… and freedom of speech.

McCall walks into the streets and sighs deeply, looking around at the various conversations he shakes his head before speaking himself. Whilst it was hard for him to admit, the actions of his own father in recent times was one of the main reasons for his speech today.

Before I start, I know that the same old tired faces will come out here and berate me for talking about subjects that have been done to death. Who cares? When everything that can possibly be discussed has been discussed here or there, 5 minutes ago or 5 years ago is irrelevant. If you don't like what I'm saying or feel that you have heard it all before, then don't stop to listen.

I remember hearing a speech from a guy called Machiavelli on the loss of honour and respect in this life of ours. I have to say I agreed with him then and I still do now. And the cause is two fold, Ignorance and Weak ineffectual Crew Leaders.

Ignorance seems to have paralysed our cities. People forget the hierarchy of this thing of ours. Civilians, Thugs, Gangsters, Goombas and dare I say it, Earners, are all scum. Street scum, the low of the low. Your opinions are irrelevant and unwanted unless there is respect. Until you prove yourself in this life, your continued existence is conditional. By that I mean you sit there, you learn, you make friends, you make money for your sponsor and his family and you show respect to those who are more important than you. Now, some of you may say that so and so is an idiot, or what's his name couldn't lead a piss up in a brewery, but that is not the point. Someone has seen fit to promote that person to the rank they are, for whatever reason. That person has proven themselves an asset in their leader's family, or as a leader of their own. You may think they do not deserve your respect, but that at this moment in time is not your place to say. All you do by attacking them publicly is prove that you have no respect yourself. By all means, piss all over each other, demand action from each other, but until you are made in this thing of ours your opinion does not count. I don't care who your father, mother, great aunt on your sister's nephews side used to be, just show a little common sense and respect.

At Wise Guy you are an associate of the family. You are still not privy to all its secrets and benefits, but you are on the path to getting your button. At this time you should be toeing the family line, being respectful, and doing your best to be an asset to your family. Your opinions are to matter more, but still there has to be respect. Going into a debate and trying to rip a CL to shreds, or his RH is just stupid, isn't it? Sure that CL may be an easy target, maybe thinks he is perfect in every way whilst we all no different, but it still isn't your place to say that.

Next we have the Made Men. Finally you won your button. You are a full-blown member of this thing of ours, with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that entails. Your opinion matters now, and you are supposedly protected from the obnoxious little shits scrabbling for attention at our feet. Problem is, now you are made, you are a walking billboard for your family. What you say, and more importantly, how you say it matters a hell of a lot. What use is it you working hard to get to where you are, if you spoil it all now by being a cafone? Respect people, whether it's warranted or not. After that you become a captain, a leader of Associates, Capo. Your importance and value have improved, and it continues with Boss. You still toe the family line, you still show respect, because your career is going places, and you want to get to the top, don't you?



Sure you do, Consigliere is right around the corner. At Consigliere not only do you toe the family line, you help make the family line. By this stage you may be leading a crew of your own, a Right hand man, and advisor to your Crew leader, but regardless you are a major player in the underworld. People fear you and respect you and the only people you are answerable to are the Dons. But still, you show respect. This time because it's your honour that's at risk. You have worked long and hard for many years to get to this position, and you'll be damned if you'll allow some jibbering idiot of a gangster provoke you into losing it. You'd just shoot him for running his mouth, because he is nothing and his crewleader would apologise that you had to. This is where we hit the second snag, which I'll come too in a minute.

People have forgotten what it means to be a mafioso. We are not petty thugs and criminals, we aspire to much more. However, we have ineffectual and weak leaders from time to time. Everyone claims that they only promote on merit, and we all know that for many it's an out and out lie. They do not enforce the rules that have guided us from the hills of Sicily to the mean streets of the United States of America. They don't punish those who disrespect made men in the streets. They don't punish those who speak shit and besmirch the name of their family through their stupidity. Not only do they not punish these idiots, they promote them. All the way up to the highest echelons of our society, and all this does is perpetuate the situation and negatively reinforces it so that it becomes hardwired into the psyche of our society. Sure these pitiful Crew Leaders eventually are killed because of the bullshit and disrespect that cascades into the streets from their HQs, but then it is too late, the damage is done. Those who survive go on as they always have in a new family, and the offspring of the dead return to fill their shoes. And again they go unpunished. Gwarble was the only one I've seen who has taken a stand. I might not agree with the ins and outs as to why he killed my father, but the fact of the matter is he did. My Father got into an argument with a Made man from Gwarbles family, and whilst the button man threw the first insult, it was not my father's place to start firing them back. Regardless of whether Palpatine was right, an associate publically taking apart a Made Man was wrong, and my Father died for it.

How many others need to be taught the same lesson but walk off as if coated with teflon because their CL or the CL they insult doesn't have the common sense to strike them down where they stand?

Look around you; our world is dying. New blood comes to our streets and gets washed down the gutter. When my family first stepped off the boat, it was the respect, loyalty and family that amazed me and convinced me to stay. Its dying now, you can smell its rotting stench on the wind already, and if we all sit around like bleeding heart liberals not enforcing the correct behavior and promoting only when it is truly earned, then we are witnessing the final days of La Cosa Nostra. We're already in the 1930s, that gives us over 50 years of domination in organized crime, but we'll not be here in another 50 years time if we don't stop the rot.

Family heads and Right hand men, with all due respect, please listen up… It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. If you see some idiot talking trash in the street about one of your peers, then take a leaf from Gwarble's book and bitch slap the little fucker back into place. Promote based on merit, not because you want to have the biggest family, full of the highest ranks. In the end it won't help when a group of crewleaders take your family apart because they are fed-fucking-up of all the shit they have to put up with. Only you guys can save us now, only you guys can rebuild and repair the damage before we are all consigned to the dustbin of history.

Jodie has been rather quiet on the streets every since she first hit these shores. Simply because nothing had sparked her attention. She is doing her usual walk around the streets when she notices a man talking about something with a lot of passion in his face. She thinks to herself, I wonder what he is talking about. She then takes a look at her watch and sees that she has about an hour or so before her next drug run so she decides to see exactly what this man is talking about. She stands and nods. Ah, finally something that sparks my attention.

Mr. McCall, I can tell you exactly why now a days people do not just get shot when they say something out of line for the first time. 1 word, War. War recently had scared most of our society shitless. People can't run around and kill whoever they please without the thought in the back of thier head that someone will come for them. Now a days, our "low ranked" members are important to their family. Most come from a long bloodline that has a lot of respect, so automatically they inherit the respect. So if that person comes into the streets, and says something to a Made Man about how stupid they are, they have their bloodline to back them up because their Crew Leader will not simply just let that person die.

I also think now more than ever, our lower ranked members have more rights when it comes to freedom of speech. I can't even list how many people have come into the streets, called people out, pushed a few buttons and then a month later they are picking out the wall paper to their own HQ. But, this is the way it is. Our society had changed dramatically all because of...WAR.

When someone says something out of line, war has to be put into consideration. "If I kill this little shit because he called me stupid, will that result into war?". Tensions lately have been very high, and something as little as killing a thug could wipe out a whole city of mafiosos. Now a days, a thug could have more respect than a Don simply because of their bloodline. Let's say a GodFather has been tragically killed in a car accident, and his son comes to the shores to fill his shoes. His kin, without a doubt has a lot of respect, because of his bloodline. So that person has more room to say however they feel rather than someone who does not have such a "prestige" bloodline.

So thats why I think everyone is not as "Trigger Happy" as they use to be.

Jodie smiles at Mr. Mcall, scratches the back of her ankle and walks away while she is humming a tune to her favorite tune. She comes up to a penny faced up. She bends over and picks it up. Yay! Today must be my lucky day! She puts the penny in her change purse and continues to walk away and hum. "Lalalalala". 

McCall smiles and watches Jodie go for a moment before calling after her.

Thank you for talking the time to discuss this issue with me Jodie, it is indeed a valuable insight. I wonder... is the fear of war because of how our society has evolved in recent times or is it indicative of a bigger, more esoteric issue? Now I'm not suggesting for one moment that all Crew leaders, Dons and Godfathers are bad at their job, or exhibit the failings I have detailed, but we have all known of their ilk at one time or another. I believe the disrespect of Philly to other high rankers and families was one reason given for its take down. So there is hope, we still punish disrespect to some degree.

Some have voiced a concern in private that I am being overly negative with my thoughts, that the world is not quite as bad as I'm making out, and that my sentaments are pointlessly negative and offer no vision for a solution. If that is the case, then I apologise, it was not my intention. It's just that I am incrediably passionate about our way of life, and when I see it suffer, I too suffer. I'm just a lowly Earner myself and I don't have all the answers or the power to enforce them if I did. I wish someone who did would step forward and provide them, but we don't live in a perfect society, and we never will. The only way to rectify the problems I have highlighted is if we all, as a man, agree to return to the old ways. If all the leaders agree to go back to a time when respect was at the very core of everything we do, and those who abandoned it were cast out from this thing of ours.

There is a term, 'Honour amongst theives' and there was a time when we epitomised that saying. Have we gone to far to recapture those golden days of yore? I pray that we haven't.

McCall smiles whistfully and thinks of buying a packet of Cigarettes. He's only been off them 10 days, but today is one of those days that would test his resolve to quit to the very core.

I also think now more than ever, our lower ranked members have more rights when it comes to freedom of speech. I can't even list how many people have come into the streets, called people out, pushed a few buttons and then a month later they are picking out the wall paper to their own HQ.

 

Now to me,  that's quite a shame and I would hope that other mafiosi who are not good at posting in the streets, such as myself, would still be giving a fair chance to run their own crew in the future because of their loyalty, hard work and ability to follow instructions...(cough cough, looks at Robert and Gwarble.) ;) JK

MrBean raises Teddy up to his ear...

Shut up Teddy!  I was not insinuating anything!  Go back to drinking your damn Scotch and be quit before I have you clipped.  Damn nosey BG's anyway.

Slyvestro Carollo brings his tired old face into a conversation he has heard before.

I always get a kick out of these types of speeches. Yours was particularly well done. I like how you get right to the core problems, ignorance and crew leaders. Your ability to appear to berate the lowlifes while still throwing out insult after insult to the cities and those who run them will inspire me in the days to come. But lets face the real facts here as I see them. This is nothing more than another ego stroke by your bloodline. Another attempt to rewrite your own history to your own satisfaction. Alf the mouth didn't start anything at all with Palpatine. You said he threw out the first insult, I call bullshit. Palpatine's comparision of Alf's name to a name he so graciously threw out was the first personal blow AFTER Alf correctly called out palpatine's style, which was to TRY and veil insult after insult with supposed "debate". That whole speech disgusted me to a point I could not participate. Your glee at calling Crazynine a C*N* made me cringe. My bloodlines notes are clear, one man did the "right" thing it's first time out and here I am now. That man was Adrian. Palpatines complete lack of class showed through every word he wrote. And here you are today, lecturing people, talking as if you have something important to say, and maybe something to teach us, when really all you did was repeat the same mistakes your bloodline already made. I dare say you haven't learned a thing. The only amusing part of all this is that you have just about done all the things you have accused others of doing in a single speech. Lies, throwing Omerta out the window, disrespecting those above you, I agree there is a rotten stench about, and I think it's that speech.