Bill Paulos Comments on What To Do Now

Moderator Note:  The following was sent by Bill Paulos and is part of an e-mail thread regarding the recent developments from the Special General Assembly and has been posted with the permission of the author.

George,

Thank you for your quick and thoughtful reply.  I’m sorry I’ve been slow in getting back to you.

I must say I am one of the people who find the results of the past few years of leadership in our community and metropolis to be deeply disappointing.  I’m not close enough to the process to know why things have failed, but clearly there is little support in the community for the current leadership; in the form of the parish council, priests and metropolitan.

I completely respect your opinion regarding the elders of the church and I often wish I had the blind faith in them that I can’t seem to find.

This is clearly a “three martini discussion”, but my position is that the majority of our community has voted repeatedly to reject the current direction of our “leaders” and I strongly believe we must change the individuals in the leadership positions before any message will be accepted.  If we look around the world and our own country this lesson has been taught to us many times over.  When you are a leader and few are following, it’s only a matter of time before the leadership collapses.  Our leaders are holding tightly to rejected policies and it’s a losing proposition for everyone involved.

My recommendation is for the parish council to resign immediately, the parish priests to do the honorable thing and resign and for our community to attempt to clear the decks to begin to rebuild.  The representatives of the minority must begin to put the greater good of the community ahead of their own agenda’s.  It’s over.  They have lost every referendum in the past several years.  Even those that have been completely rigged to win….for example the presentation of only one side of the UPR discussion.  Do you think you would have received 40% of the vote if everyone in the community would have been allowed to vote and/or if the opposition had an opportunity to present its side of the argument?

Of course not.  The vote would have been 80-20 just like the vote to split the community was a few years ago.

The current parish council, the current priests have the support of the minority of the community and they must be replaced.  Plain and simple.  People win and lose every day.  They have lost.

I really don’t expect the metropolitan to ever understand democracy.  It’s messy when people exert their free enterprise.  But unfortunately that is what is happening here.  He is risking losing everything in this community.  And it’s not a risk worth taking.  Support for his reckless behavior is in the minority.  He needs to move to another project.

Incidentally, if my position was in the minority I would be disappointed, but I would accept the will of the community and support the majority’s right to govern the secular activities of our community.  That is really all I’m asking.  Allow the majority of the people to move forward as the governing body of our community in secular affairs.

Sorry for my rambling.  I hope you and your beautiful family are well.  I wish you nothing but the best.

Bill.