"So your recommendation," Gershom stated while rising to his feet. "Is to share one of the founding principles of our civilization. Something that we all had to discover on our own. The enlightenment of the Little Dragon race stems from that one directive!" His eyes hard, hands clenched, rarely have I seen him so furious.
His attitude completely shocking me but not Mediator Kim. "You can choose to see it in that light but there is no guarantee that the inhabitants will see it as such a founding principal as you call it. All they will know is everything is connected as to why or the purpose they will have to discover that on their own."
Gershom didn't look the least bit mollified by Kim's explanation. The mediator then gave us all an understanding smile. "As I said before the true benefits of the third way are not readily clear to the parties involved."
"I must admit," Sandra's voice then called out on my left, "I too am having trouble seeing how this will help the inhabitants though my complaint stems from it being too vague. The main point of even having this committee was to give an emerging species some guidance, so they won't make the same mistakes as we did, especially in regards to treating others differently because of race, belief or sexuality. Your recommendation does nothing to address that issue."
Sandra's response mirrored my own feelings, I turned to look directly at Mediator Kim wondering how he would speak to our concerns. "Telling the new inhabitants that they are connected will encourage them to explore these connections thus giving them the chance to discover on their own the value of each member of society. It is more powerful for a species to come to those conclusions on their own then for the answer to be handed to them," Kim said.
"Unless the answer is wrong," I said out loud drawing the mediator's attention to me. "Once a species believes they are right even if they aren't it can be hard to change an encultured belief," I concluded while looking directly into the mediator's almond shaped eyes.
"I don't deny the risk but there is equal risk that telling them too much can create an unintended consequence. One none of us can foresee because we are in new territory," the Mediator said. "Both of your ideas had merits and drawbacks. The third way is meant to take the best of both.00 to create something new it doesn't mean it was guaranteed to work anymore than taking any other path was," Kim said in his congenial tone.
The mediator had given this a lot of thought, I would grant him that. Gershom still stood his eyes suddenly locking with mine. I didn't like the look he gave me. Clearly he blamed me for this entire enterprise. I glanced away first to address the mediator again. "What do you recommend we do next?" I asked him.
"Allow yourself to really process this third way," he said. "In the meantime I will tell Ezekiel that the mediation is complete, and he will meet with the entire committee again in two weeks to formalize my recommendation."
I gave him an automatic head nod as he bid us good day. Once Kim left the room, everyone began whispering. My supporters talked amongst each other and so did Gershom's. No one liked the third way. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gershom sit down again as Hannah, touched his arm. He turned giving her a tight smile.
"We could fight this," Sandra said drawing my attention to her. "Bring it to the public arena have them vote on it."
"Yes," Dave, another one of my supporters, said. "Your arguments are the reason we have this committee," he said turning towards me. His words bringing me back to the day of the vote, where Gershom and I first met publicly debating this very topic.
A heavy sigh escaping from my lips. Have we truly come this far only to start all over again? I really didn't know what to do.
That ends Social Conundrums, Part IX. Next month is Social Conundrums, Part X. Learn more about the Little Dragons by reading the earlier blog post series titled Humanity's Evolution.
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