This is a partial response speech to both LeonardU's recent speech and rumblings I've heard around town.

I have seen many citizens walk through Augusta's portal during my time in the city. Some stayed for a few days, some for months, some never left. But one thing has been consistent about their experiences here: they've all been unique, all different, all special in their own way.

Augusta is an old city. Walking though its streets is like walking through the annals of history: buildings build that day tower next to 11 month old structures. Communist flags fly proudly next to their capitalist neighbor's shops. Augusta is a mixture of identities, ideologies, and building styles. It has always been that way, and is what I believe unites the city.

We are one of the few cities who was not founded on an ideological unity. We don't govern from an ancap or a communist perspective: we govern from an Augustan perspective, a mixture of the ideas of our citizenry. Sometimes things work, sometimes they do not, but we all try to make it the best of all possible worlds at all times.

I did not choose to stick with Augusta for so long out of some deluded sense of glory. I do not welcome people with just as much excitement to the city today as I did six months ago because of some idealized concept of Augusta in my head. I do it because Augusta was, is, and will be one of the most fun experiences on the server.

But there are of course problems in the city, problems with Augusta that I acknowledge. I don't live in a nostalgic idealized imaginary Augusta where we remain inside our old walls and our biggest problem is keeping 0zymandia5's store stocked. I live in the now. We have griefing and cobble to clean up, still. We don't have as much security as we would like. We need more snitch blocks around town. We need to change some key components of the constitution.

I understand all that. So what do we need?

We need you to stand up and do something tangible about it and stop complaining like the system has failed you. I agree with one line of LeonardU's speech:

Now is not the time to shrug off our responsibility as Augustans and leave this work to other people.

But that time is used for standing up and fixing things. For proposing bills. For being proactive, as frustrating as that can be, and mine those cobble mountains. Fix that griefed house next door.

Look what the Empire District did in the south eastern area of Augusta. They decided to be proactive and clean up their area, look out for each other, make things better. And it turned out great for them.

Instead, people focus on the negative. They act as if Augusta is a corrupt behemoth of a state, crushing them and their ability to live. Being nostalgic of the past is fine, but living in it is a problem. I hear people complaining about how Augusta used to be, before the buildings like the Trading Company. But the Augusta they pine for is different from the Augusta prior to the Eastern Expansion, which I am sure others pine for. And that is different from the Augusta prior to more than 10 people living there, which I am sure others pine for!

The point is, remembering the city for what it used to be physically is a futile and pointless effort. We need to look at what makes Augusta Augusta, what transcends the physical blocks below our feet.

It is the melting pot aspect of the city.

It is the cultural events.

It is the proud unity Augustans feel.

It is the amazing judicial system, which has successfully reformed many griefers, some of whom are citizens still, and works to look out for the rights of the victim and the accused.

An ideological revolution is not what we need. A secession is not what we need. Because that is running away from our problems, back to an Augusta that doesn't exist, that likely never existed except in idealized versions in our heads.

A revolution wouldn't change the key aspects of minecraft that make it difficult to have a 24/7 police force. Gondolin has the closest thing to that, and they still get griefers occasionally. A revolution wouldn't change the fact that people will always disagree with certain aspects of laws or traditions in a community. That is what living in a large town means.

I hope the message you take from this is one of love and moderation.

What we need is to work to make the city a better place the same way we always have: with love and compassion for all people, regardless of political identity. We are the welcoming city for a reason: we have a place for all people, regardless of what you believe.

Don't change that. That's not what we need.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

See you around our beautiful town.

• Sami