I Can't Get Enough and I Can't Get my Thrills...

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senator NC Yankee walks onto the stage to a thunderous applause

My fellow Southerners, thank you!

Recently I gave an interview to our distinguished former President and Vice President Lumine, in which I detailed some of the most pressing concerns facing this game. Topping the list is the discordificaiton of activity and the resulting reduction in expansive and inclusive interation upon which this game is build. The Discord model by design caters to the few who are present in real time or have time enough to read back through hundreds of posts. Compared to Atlasia where you can read through posts with greater ease sorted into various topics, directly leads to a drop off of engagement and participation in the game.

I don't have any easy answers for this. In my capacity as Board Moderator I have begun constructing a noticeboard to hopefully bring the same mechanics to the AFE board that exist on the AFG board and in the various Regional governments. The effect of this is two fold, first it brings relevant and important threads together in one place and eliminates having to dig for them, while secondly it hopefully demonstrates the fuller range of new activities one can participate in.

Here is a prime example of what I am talking about. I read through this evenings discord posts and in a new Atlasia by the name of Jake Arlington who registered today in Fremont asked if he could start a business in Atlasia. To my eyes I never say this answered directly and if it was was it was lost in the jumble of the conversation, hence the draw back and exclusivity of real time singular medium contrasted with a multi-thread, non-real time interaction on the forum. My hope is that people will see newspapers, pressure groups, even my saloon and use that as a invitation to creatively express and engage with the game on the AFE Board.

While I have a few more ideas in this regards, one more thing that we can do is to speak out publicly and in the open about the issues that we care about. And seek to generate awareness, interest and support for those causes so that elections become more than just who can turn out the most drones but instead become about people voting on matters of principle for people who will most effectively represent their interests and values.

As Senator, one my deepest concerns is that we have lost sight of one of the important lessons stemming from the reset that is the need to avert overly tipping the scales of action towards the Federal Government. The rise of foreign policy was suppose to substitute for and thus allow for domestic issues things like the nitty gritty of education and even many aspects of health care to be kept at the regional level. This doesn't mean that we abandoned the regions to their devices, the Federal can provide leadership and support, but at the same time they must gives regions the room to make choices and even yes to make mistakes. It is these choices and these mistakes that will generate substantive based political activism at the regional level. We see this going on right now in Fremont on the issue of affirmative action. Consider for a minute what a top down federal "solve the problem forever approach" would mean, well it would mean a lot of silence in the Fremont Parliament right now.

The glorious South land is the birthplace of the Atlasian Regional Rights movement. Born of a secession movement, it quickly adopted the preservation of regional powers and responsibilities as the true path to a balanced game with activity at both levels of government, and by extension the best way to avert a secession from ever happening is to preserve that balance. Southerners are thus uniquely cognizant of this importance and I have always kept this at the forefront of my actions in the game.

I will fight for that balance. I possess the depth of historical knowledge, experience and skill to identify this slow creep of centralism and work to combat it effectively. However, I cannot succeed in that objective without the support of you the Southern people.

While a Federalist Senator for your region, I strive to be a Federalist Senator who listens to your concerns, uses intelligence in how best to alleviate those concerns and most important of all active. So while I may be a Federalist, The South need not worry about me not listening, being stoopid or being lazy. I look forward, with your support, to serving this great region for another four months, with the same sense of obligation that has always motivated me when serving you in office.

I look forward to earning your votes. Thank You!