Commander's Time

From the desperate bowels of disappointment nests the potential for renewed optimism. These are not just flowery words that I’ve typed here. I’m feeling this this week. I have been disturbed by the negative environment for a while, and now many are joining me in this. Our ever-running Outrage Olympiad fuels the misplaced aggression and normalizes anger over diplomacy. We cannot survive under this constant barrage of competing attitudes of superiority and self-importance above all.

That’s disappointing.

So many people have reached out that they are concerned about the same things. I’m grateful that they aren’t leaving, and some, in fact, are asking what they can do to help. One young Legionnaire is eager to

take on a big recruiting goal of finding fresh new faces for Post 43.

That breeds optimism.

I wrote the plea below on social media, and I’m rebroadcasting it here because we are at a point where we cannot move productively forward without a serious vibe check. We simply can’t find consensus in

this current environment. Therefore the status quo must make way for a paradigm shift where folks feel more comfortable supporting what’s good than attacking what they don’t agree with.

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These last couple of days have found me in deep thought about the Post and what we need to do, beyond the money and contracts, and programs. I'm really disheartened by the place where our journey of devolvement has landed us. I'm optimistic that we can be better, but I need 1300+ to all be on the same page about this. I'm not asking for donations or time, right now. I'm asking for a collective attitudinal check.

I don't want to put too much focus on recent events and I don't really want to have them rehashed in the comments either. These things don't happen in a bubble. They are the manifestation of the environment. I've been trying and pleading for a tone change in the

Post.

Stuff goes wrong and stuff goes right. I tend to think that far more goes right, but the complaining about what goes wrong dominates. Not only does it dominate, but it's broadcast with the static of vitriol and hyperbole that only serves to rile people up.

We divide up into factions and engage in "us vs. them" mentalities. The reality is that we should all be on the same team. We don't always have to agree, but we NEED decorum and respect in dialogue and debate.

In one of my (recent) Commander Corner messages for the newsletter, I pleaded these points and I ended it with a mantra that I'd hope we all can adopt. I'll also end this post with the same mantra:

Deescalate. Communicate. Ideate.