Kizira had dressed for the streets today. Wearing her dark slacks and a nice white shirt she walked around. Listening to a story here and there before heading towards more intense voices. She could only assume that they were holding a discussion down at this end but then she spotted a small spot off to the side. Noticing a large soap box she went over to it.

Kicking the box to see how sturdy it was she then stepped on top. With a tap of her foot she tested out the noise it made when she stomped lightly, and then she tried it a little harder. Carefully so that her heels wouldn't go through it. Noticing a crowd gathering as she fidgeted with the box, she flashed them a smile and righted herself. Brushing the locks of hair out of her face she took one quick glance around before she started talking.

"Morning. I suppose while I have your attention I should do something with it, right?"

Laughing at herself, Kiz felt a little better. It was a first for her to address numerous people and she hadn't quite planned to get their attention this way. She had it now though and she would certainly make use of it.

"I have been thinking lately. Thinking about the way people interact with each other. When we bring up our discussions we tend to use more general things. Unless it requires steps it doesn't get very specific, does it?

Do you think this does us more good to keep things general or are you more prone to pay attention when we are pointing out specific members of our community?

For instance, your mother wants you to clean your room. Does she go "Well someone ought to clean their room for their parents" or is it more "Jacques! Go clean your room!"? If she had made it a generalization statement were you more likely to do it or put it off?

In my experience, I have always been more keen to do something that is specifically directed at me. However, let us think of the community in which we are a part of before we really decide on an answer to these questions.

In our community, generalizations can be life saving. Not many people quite often enjoy having it pointed out when they have done something upsetting. Specific incidents and events tend to spur on discussions. More often then not it was a discussion had between a couple of people, or something that they had to deal with. So often you want to know the specific details. The who, what, where, when and how of it all.  But the speaker doesn't dare give that much information out to the community. Not only does it tend to piss the who off but there is always the crushing fear of death."

Kizira took a moment to pull her thoughts altogether and ask the real question through all of the talk.

"Should someone fear death when they are giving specific details in our streets? Or should we have the acknowledgement that this is something they have experienced with the person and regardless of personal feelings we should respect that?"

A man rides in on what looks like a reindeer. What a reindeer was doing this far south no one really knew. Kristoff throws his blonde hair out of his eyes and approaches the speaking area. An interesting topic he thought to himself as he finishes listening to the speech. He pondered for awhile, then decided to speak up.

"I think the context matters just as much as the content. I'll give you two vastly different examples as to how both should be expected."

He smiles at the people gathered already to hear Kizira speak. He gets down off his trusted friend, fixes his gloves and continues.

"In Scenario A: JoeBlow doesn't like a certain Crewleader. So he gets dirt on said leader, and shouts all the nasty details in the streets for all to hear. I think Mister Blow should rightly fear death, as I'm sure it would be coming in this situation.

In Scenario B: City A takes out City B. City A comes to the streets and voices their reasoning. All the details come out. I think City A, for that specific reason, shouldn't have anything to fear.

That's just my opinion though, and you know what they say about opinions.

I hope I understood your question correctly. If not I apologize, and am open to more clarification. I look forward to hearing other opinions on the matter. Thank you for bringing this up."

Kristoff saddles up on Sven and trots off slowly.

Toni found himself on the busy streets which wasn't anything new for him but usually he was just another one in the crowd, a spectator if you will, when he wasn't going over or telling one of his own stories. Today however, he happened to run into one of his fellow family members out among the community starting up a conversation. He immediately stopped to listen to it in order to show support but was surprised when support turned to interest in the actual things being said. He was even more surprised when he found himself with a desire to response.

This wasn't usually like him but he figured 'what the hell'. As he was garnering up his courage another man, who stepped forward in quite a fashion, spoke his own thoughts and opinions on what the conversation starter had said. Toni listened to this man speak and took into account what he said as well.  After he was done speaking, Toni then stepped forward to finally offer his own opinion.

"This is most certainly an interesting question posed here. I have to agree with the gentleman who spoke before me as well. I believe it's all about context and should be decided on a case by case basis, but not so much in what exactly is going to be said, but rather how to maximize it's effectiveness. What I mean by that is, to drive home the message of what you're trying to say or what someone is coming out to the streets to talk about or ask about an example needs to be used to help people have a better direct understanding to what that person is speaking about. In that sense, I don't believe being direct or being specific is so much of a problem even in this life of ours as long as the person speaking minds their manners. I mean, we've all been through enough trials in our lives to get where we are that we're surely not sensitive enough that a little criticism or a disagreement would completely ruffle our feathers enough to make us call for blood. And if we are that's scary because that will certainly have the effect to discourage conversations.

But there are other instances where maybe certain things shouldn't be talked about in specific details and they should be generalized to send a message if it applies to multiple people or if it's not the most efficient way to go about talking about a certain subject. So in that aspect that would be where context comes into play where it may be safer for you to bring a pressing issue to the attention of people if the message is more general than specifically aimed at someone or another. So while I agree that context is the key to deciding if a general or more specific approach is better suited, I think it really comes down to what kinda of effect or reaction the speaking is going for. That's my honest opinion." Toni finishes before lighting up a cigarette and stepping back into the crowd.

Kristoff, you raise some good points. Can we explore them a little bit further?

In Scenario A, what if the leader were a dick towards a lot of people and that information helped someone out?

In Scenario B though you are discussing a whole city. That is slightly different than if it were an individual's reasons, would it not?

Kizira pauses briefly to listen to Antonio and his thoughts on the topic at hand.

Thank you Antonio for adding your thoughts to the discussion. I am curious what you think should be done for those that have their feathers ruffled so easily that everything is disrespect to them. Are these people a problem when it comes to speaking up specifically? And if they are in power spots then what?

Toni heard the thanks for his thoughts and then looked to see if the other gentleman was going to step forward before he did himself. Seeing that he wasn't he then stepped forward himself to respond once more.

"Well as with everything there's levels to things and I think the levels should be based off of both how the person speaking composed themself and went about talking about what they were talking about. The other should be about how serious someone is taking what is being said about them. A respectful criticism shouldn't result in bloodshed, neither should pointing something out to someone. As long as things remain respectful and a discussion or a debate I don't believe it should escalate from there. Now if someone comes out and poses their speech as an attack instead of something else and just runs another person down be it their character or their actions, then THAT will obviously draw some sort of reaction or discipline.

To further explain, if a Goomba or someone just getting started in this life points out something respectfully that a made man or a capo did and just tried to bring it to their attention or use them as an example to bring something to the attention of the community then I don't think there should be any discipline involved. The same if he points something out that a crew leader may have did wrong. I think it should be chalked up to, 'hey we're human and we all make mistakes sometimes.' It's best to accept it or own up to it and correct it rather than keep on continuing to make the same mistake over and over again. Now if said goomba comes out and does the same thing but instead just attacks the person or tries to make fun of them and insult them in the thing they are trying to address, then of course that person should be looking over their shoulder expecting a bullet.

To make a long story short, respectful discussions and disagreements are what these corners of the streets are for. Be they direct or generalized, if there is a disagreement that isn't about a private situation then it should be free to be talked about in the streets. Even if things get a little heated as long as respect is not lost and lines are not crossed it should be allowed and shouldn't come down to drastic or fatal measure being taken in my opinion. But if someone comes out just to run somebody down or goes about throwing the things out in a non respectful way then they have opened themself up to retaliation in the form to be chosen by the people they have spoken about.