So, who wants to help me help us change society?

Epiphany scoffs, holding her hand to her face to conceal her giggle at the little man EdinburghCastle’s remark

Oh sweetheart, that is rich. We are all well aware of the stock from which you come from and how you’ve “helped” our society. What was it you did exactly that was helpful? This thing of ours once upon a time had spectacular writing contests where mobsters could share their stories in the streets with each other and have an opportunity to both entertain and win prizes for your effort. Let’s take a look at the last three…. total bloodbaths with the second and third bloodiest being directly linked to your family crest. Only one contest managed to be a bigger disaster in terms of dead bodies, probably exceeding the others’ death toll combined. But it was your ilk that set the groundwork for that. 
 

As to your Street Orator of the Year victory, it’s been many years since that award has held any weight, back when the Godfathers or all the cities were capable of sitting down and coming to agreements amicably. And yes they all voted for one of your long dead grandparents. So what? What have you accomplished lately that has helped by any stretch of the imagination? I believe the literal number of ACTUAL street orators you’ve run off from this world is up to 900 now? If not literally more?

Yes, very helpful smh

Squealer furrows his brow.

"Jimmy, could you help us out? I think LuncheonEpiphany is mad. As the Ultimate Perceiver of Sore-Emotional Tempers, what do you think? ... They're mad, right?"

"They did all that at their youthful age and rank? That's mighty impressive."

"First time meeting them. You do realise I was the one to correct you on your 'brainrot' just now, right? Seems I'm sharp enough. I hope you feel better soon."

Epiphany rolls her eyes at EdinburghCastle and EdinburghCastle Lite Squealer. It was her own fault for taking he and his swinelike minion’s bait in the first place

I apologize for contributing to any derailment of the conversation Mr. @Soike.

People dislike the purging, thus the outrage over the suggestion they may owe an apology. While I don’t care for purging either, I do get it. Sadly, it’s really the only game in town to be played in order to hold onto power given the mechanics of our world. But it’s not a brilliant strategy, it’s not gosh damn chess, and to come out here and posture as if it is, well, you sound silly and you need to stop that behavior immediately.

This is pretty much it

Step 1: procure the services of some beautiful mind-esque borderline committable individual willing to devote their time to insane yet trivial tasks  

Step 2: after the First step is complete, instruct the individual to assist you in maintaining a list of mobsters. 

Step 3: Kill people on the list before they live long enough to kill you

Man this is some brilliant stuff!! Did he pick up these tips from Sun Tzo himself??

I apologise for existing  

FatGrin, Some regimes might encourage VIP activity, but it is very rare. But, nonetheless, I can cite several instances of those in power recently encouraging various contests and the like, even the great late Mokus. Santo’s line has done a lot in the past two years. I still believe and encourage you to shame the inactive. Yet, I see none under ten hours currently.

In the past, my line called out the consistently inactive to kill themselves. The ones that stood for months and allowed open cans of chili to grow mold in their refrigerators, and dust to accumulate on their brows. Again, at this time, there are none of those.

My line has also said previously that Kuku is also a “side quest.” I can add to that statement now with saying perhaps he is a necessary side quest for some, to bait, to invoke thought, if your ideal world has a thriving VIP list. With Kuku comes his band of merry men or women to cause a ruckus in the streets, and perhaps that is a good thing, if activity in the streets is so important to you. I can also say Philadelphia contributes plenty, but the streets are not for everybody and are not reflective of prosperity to all. I believe they still prosper.

At the end of the day, the bustling of the streets comes down to all of us. We choose to be here, as I have put myself here to address a hypothetical concept to get people talking. I come here facing abuse and attacks from some despite that (which is part of the intention of this speech obviously). Many others avoid such situations. I have given a platform for thought. Will you give me thanks for that? I can thank you for your input, and I hope to be given thanks for mine. Thank you. It’s good to say thank you.

For what it is worth, a lot of social engagement in this world is no longer seen on the streets, but in other speakeasys, some of which are very large and frequented often. It is a change of the times I suppose, and has been occurring over many years. The draw for people to speak in these streets has been less desirable than more causal engagements elsewhere. I do think it is a loss to society, and I am sure you would agree.

I do believe in trying to provide reasons to the people for various things occurring and deaths is important. Sometimes, that isn’t so easy to give as there are ongoing investigations… or to protect source or it is often better to keep an enemy in the dark, bumping into walls. It is something to work on. Perhaps Kuku can interview me.  

As for the death of Alfie, that was obviously an embarrassment. But sometimes people do idiot and selfish things. However, that was an example of Joe Ligambi giving a “new” person a chance, which everyone keeps saying we don’t do. It does not always turn out well.

In your reply, I see no actual constructive advice though except for perhaps providing the people with more updates on things going on, which is doable to an extent, perhaps events as well. I will take the critique into account, but it derails from the concept behind this speech: Maybe they should try apologizing.

EdinburghCastle, I will ignore the derailment, but I appreciate the effort of speech. I addressed some of your points in my points to FatGrin.

LuncheonEpiphany, actual purging is a very unfortunate thing. It is often rare, as I define it. Some define it a different way. My personal definition is: Solely, that person is too old and possibly a threat. This regime has gone to lengths to avoid that as much as possible. We go for the evidence and play detective. Most deaths or instances of a crewleader murdering their own member are based on evidence that a member is looking to mislead their leader, and acting in bad faith. Often other times, it is people getting caught in conspiracy. Other times, it is their mouths in general. Sure, there are instances of straight bloodlining. But shoe on the other foot, things would go the same way, i.e. who’s on top and who’s on bottom.

There are other aspects to this world that make it more like chess LuncheonEpiphany. There is an invisible board of what is really going on politically, strategically, versus what you see topically. FatGrin knows this very well. Yet again though, this is a derailment from the main topic.

Fartbuckle, thank you for trying to defend me, but FatGrin has way more than five friends.

So back to the point of apologizing which is the topic of this discussion… Is that an avenue for those in not so good standing to approach? Is it an issue of them not wanting to be accountable for negative actions or mistakes? Or is it for sporting reasons, like wanting to continue a fight? As I have said so many times, I enjoy the latter.

All apologies.

A focus upon VIP activity is just a synonym for activity itself. As I said before, this gives an 'at a glance' overview of what is going on at any one time. Whole cities have consistent periods of doing nothing. You seem to be retreating behind the shield of physical presence (i.e. hours per week) presumably because the record of this regime on actual output is indefensible. Whilst clearly we would agree that inactivity in leadership poor, I would suggest to you that being here 50, 60, 70 hours per week and contributing absolutely nothing is as much of a concern. The lower presence could have lots of explanations as to why they are outwardly not contributing; the higher one is making a definitive choice.

I'm hearing your definition of prosperity and justification of contributions, but they just fall flat. I'm drawn back to this statement as I'm listening:

"Do something for the community's betterment. Throw an event! Throw a party, but not just the one in your parents' den when they're out of town for the weekends during the summer! Something outside of your private party." - SpikeS '22

And this;

"As a Prince (of Morningwood) I hope to contribute to the betterment of this thing of ours" - SpikeS '25

And I just can't reconcile the two. What have you done for the community's betterment? 'Philly contributes plenty' and yet they don't speak in the Streets and the PH business district is non-existent. It has had four new businesses open this year, including MissDaisy both opening and closing her bar (this was two of the four) and one which opened two days ago and nobody has visited. Prior to that business opening, the last patron anywhere was on the 24th February.

Then you say Santo's line has done a lot...ok, like what? 1 mandatory street appearance. A business district without a patron since 9th February. Two new businesses this year and none since January. So where is the community betterment here? What parameters are we judging that or prosperity on?

I sigh hearing these things. Social engagement is in other speakeasys? Isn't this another of your exact criticisms of regimes past:

"This is a social world, but once in a while we’ll watch the same select people in leadership swoop in for a few minutes before a RAT dies and then they just head back to their private party… Clearly, just a brief hunt and then fucking off back to the clique hangout. How many mails am I going to get about this…?" - SpikeS '22

"The clique hangout", "your private party"....this is what you do isn't it? The activity is a tremendous loss to society, I absolutely agree but you're the one condoning, defending and rewarding it. Be objective, right? If someone's only contribution to your success is via their prowess with a gun or not betraying you, which I guess is the real reasons you're satisfied by the indefensible record of your regime, in your own words, step down. Bring them into the fold and give their places to people who care.

"If you’re in leadership and are finding that you really don’t care, kill yourself. Period. End Quote." - SpikeS '22

I felt like my advice was very constructive. Report on what is happening, what you're doing and explain why you're doing those things. There was a leader once in the old country called Sly. Every Sunday he came to the Streets and just gave his thoughts on the things that were happening, things he wanted to happen. He called it the Sunday Times. Maybe you could try this and detail what it is Santo and Cadhla and all the others who are outwardly contributing nothing have done that week so we can better understand the prosperity?

Prioritise output as much now that you're at the top as you claimed to when you weren't. Scrutinise the contribution of cities who can't even muster a visit to either their business district or the Streets and demand better from them. Move away from the private coffeeshops and speakeasys. Engage with the members of your families. Set an example to follow and a requirement of your people that must be met.

Stop thanking people for their contributions at their funeral and treat them better in life. Do better than "no w/s required" eulogies. Review the decision-making process in LA. Maybe throw Chicago's leadership back into school as well. Arianna's still looking for witnesses to the murder of Nincom as far as I know, (I heard they want an apology whilst we're on topic) South Side is getting mouldy and Adeline's monologuing through time. 

Meanwhile, Joe's visiting DT funerals thanking people for their help with his gun still smoking, only for it to transpire these murders were a mistake. Nuccio's telling his members that "it wasn't me who made the decision and it wasn't me who pulled the trigger" for the (mistaken?) murder of his own LHM. How many LHM end up in the obituaries these days? Is this strong leadership in your opinion? Is it for the betterment of the community or is it more of those leaders not being able to guarantee the safety of their members again - another grip of yours (until you're facilitating it). 

Then Joe's latest auth is dishing out swirlies to made men from across the country. That's ok too because it was a "new" person, so it is really actually our fault for expecting a change in approach to what has worked 'relatively prosperously for those in power' up to now? No harm done, carry on. Should we not judge the choices leaders are making or did that go out of fashion with speaking and outwardly contributing?

Anyway, I know you're keen to get this back onto what you wanted to discuss about making apologies and whatever, so I'll leave this here and let you get back to your point. Thank you for making this speech. By doing so, you've made more voluntary street speeches than Arianna-, Nuccio_Carrara, Jelly-Viterelli, StripheCorelli, Angelo_Barbieri, HansKieslowski, Jimmy, BillyMastrosimone, SantoRubio, Svent, Craven, Shifty, Soul_Hooligan and JohnnyTheMan. For anyone keeping score that is every single leader in the country except Cadhla, who only outdoes you because she also announced Soul_Hooligan, so she's got 2. Well done, Cadhla. 

Aislin smiles brightly as she listens to some good ole' mobster talk. She nods her head as the speech trickles off into smoke. She remembers her relatives talking about the good ole' days before they passed and the same useless questions and answers were presented then as well. 

She doesn't say anything just notes in her mind, same shit just a different day. The answer is simple. People do things because they can, not because they are necessary. People are barbaric, they kill each other, and fuck over one another, bad shit happens. Its up to you to get "them" before they get you. And pray to God that your gun doesn't jam.

She continues to smile as she leans against a building in the square as Ricky D - her bodyguard and best friend stands to her right and silently offers her smoke.

She shifts to her bodyguard and says, "As far as apologies..."

She laughs softly and runs her fingers through her hair.

"Fuck an apology, go get some money and respect."