

The question I have to ask is, why do you feel the Amarr should get away with what they've done? Because that is what you're advocating, like it or not. To forgive and forget is a beautiful thing, however to treat our remaining kin who want to be freed as 'cutting our loses' is disgusting.

Well said. I will add that I was born a slave, and the battles that were fought to help free myself and others played no small part in gifting me the will to break what chains still remained to bind me.

I don't just fight the Amarr to gift my brothers and sisters the right to choose the way they live, but the strength of solidarity to take that right for themselves if they are able.

Lyskal, please. I won't be baited into responding to a blatant straw-man and I would expect better of you to resort to such deception.

Turning my attention on improving the lives of our people does not mean that I am 'lost'. Making myself a target for the contempt of millions of Freedom Fighters does not mean that I have taken the easy route. On the contrary, I have been walking the route of least resistance for far too long - a route which ultimately harms the Minmatar and I do wish that you too could appreciate that.

You are so young, so passionate. I hope that passion never fades but it does sting to see how you are using it.

We come for our people because they have no hope.
We come for our people because it gives us hope to do so.
If we ignore the cries of 1/3rd of our populace, if we turn a blind eye to there pain, what sort of heartless people will we have become?

Can a healthy republic grow with the constant fear of Amarrian resurgence? No. Militarily politically or culturally we must put our self's in a position where our children and there children can grow up free of war and the fear of war.

What do I believe is more important poverty at home or those enslaved? They are a matter of equal importance.

The republic spends a hell of a lot more money on home issues than the war effort, both must be continued.

What we must do is not an easy task, if your heart for war has gone then that is as it is, I commend you for your efforts and especially the continued efforts on the home front. But believing those that fight only fight for hatred and retribution is a grave mistake, I am constantly evolving my perception of the situation and still believe we must fight for hope and our future, we must fight so our future generations can know peace.

What? Can you give some sort of source or proof of this? Education and free choice for slaves sounds exquisitely un-Amarrian, but if this indeed happened...

The only thing I am aware of is Jamyl freeing a very old generation of slaves, and abolishing raids into Matari space for obtaining more slaves. Commendable show of goodwill, but it's too little and too late -- and nowhere near the scale of what you're claiming she did.

When most people talk about freedom, they don't mean the freedom to starve to death or waste away from a curable disease.

History has shown that slaves can, and do, escape their masters for foreign space. They do revolt. They do have mass uprisings. However, slaves aren't doing this because those who know about the Republic and its open door policy don't see the Republic as offering them a better life.

An economically stable and prosperous Republic would probably do more damage to Amarrian slavery than outright warfare.