Stallion sat at Hayley's coffee shop. To the anyone else it looked like Stallion was enjoying a nice strong coffee, but only Hayley and himself would know that he only drank hot chocolate. His inner child to blame for that. He took another sip as a young man walked into the Shop. His shoulders were back, chest out, walking around like he owned it all. The man turned to see Stallion and walked over to him. Stallion sighed. The man stood in front of Stallion looked down at him with contempt. "Do you know who I am?" Asked the strange fellow. Stallion shook his head while waving Hayley back as she started to come over to stop the man. "I am Jim Young, newest made man in New York. My name is known throughout the country and world. I am feared and respected. Crew leaders tremble when they know Jim Young, Made man, is on their tail." Stallion raised his eye brows in mock surprise, "Well Mr Young you honour me with your presence but then I don't believe you know who I am.." "Enough peasant!" Interrupted Jim, "I don't have time for low rankers like yourself. I am a made man and have more important things to do." Leaving Stallion with a bemused expression, Jim left the Coffee shop. Mere seconds later two gun shots are heard out side.

Stallion faced the entrance as another young man walked in resembling Jim Young but with slight differences. The man headed over to Stallion straight away. "Hello Sir, My name is Jim_Young. I am the son of the great Jim Young, a man forever to be remembered in history as god amogst men." Stallion cocked his head confused, "Ok then Jim Young, I just met your...." "NO! It is pronounced Jim_Young!" Yelled Jim. "Easy lad, I don't think you know who you are talking to." "Enough peasant! I shouldn't waste my time here, my father knew people and they will get me to a high position where I will honour my fathers name. GOOD DAY SIR!" Jim stormed out the shop actually leaving Stallion surprised. Once again shots are heard outside.

Yet again another young man walked in the shop and Strutted over to Stallion, "I am of the blood of Jim Young the great and Jim_Young the mighty. My name is JimYoung! I will run this world one day, you will see. The history of my bloodline should be evidence enough to how we became titans in this world. I shall be no exception!" JimYoung leaves the shop followed by another few shots. Stallion sighed. Another man walked into the shop. For the next few hours several men walked into the shop introducing themselves to Stallion, their names ranging from JimYoung_ to _JimYoung and even one YoungJim, all declared their heritage to the great Jim Young and the mighty Jim_Young and the brave JimYoung. Just when Stallion finally got fed up with it all and was about to leave a young man walks in but this time he didn't resemble any of the Jim Youngs. The man walked over to Stallion and bowed which surprised Stallion to finally receive some respect around here. "Hello Sir, my name is Nick Sharp. I am looking for a job in New York and I understand you are the man to see." "Indeed I am Nick," replied Stallion, "Tell me what you think you can bring to my fair city?" "Well Sir, I was going to go incog but I thought I should let you know. My bloodline runs deep in this world for I am the kin of the MIGHTY JIM YOUNG AND THE GRE..." Stallions gun echoes in the shop sending people to the ground as Nick tumbles to the ground with a bullet in his head. Hayley quickly dragged the body to the back room. Annoyed Stallion left the shop stepping over several bodies outside. Headed up the street Stallion is stopped by a man. "Hello, I am JimY.." Stallion’s gun goes off again. As the body hit the ground Stallion mumbled to himself "You idiots got to learn how to let go and move on. With every new life should be a new beginning. It is one thing to use your bloodline as a reference but to completely rely on it and never let go won't get you anywhere."

WhereAmI looks over at the cemetary containing the late WhereWasI,

Thank you for the sound advice Mr. Stallion. Hopefully people don't mistake what's being said, I don't know what your policy is, but I tend to believe that at least some people tend to remember the sins of the father. Every life IS a new beginning, so people should use that as it is because it's never too late to show this world what you're capable of if you can let go of your past and focus on the tasks at hand. But that's just my opinion and I'm a stupid lowly gangster coming from a relatively young bloodline.

Sound advice indeed.

People should always allow their children to embrace life and start fresh, not be hung up on anything that concerned their parents. Obviously family friends may remain and such offspring will circulate in many of the same circles as their parents, but to do so obviously means the people that had issues with their parents will likely form the same opinion of their children and history is more than likely to repeat itself in these cases.

Personally I don't see a problem with someone using their family line's name in order to get places, so long as the same people realise that anything done by your line that is viewed as bad will also travel with you for the same reasons as the good does.

There are few bloodlines I know around these parts that don't follow in their parents footsteps, so clearly its a common trait among our way of life.

I'm not one for clean slates and I don't think it's the moral of this story.

One thing is for the boss to take the bloodline's reputation into consideration so sometimes trust is earned quicker, but for the member to EXPECT better treatment because of his "reputation"... that is the big mistake.

I apologize if it seems we went off topic Ashes, I simply believe that the people who come from respected backgrounds are less likely to overstep their bounds than those who come from infamous backgrounds. I like to take every chance I can to let people know it's never too late to change, and I thought the focus of the speech was more on each life, each man/woman is different from their father/mother, and should be treated as such. When you bring up ancestors its generally used more as a reference in my experience. Maybe I'm just blessed to have never come across a person who overstepped their bounds based on ancestors, but I honestly believe that using your ancestors as a reference isn't as much of a problem as the people who don't understand how to function in a legitimate family. To each his own though, so if you still don't agree that's appropriate for this speech I'll just simply agree to disagree.

Take what you want from this story. You all bring up well thought out responses. I give everyone a clean slate. I don't care who your father/mother was or what they did to me when you come back you get a second chance to start from scratch. Naturally if your ancestor was great to me then I will be more trusting with you. But if you screwed me over you will just have to start fresh with me. As of right now there are only two people whose bloodline I will not allow in my own family. They should know who they are and if they don't they will find out if I ever see them in the Thoroughbreds HQ. I have seen people whose bloodline have only been scum and traitor do something completely honourable yet have seen men who I thought were saints in the mafia world do thing unimaginable. We all get put into certain positions in our life where we may have to do something that is completely out of character just because it has to be done. I understand that hence I am more than willing to give bloodlines chances.

As to what Ashes mentioned. Yes it is a big mistake to expect better treatment because of their ancestors suppose "reputation." What I was more focusing from my story is when someone whose bloodline didn't even achieve much keeps referring back to it like they were a god. Hell if your dad was a Godfather then you have every right to hold your head up high a bit more than others, but even then you shouldn't completely rely on that history to get you places.

For me personal, going through all my ancestors journals, with every new generation we start with a new name, new persona, and a new way of doing things. We like to mix things up always and try different things. Why would I want to be and do exactly what my father was and did? I don't want people to go "oh hey he is just like his father" I want people to got "Hey isn't that what his faces kid? Shit he has gone far completely out doing his father" I will try to do right what my father did wrong, I will go in the direction my father decided not to go. I will have my own name which I will want to be remembered in history and not confused with the achievements of my dad.

WhereAmI, I'm totally fine with people branching from the main topic and through association talk about anything you want. I just felt you were drawing certain conclusions from the story presented, even though all your ideas were very respectable and agreed with by many.

So again, I didn't think what you said was wrong, much less out of place. I just saw it as your own contribution rather than a conclusion from the story presented.

Is it me or you sounded somewhat defensive? If so, not sure why. I didn't attack you at all.

I understand you're a CL and I'm just a goomba, but why say "Is it me or you sounded somewhat defensive? If so, not sure why. I didn't attack you at all."?

Why apologize if you're going to claim my clarification was defensive? That sends two different messages ;)

This is a discussion where ideas should be allowed to flow freely, people express their opinions and clarify any misunderstandings so there's no need to apologize at all. I would like to thank you for coming to the streets and expressing your opinion, hopefully you'll understand i'm much too goofy to take offense to someone having a differing opinion. If you think I've gone too far off topic you can say so like you did because it doesn't offend me like it doesn't offend most who come to the streets to just express opinions. I might try to explain why I went the direction I did, but it's not to say my way of viewing it is the only way. Differing opinions doesn't mean open conflict, we're mobsters not politicians so you can say it however you want as long as you don't personally attack anyone and no one *should* get offended ;)

WhereAmI extends an actual Olive Branch to Ashes

WhereAmI, where did I apologize? I did nothing wrong. And I don't need to pull rank on you since you're not being disrespectful. You think that if one day I say something that happens to be wrong and you end up correcting me I'm gonna pull rank on you and tell you to stfu?

I don't want to make assumptions here but the way you read into things sure makes me think a lot of what must be going on in your head. But since I don't like talking about what I'm not sure of in front of so many people, I'll reserve my judgment about how you are trying to pick apart the things I'm saying...

You sound friendly but you also sound as if you are nicely telling me there is no need for me to attack you... while I'm not.

I'll accept this Olive Branch you offer only because I don't want to be rude, but I don't feel this is necessary since I was never fighting with you.

Sometimes...just sometimes...the personal glasses we view the world in actually warp what we see. Slates meant to be cleaned, either through actions taken to rectify a perceived injury or through information learned at a later date, remained dirtied only by those who cling to a personal philosophy. One can not necessarily blame those who suffer from such a self inflicted tendency, as we all need something to be our Rock in this world.

I'm sorry, I guess I'm very simple. Could you please explain why you said

"I don't want to make assumptions here but the way you read into things sure makes me think a lot of what must be going on in your head. But since I don't like talking about what I'm not sure of in front of so many people, I'll reserve my judgment about how you are trying to pick apart the things I'm saying..."

Can I ask what's going on in my head? Because the premise of my name suggests even I don't know that. And please don't leave anything to question, I was implying that your other comment was an attack on my personal character, and it was no matter how you twist the words.

"Is it me or you sounded somewhat defensive? If so, not sure why. I didn't attack you at all."

Implying that I was being defensive is actually a speaking ploy commonly used in speeches and literature to lure men into doing or saying something foolish by playing on their pride, and an indirect attack on my character.

You made the first implication of someone attacking someone else, so now I'm just going to put it in the open, I'm offended and now I actually feel attacked. If there was something I did to upset you, please bring it to my attention out here where you were kind enough to make assumptions about me in public, and I will do my best to remedy the situation without openly assuming or implying things about you. And please don't accept an olive branch and attach it with an insult, in most cultures that's considered an outrageous offense.

When you ASSUME you make an ASS out of U and ME...

PopPopShinebox tosses in his 2 cents and leaves before any more misunderstandings take place...