[MR] the real petitions are now online

[Kelly Keck]

I am sorry to hear that there are marshals who intend to ignore these new
rules.  I myself am probably too new a fighter and am *certainly* too new a
marshal (authorized fighter for two years and a bit, warranted marshal for
less than a month) to be the best judge of whether these rules are necessary
or are overkill.

But, I feel very strongly that a marshal shouldn't pick and choose which
rules they want to enforce.  There's a responsibilty to enforce the rules as
they're written, not as you wish they were written; otherwise, why have
rules at all?

If there's a rule that you feel you absolutely cannot in good conscience
enforce, I think it's far more honorable to do what Duke Logan has done and
resign than to enforce the rules selectively.  That comes with its own set
of problems, but seems far better than ignoring the new rules.

If it's something one feels strongly about but not to the extent that it's
worth resigning over, I'd encourage those people to sign the petition, write
to the BOD and the SEM, but, once it takes effect, to enforce the rules and
follow them until and unless they change.

For those who are opposed to this, I think that choosing not to enforce the
rules could severely undermine their credibility and actually work against
getting any changes through.  Will the SEM and the BOD really listen to
people, especially marshals, who blatantly disregard the rules?  It seems
like a much stronger position to argue for their removal but enforce them
unless that happens.

Both petitions mention that requiring elbow protection under a shield and
padding under an aventail can actually lessen the safety of fighters.  I'm
interested in hearing about why that is.  Is it simply that padding an
otherwise unsafe aventail won't help (as the petition states), and will give
that fighter a false sense of security, or are there other problems?

Duke Logan, thank you very much for the link to the petition and for making
the list aware of this issue.

YIS,
Adriana Michaels

On 10/20/06, Logan <logan at ebonwoulfe.com> wrote:
>
> every marshal that has expressed an opinion to me personally regarding
> these
> rules has stated plainly that they will ignore them.  not just atlantians,
> in fact mostly not atlantians.  i never said atlantian marshals.  in fact,
> i
> have put in my letter of resignation as a marshal of over 15 years due on
> the day these rules are to be enforced.  i simply can not enforce
> senseless
> rules and walk around as a marshal.