PJ, once again, commands his speech in a manner that dances round the subject at hand instead of directly challenging the status quo.  This is to be applauded.  Whatever You Want from these Streets, the status quo can help to deliver it, All Over The World.  For those that don't and can't find work within this thing of ours, events overseas dictate that soon you find yourself In The Army Now.

Mr. PoisonousJelly I am not foolish enough to believe they're shooting them on sight. I believe that monkey just put a box on his head and freaked out like many wild animals do. He lost control for a moment and fired his gun. If the monkeys are putting these boxes laying around everywhere on their heads, I can only expect this trend to continue.

Heh MrKuklinksi... may you rest in peace. You more than most know I am happy to challenge the status quo and what is accepted by the majority in the community. This little rant of mine does just that in fact. The soap box being what is accepted by the majority.

leaning against a lamp post Dante listens to the back and forth of the conversation, he notices the soap box that is being kicked around but always knew that wasn't for him

I like a lamp post, this way I can just hang back and listen. It gives me the chance to swing round and talk to whomever I wish to talk to. Or I can just stay as I am and address whoever might listen. But well that's your crux isn't it. Should I be leaning here out in the open, just talking in the hope that someone passing will listen and maybe even talk back? Well see that's the thing about this place of ours, it's a closed society. Almost like living on one of them moon bases the kids read about in their sci fi books.

pulls out a smoke, lights it up and takes a long draw before continuing

That in itself is the beauty of our streets, while any goomba worth his or her salts knows not to be talking inner family business. We can discuss broader topics that surround our life. For we have no fear of nosy politicians trying to ride the next election, no fear of common citizens hearing what we say and running to the cops. The only thing we really have to fear out here is saying something out of turn. Talking down to those who are higher up the food chain than us.

takes another long draw from his smoke

Life out on these streets can be very short at times. Okay so it's not as common as it used to be, but it is still there.

Im usually very creative with my intros to speaking I hate the sb.
Its lame

I have always considered the streets in which we speak in this thing of ours to be mobster specific. Never once have I seen a FBN or police officer poking his head in the door putting those who participate in a health street discussion for Masses in handcuffs, carting them off down to the station. 

It is a healthy practise for the mobsters of this world to get together and dicuss, the problems, and going ons as they see it in the world. In some cases, as some extreamly famous mobsters from years and years in our past can tell you (even the old mustache petes whos children came over from the old country) sometimes those dicussions need to be started with a long speech examining whatever topic they find so rousing as to ask for others opinions. 

There are plenty of ways to speak more secretivly with not so many ears waiting to hear the words spilling from your mouth, such as the HQ, Backalleys, and coffee shops on IRC avenue, But the streets play a valuable role in mass communication between all mobsters. Protection orders, Authorizations to run familys, mobster specific newspapers, and private city cassinos are all prime examples of what makes the streets valuable, and, while presented in the same light as a soapbox speech, I have still never seen a mobster carted off by those damn cops on the basis of sharing that information here. 

I guess my point is that speeches in the streets are an important part of our life, and they provide an avenue for voicing your oppinions about the goings on in our world. That being said, if a mobster cant find a better way to deliver a speech than the old standby, the preverbial soap box, then what they have to say is probably not worth much in the first place. 

Valmont tips his hat, and submerges into the darkness of a nearby back alley, hoping that the civillians and law enforcement that heard his words will not cause him to much trouble.

Ok... Now it's getting even harder to stop straying on to OOC avenue.

I am in no way saying that these streets here should not be the hub of important information or the go to place to share with everyone what you are feeling or thinking. Nor do I want to stop the debates and rowdy arguments. I infact encourage all of that but I can't help but notice that people here are missing the point.

I do not feel that all these things should stop but I do strongly feel that the way we do it is completely wrong and nothing to do with how mobsters speak.

(In other words... There are better ways to role play than using a soap box. As is seen in the examples I give in the original piece.)

Valmont hears PJ's words from the darkness of a nearby alley. Undertanding his reply, he emmerges again to comment on his point.

I see what you are saying PJ, and I think I may have misunderstood the first time. I was under the assumption that we do away with "soapbox speeches" entirly, due to the fact that unwanted ears may be able to hear. The way I see it now, I understand that while these speeches are ineed important, the soap box potion is a old method that doesn't nessisarily make sence in these times.

I do infact think that is a valid point, the soapbox is old and warn out by this time. I have to wonder if its first user even intended it to become such a trendy method of delivering one's points.

Good thoughts PJ.

Turns to PoisonousJelly and lights up another smoke

I can understand what you mean about it being hard to not discuss this in a clear way. I also understand what you said initially, there are the right places to discuss certain points and there are the wrong ways. As I stated leaning against a lamp post as I do for the world to hear may not be right. Stepping onto a soap box is more akin to something a union leader or politician might do to address those who might feel akin to their views.

takes another draw from his smoke

Boss the thing you have to understand, there are those who speak on our streets that will never understand what you are trying to say. While there is more than a few who are willing to voice their opinion, you know as well as I do that this may not last. So what I guess I'm really getting at is this, does the background really matter, or do the words matter more? I honestly understand how your trying to educate some, but at the same time. I personally feel there is a little too much emphasis on our settings and what happens around us in some speeches that the actual point is either lost or irrelevant.

You raise a good point my friend and I see what you are saying. However my point is mainly that if someone wants to get the word out to the masses, that they do it in a way that a mobster would. The background I agree is not entirely important. Hell, no background is better than the soap box in my opinion.

The point I am trying to get across is that we are mobsters and we should act as one no matter what we do. Be that talking to other mobsters, setting up or entering a business front or indeed talking to the community as a whole.

In my own opinion... 'PJ comes out to the streets of the mob to talk' is a lot better than 'PJ comes out to the streets, steps on a soap box for all to hear and shouts out some mob business'.

To me is a matter of a labyrinth of back alleys where no one else would dare go outside the criminal fraternity and maybe the town drunk.  Though i do believe the police walk the streets, i do believe they even have their limits in bravery and intelligence on where to and where not to go.  To stand in the middle of a public square and say i Don/Boss/Consig X plan to rob u blind and manufacture drug, export and sell drugs would of course be crazy.