Volaworand wrote:

To my good friend and great South Pacifician, Saint Cinder, my fellow nominees, and that wonderful South Pacifician who has served us well for so long, Tsunamy who has done such a commendable job as Election Commissioner; to Delegate-elect Amerion, who I hope all are endorsing; and to all of my fellow South Pacificians here assembled, and all those across this great Region.

From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole region. Together we will win.

I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow South Pacificians, our cause is too great for any one penguin to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any penguin, did he not have with him the heart and the hands of this great RMB community, and I promise you tonight that with every feather of my being is consecrated to our cause; that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle that can be brought to it by enthusiasm, by devotion, and plain hard work. In this world no one penguin, no one nation, can guarantee anything, but what we can do and what we shall do is to deserve victory, and victory will be ours.

Our forbearers raised this mighty region to be a home for democracy and to flourish as a free land - not to stagnate in the swampland of collectivism, not to cringe before the spammer or the online troll.

Now, my fellow South Pacificians, the tide has been running against freedom. Our leaders have followed dangerous paths. We must, and we shall, return to proven ways-- not because they are old, but because they are true. We must, and we shall, set the tide running again in the cause of freedom. And this region, with its every action, every word, every breath, and every heartbeat, has but a single resolve, and that is freedom - freedom made orderly for this region by our constitutional government; freedom under a government limited by laws; freedom - balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the slavery of the prison cell; balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the license of the mob and of the jungle.

Now, we in The South Pacific understand freedom. We have earned it, we have lived for it, and we have fought for it. This region and its nations are freedom's model in a searching world. We can be freedom's advocates in a doubting world. But, ladies and gentlepenguins, first we must renew freedom's mission in our own hearts and in our own homes.

During four futile months, the local council which we shall replace has distorted and lost that faith. It has talked and talked and talked and talked the words of freedom. Now, failure cements the WFE of shame in Psomwhere. Failures to act, documented in the ruling of our High Court. Failures mark the slow death of freedom in our RMB. And failure haunts the empty seat of our once great Local Council and undermines the greatest bulwark ever erected by free nations - the Coalition of The South Pacific. Failures proclaim lost leadership, obscure purpose, weakening wills, and the risk of inciting our sworn enemies to new aggressions and to new excesses. Because of this administration we are tonight just a region divided - we are a region subdued. We have lost the brisk pace of diversity and the genius of individual creativity. We are plodding at a pace limited by centralized authority, red tape, rules without responsibility, and suppression without cause.

Rather than offering friendship in our region: new nations have been offered bureaucratic pushback, rather than leadership: we have been given bread and circuses, spectacles, and, yes, we have even been given scandals. Tonight in our world there is violence in our streets, corruption in our highest offices, aimlessness among our youth, anxiety among our elders and there is a virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives. Where examples of morality should be set, the opposite is seen. Small minds, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity.

Now, certainly, simple honesty is not too much to demand of those in government. We find it in most. The South Pacific demands it from everyone. We demand it from everyone no matter how exalted or protected his position might be. The growing menace in our region tonight, to personal freedom, to responsible representation, to free speech, particularly in our great RMB, is the mounting concern, or should be, of every thoughtful citizen in The South Pacific.

Security from violence, domestic no less than from foreign aggression, is the most elementary and fundamental purpose of any government, and a government that cannot fulfill that purpose is one that cannot long command the loyalty of its citizens. History shows us - demonstrates that nothing - nothing paves the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets safe from bullies and marauders.

Now, we South Pacificians see all this as more, much more, than mere political differences or mere political mistakes. We see this as the result of a fundamentally and absolutely wrong view of humanity, our nature and our destiny. Those who seek to live your lives for you, to take your liberties in return for relieving you of yours, those who elevate the state and downgrade the citizen must see ultimately a world in which earthly power can be substituted for divine will, and our Coalition was founded upon the rejection of tyranny and upon the view that independent citizens are the authors of freedom.

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of utopia. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlepenguins. Equality, rightly understood, as our forbearers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

Fellow South Pacificians, it is the cause of freedom to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. It is the cause of freedom to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people. And, so help us all, that is exactly what this penguin will do with the help of a freedom loving Local Council.

It furthers the cause of freedom to restore a clear understanding of the tyranny of government over the individual in the world at large. It is our cause to dispel the foggy thinking which avoids hard decisions in the illusion that a world of conflict will somehow mysteriously resolve itself into a world of harmony, if we just don't rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression - and this is hogwash.

We here in The South Pacific can keep the peace only if we remain vigilant and only if we remain strong. Only if we keep our eyes open and keep our guard up can we prevent invasion. And I want to make this abundantly clear - I don't intend to let either peace or freedom be torn from our grasp because of lack of strength or lack of will - and that I promise you.

I believe that we must look beyond the defense of freedom today to its extension tomorrow. I believe that the tyranny which boasts that it will bury us will, instead, give way to the forces of freedom. And I can see in the distant and yet recognizable future the outlines of a region worthy our dedication, our every risk, our every effort, our every sacrifice along the way. Yes, a region that will redeem the suffering of those who will be liberated from tyranny. I can see and I suggest that all thoughtful nations must contemplate the flowering of The South Pacific civilization, unified and free, communicating openly across the world. This is a goal far, far more meaningful than a moon shot.

I can see The South Pacific civilization galvanizing and guiding emergent nations everywhere.

I know this freedom is not the fruit of every soil. I know that our own freedom was achieved through years, by unremitting efforts by brave and wise nations. I know that the road to freedom is a long and a challenging road. I know also that some may walk away from it, that some resist challenge, accepting the false security of governmental paternalism.

And I pledge that The South Pacific we envision in the months ahead will extend its hand in health, in teaching and in cultivation, so that all new nations will be at least encouraged to go our way, so that they will not wander down the dark alleys of tyranny or to the dead-end streets of fascism. My fellow South Pacificians, we do no one a service by hiding freedom's light under a bushel of mistaken humility.

We see The South Pacific proud of its past, proud of its ways, proud of its dreams, and determined actively to proclaim them. But our example to nationstates must, like charity, begin at home.

In our vision of a good and decent future, free and peaceful, there must be room for deliberation of the energy and talent of the individual - otherwise our vision is blind at the outset.

We must assure a society here which, while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless, nurtures incentives and opportunity for the creative and the productive. We must know the whole good is the product of many single contributions.

This region, whose creative people have enhanced this entire span of history, should again thrive upon the greatness of all those things which we, as individual citizens, can and should do. In the coming months, this again will be a region of nations proud of their role, jealous of their responsibilities, unlimited in their aspirations - a region where all can belong.

We see in our constitutional form of government the great framework which assures the orderly but dynamic fulfillment of the whole region, and we see the whole region as the great reason for instituting orderly local government in the first place.

We see, in local control of gameside matters, the one way to make local government a durable ally of the whole of our region, rather than a determined internal adversary. We see in the sanctity of democracy the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society. And beyond that, we see, in cherished diversity of ways, diversity of thoughts, of motives and accomplishments. We do not seek to lead anyone's life - we seek only to secure the rights and to guarantee opportunity to strive, with government performing only those needed and legally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed.

We must seek a government that attends to its inherent responsibilities of maintaining a stable climate, encouraging a free and fair regional message board and enforcing law and order. Thus do we seek inventiveness, diversity, and creativity within a stable order, for we must define government's role where needed at many, many levels, preferably through the one closest to the people involved.

This is a region, The South Pacific, a region for free nations, not for blind followers, and not for mindless conformists.

Back in 1858 Abraham Lincoln said this of the Republican party - and I quote him, because he probably could have said it during the last week or so: "It was composed of strained, discordant, and even hostile elements" in 1858. Yet all of these elements agreed on one paramount objective: To arrest the progress of slavery, and place it in the course of ultimate extinction.

Today, as then, but more urgently and more broadly than then, the task of preserving and enlarging freedom at home and safeguarding it from the forces of tyranny abroad is great enough to challenge all our resources and to require all our strength. Anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. Those who do not care for our cause, we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. And let our region, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels.

The beauty of the very system we pledge to restore and revitalize, the beauty of this system of ours is in its reconciliation of diversity with unity. We must not see malice in honest differences of opinion, and no matter how great, so long as they are not inconsistent with the pledges we have given to each other in and through our Constitution. Our cause is not to level out the world or make its people conform in computer regimented sameness. Our cause is to free our people and light the way for liberty throughout the world.

Ours is a very human cause for very humane goals.

This region, its good people, and its unquestionable devotion to freedom, will not fulfill the purposes of this campaign which we launch here now until our cause has won the day, inspired the world, and shown the way to a tomorrow worthy of all our yesteryears.

I repeat, I accept your nomination with humbleness, with pride, and pledge that together, you and I are going to fight for the goodness of our region. Thank you.