Intergalactic Summit

We need you to reclaim the Minmatar from the drudge, chaos and inhumanity in which they currently dwell, and into God's light. We are their angels. We must be their saviors. By your power they shall be rescued from the dark. God wills it, and so it shall be.

-- 24th Imperial Crusade recruitment text.

I do feel this requires a response from me.

People fly for militias for many differing reasons. Whatever the recruitment text says, I didn't join the 24th Imperial Crusade to enslave anyone. I joined the Knighthood, once upon a time, to find my own salvation, and to fight for a faith I embraced.

I moved to I.LAW to continue fighting a war because the Empire is my new home, and I defend it as such. Slavery, honestly, has nothing to do with my reasoning.

Now, my personal views on slavery as a practice are public and can be found easily with little or no searching. Do not, however, make the mistake of believing everyone joins the 24th for the same reasons. They don't.

Now, if you don't mind, let's keep things to the stated topic rather than devolving into the usual flurry of accusation and argument with no real outcome. This is essentially a Q&A, not a platform for your own political agendas.

Mr. Yida,
That is not from KOTMC's charter, since we didn't have one. That was a snippet of flavor text from a public relations and information hub. I suggest you try reading for context. I would also recommend you try to grow up a little, rather than childishly posting a bit of text erroneously trying to prove a point that doesn't even matter, nor hold any relevance whatsoever to the topic. What KotMC did or did not do is completely irrelevant at this juncture, since that organization is no longer active. We were talking about my organization, Imperial Outlaws, a separate entity, very much active, and very much separate from KotMC. Also, very much still in deliberations on the subject of slavery.

An un-called for insult, sir. I was not in any way attempting to be childish or prove any point. Posters to this discussion had expressed being un-aware of any previous KOTMC stance against slavery. I had known that KOTMC publicly declared support for the new Empress' anti-slavery agenda. Why you find this an issue at all, or erroneous in any way, and why you believe I was attempting to prove a point, is at best mystifying to me.

While I am gladdened by I.LAW's stance, your insult needs addressing. Hopefully I will have an opportunity soon to do so in space.

If you are looking for clarification concerning KotMC policies, they were supposed to be what was describe in the corporation description you cited above. Though being guidelines only, they were not rules, and it was not totally uncommon to find several members that were slavers themselves.

As an expansion: We are opposed to the idea of slavery. We do not hold slaves. We do not capture slaves. Our ships are not crewed by slaves. We are still loyal to the Empire, but hold the view that slavery is indeed a policy that must end, or at the very least change greatly.

How exciting!

I stated my opinion on calling yourself anti-slavery and flying for the Empire Militia in another thread. Since this now is relevant here too, I take the liberty to copy and paste here:

Since, apparently, contrary to what I said in the original post, I do need to spell out my feelings on this, here goes.

Yes, it is possible to join the Empire Militia for reasons other than the wish to support slavery. Some of these possible motives are entirely honourable: the wish to defend your homeland and your kin from an imminent invasion is hardly something that we can begrudge anyone. The state of war between our nations is as regrettable as it is inevitable, and many good people on both sides are drawn into it against their will and despite the larger picture of politics.

So, I would say that it is entirely possible to not be pro-slavery and be a member of the Amarr Militia.

However, I would not say it is possible to claim you are actually anti-slavery, while your clearest association in space is that to the Empire. What you fight for directly contributes to The Reclaiming and the status quo of the Empire. No matter how much you talk, your actions speak louder than your words. You might certainly wish you could be truly anti-slavery in actions as well as in words, but in the choice of fighting the Empire's war, you put that sentiment aside as secondary to the need to defend your nation, and consider slavery the lesser evil to being invaded by the Republic.

Mind you, if you are a free Amarrian citizen, I am not saying you are in the wrong. You are under attack. We do threaten your home and your kin. Your choice is between a moral evil and a personal threat, and I do not envy you for having to make it, nor pretend that I can advice you on the most honourable course in your particular situation.

But what you need to do, if you want to remain honourable, is to acknowledge that this choice exists and that you face it - not pretend that you are not making it.

Elsebeth Rhiannon
CEO
Gradient, Electus Matari

*Cough*

All evidence so far has been that the Amarrian Reclaiming is about taking slaves. Every instance of Reclaiming was to take slaves. Some of the Amarr on this very forum have claimed to take prisoners of war as slaves.

The only evidence we have to the contrary is some Amarr on IGS claiming that this time, this is totally not the case.

And, incidentally, slavery is a means to an end, not an end of its own. People seem to forget that. While slavery was a consequence of past reclaimings, it is a means to the end of bringing people to God. That is still the purpose of Reclaiming. I simply feel there should be other means to that end.