[Cynnabar] SCA Lawsuit payout

Tue Feb 7 02:39:39 UTC 2012

My Lords and Ladies,

I look at this from a rather different perspective. And this following  
is 100% my personal opinion, but I will say right now that I disagree  
about giving any extra money at this time-

Why? Good question, and the short answer is because all of my adult  
life I have been a member of the SCA. I have a deep devotion to what  
it stands for and the people in it. I grew in a Society that cherished  
honor and integrity, and was about as well meaning as it could  
possibly be. I feel very protective of that. What will the SCA do with  
your extra money? Will they use it to change the structure of the  
Society to be more immune to unethical attacks or will they protect  
their own paid jobs? My trust in the SCA is rather shaken at this  
time. I am concerned that giving extra money above our portion might  
actually make a bad policy continue, and to me that is worse than the  
alternatives. In the surface guise of helping the SCA, we might  
actually be promoting and ensuring its demise. Instead, we need change.

Here's the way I see it-

I find the whole thing frustrating, and I am angered by it. There is  
no honor here.

I wasn't around when the events leading to the lawsuit happened. I  
don't know the facts in detail, but what I do know is this: That a  
certain individual who was involved with the SCA, without knowledge or  
consent of the SCA or the people of the SCA (namely all of the rest of  
us), did commit crimes against minors and he is being punished by a  
very long jail sentence. That in itself is justice. The guilty was  
removed and will pay for his crimes. The pound of flesh has been  
rendered appropriately.

But then, for whatever reason (maybe someone said "Hey, you can get a  
lot of money and get rich if you sue the SCA Inc.") the victims  
(apparently their families) decided to try to make an ungodly amount  
of money from an entity that is one of the most upright and honorable  
out there. These people decided to seek money from the innocent, from  
good people who were not involved, and who would have done everything  
they could to prevent the crime from happening in the first place. Had  
they just asked the people of the SCA for financial help to assist in  
costs for therapy, etc., I'm sure we all would have been more than  
happy to pitch in and help.

But no, they wanted to get rich, so after the real criminal was dealt  
with, they attacked those who were uninvolved and innocent of any  
wrongdoing, for no better reason than making money. The screwed up US  
legal system allows them to do so. Our legal system is a crock, and  
because it it does not protect the innocent, it creates this absurd  
liability syndrome that destroys the innocent as often as it helps the  
righteous.

In my mind that means these families of the victims have taken  
something bad to them and made it worse by spreading it wrongfully on  
innocent people. They are not righteous in their action against the  
SCA. Two wrongs never make a right. In my mind they have lost all  
sense of ethics and are no better than thieves because they have gone  
after the wrong people. Yeah, I mean thieves. There are lots of ways  
to steal that are technically legal, and these people found a way to  
exploit one.  Most of us are in a VOLUNTEER organization. None of us  
were there nor had any idea what was happening, yet these people would  
come to all of us to enrich them. What sense does it make to assail  
people who were not remotely involved and who would have done anything  
to prevent it? The only answer is greed. Maybe we could could have  
prevented the crime if we were God-like and omniscient enough to  
anticipate the problem, but despite us not being Gods, the screwed-up  
US law says the SCA Inc. is responsible anyway. Despite the claim of  
the SCA, The SCA people are NOT legally responsible for the bill. Only  
the Corporation is actually libel.

The way I see it, these plaintiffs have no honor and are clearly evil  
in their purpose. But to be true to ourselves, we must have the honor  
they lack. That's why I am extremely disappointed in the SCA for  
caving-in without fighting it further. To settle when there was no  
fault was bad enough, but then to pass the buck on to the members who  
had nothing to do with it is just -unconscionable, it is not what an  
honorable Society should have done. The SCA sold us all out. The SCA  
chose to protect itself RATHER THAN ITS PEOPLE. I'd rather be giving  
money to see the plaintiffs get thwarted than pay them off in order to  
allow the SCA Inc. to keep leading us on a course that leaves it open  
to further such attacks.

The SCA disheartens me when the it refuses to reorganize into less of  
a financial target even though it could. Doing the right thing isn't  
always easy, but there were alternatives that were smarter. There was  
always the idea of reorganizing into smaller entities that are more  
immune. You notice that not the whole SCA has to pay, right? Well,  
that's because the "colonies" outside the US are protected as their  
own entities.  But this is what our organizers decided to do, and now  
they plan to stick us with the bill.  When WE pay this whopping huge  
amount of settlement, even "IF" the insurance companies end up paying  
it back later, it sends a very strong message that the SCA Inc. is  
capable of surviving this type of attack and is therefore is a good  
target for anyone in the future. I'm saying (and have been for a  
while) that as long as the SCA continues along this direction it will  
NEVER be safe from these attacks. We should be smart enough to learn  
from these mistakes.

And now, if we pay extra above what the SCA asked for, we are sending  
a signal that we think what the SCA did by knuckling under and  
sticking us all for the bill is OK by us. Yeah, not only will we pay  
what you ask, but we'll pay MORE!  The SCA has figured the amounts  
necessary to pay the bill, has divided the burden amongst the US  
groups as fairly as possible, and will require that amount to be paid.  
Fine. We must accept that, for it is what it is. But I personally  
believe that if we pay MORE than that amount then we contribute to the  
SCA's  ability to continue on a flawed path. Its like being an  
"enabler." I feel it is wrong, and we should not do it. Instead I  
think should send a message to the SCA leadership that before we  
financially support it further it MUST completely re-think its  
strategy for a structure that is more immune to these attacks and no  
longer pass the bill for its mistakes on to the people. Give 'em money  
to do something different, but not to maintain a structure where the  
innocent many are held responsible for something they had no part in.  
If they won't change, then maybe we should stop giving them money and  
make a new group with more honor and integrity. Keeping a few people  
on a payroll in California is just not worth it.

This is my personal opinion. I'm not trying to force it on anybody,  
and I don't wish to start a flame war about it, so please, before your  
knee-jerk reaction causes you to reply, mull it over a bit and calm  
down. Even if you still disagree with me, you should accept that I  
have thought about it and I have a right to express this opinion. I'm  
not dumb, and there are others who feel similarly, so maybe there is  
something to what I am saying. But if the group disagrees with my  
opinion, I am just one voice. We act together.

RanthulfR

On Feb 6, 2012, at 4:10 PM, Greg Less wrote:

> Hi All-
>
>    As I understand it, the group is relatively flush right now with  
> significantly more money in the bank than we have immediate plans for.
>
>    I'm  sure that not all groups in Pentamere currently have that  
> luxury.
>
>    I would propose that we donate more than the requested 18% to  
> help cover the tithe owed by some of our less fortunate neighbors.  
> Perhaps up to 25% of our total coffers.
>
>    If this hurts the baronial monies in a significant way, I hereby  
> volunteer to run fundraisers of a to-be-determined nature until the  
> set aside money is fully recovered. The first fundraiser would be a  
> dunk tank at Terpsichore.
>
> Regards,
> -Gregoire.
> _______________________________________________
> Barony mailing list
> Barony at cynnabar.org
> http://lists.cynnabar.org/listinfo/barony

Randy Asplund
Facebook: "Randy Asplund, Artist"
www.RandyAsplund.com
Maker of Medieval books and
Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy
(734) 663-0954
2101 S. Circle Dr. Ann Arbor, MI 48103

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