Emergency meeting!
Over last week's vacation Vera wrote a letter to the peeps of TinyTown. It was distributed among the residents with the hope that it might help them solve their eminent domain crisis. The letter is as follows:
To the peeps (and homesteaders) of Tinytown
April 17, 2012
I am Vera, the old
lady peep who visited you last week, the day Rolph said he was taking over the
town by eminent domain. I have visited
quite a few peep villages in my life and my human is on the
board of directors of The Game of Village, Inc. I am surprised and a little worried to
notice how very separate and independent the peeps are in Tinytown. Of course self reliance is good and
important. Peeps need to work hard and take care of themselves. What worries me is that your community is
suddenly in a crisis and doesn't seem ready for it.
The crisis is
caused by bad leadership. You all have
trusted Rolph and now he has betrayed you!
He claims the whole town and plans to sell it at a big profit to
himself. This would make all the rest
of you peeps homeless and maybe be the end of Village for the year. I saw you asking yourselves “what can we
do?”, and some of you had good suggestions that Tuesday April 10. The peeps were not in agreement however, and
didn't want to or weren't able to listen to each other or decide anything. One thing I do know is that good group
decisions can only come when everybody agrees (or almost everybody). Plus, orderly meetings and patient listening
are needed to get to agreement.
Are all of you
peeps going to let one peep steal everything from you because he is in a position
of political power? Can't you all agree
that peeps, like “The People” of the United States of America,
may not be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law”? How about
prohibiting the taking of private property for public use without just
compensation”? Those quotes are in the
Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Can't you work together enough to stop Rolph, perhaps by calling on a
higher authority for legal support? You
can talk to your teachers, your parents, me (Vera), even your own sense of
justice (group conscience), and then take action. What can you do? First make sure there is written law, then
arrest the criminal for breaking the law.
Try his case fairly and take back what is properly yours. A trial would be one time to practice
orderliness since a disorderly trial is a mistrial. A trial, like any group meeting, works best
if it is brief and decisive (you need an impartial judge or jury). Expressing opinions and arguing with great
passion can be productive, but a courtroom can’t have peeps getting out of
control. At least in that formal setting
peeps must respect each other, their laws, and the need for order. Otherwise they can lose everything.
There isn't much
time left in the school year, and I don't know what goals Tinytown has. I hope there will be some public event so
us older peeps and some younger ones can visit and meet you all and get
entertained. How about a peep circus or
something? Call me if you want to @
847-3227 and leave a message with your number. I will call you back.
Yours truly,
Vera
Needless to say, Rolph was very nervous about going to Village today. Would he be arrested? All of the homesteaders met outside under the pavilion. An informal meeting was called to order, as there were no materials to use to continue working on houses. It seemed the only thing left for the TinyTownies to do would be to find a solution for keeping their land. "We should kill Rolph" "We should send Rolph to outer space in one of those rockets" "We should form a government and make some laws to protect us"
Fortunately for Rolph he is likable! Many homesteaders came to his defense when it was suggested he be killed or sent to the moon. Disco Dave got up and gave a presentation about having a president... I think. It was hard to tell what he was ranting about as he paced back and forth through the middle of the crowd. Whatever it was, it seemed important! Ultimately it was established that we should elect a president to make laws to protect the town. Six peeps stood up to meet the challenge and gave campaign speeches. Some of the speeches were pretty clean while others slung a LOT of mud! The vote narrowed our options to Bob and Fred. Bob took eleven votes and was declared the winner. Fred, with three votes was declared vice president. Fred then did a bit of talking about making laws, but failed to make any. Rolph tried to keep them on track by asking what their solution was and what laws actually protect them. One peep suggested that they pass a law to protect the wildlife of TinyTown and hence cannot be flooded. This went no where. The steady tangent revolved around a law that would make a federal takeover illegal without the signatures of the all of the residents of the town. This is a good law... however, as Rolph reminded them, they have not fulfilled the terms of the contract signed in September to receive the deeds for their land. The vice president then asked for an extension of three weeks to fulfill these conditions. Rolph asked what was in it for him? He was then promised quite a lot of manure. This is when Rolph stopped paying attention to anything else. Fortunately for the residents of TinyTown, Rolph is rather simple and has a major weakness! The new law will become legal as soon as the TinyTownies receive the deeds to their land.
It looks like we will have class next week. We will continue outside building houses and improving land.
