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Worldwide Charity Screenings for Equality Now



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:14 pm 

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To my fellow Browncoats,
My heart is a little broken this evening as I sit and write this letter. I did something stupid. I spent two days joining every Yahoo Browncoat group in sight. I did so with the most honorable of intentions, I did it to reach to a group that I thought accepted everyone, regardless of gender, race, nationality, religion and sexuality. I did not realize the one boundary that we could not face or overcome was distance. I stretched out with the goal of unity, and comradery, but instead have come to realize that with the best of intentions I have somehow created the worst of reactions. I have been accused of spamming all the Yahoo groups, but I don't agree and here's why: 1.) I work with a production company that does at least four different "fundraisers" a year, and this event is the one that I thought already had networking in place, and it is easily the one I most enjoy because it wraps together my passion for being a Whedonite and my passion for a good cause. 2.) I feel because it was "just some average browncoat in some far away city", I feel my cry for help and companionship was viewed by some as "unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses". I am not a corporation, I am not some advertisement for timeshare in Jamaica, I thought I was your brother in arms, fighting against ignorance of the abuse of women, and I thought I was allowed to talk with other Browncoats about my struggles (which at this point are many) and my victories (which are few). 3.) I joined other groups not only for these reasons, but also to get to know other browncoats worldwide, to find out how to help Nashville, and in turn Tennessee, spirit and heart become more alive. Maybe I'm not viewing the term Browncoat correctly, but I thought it was someone would do anything to stay alive, and keep fighting the good fight, even in unconventional ways.
Any one who knows me knows I have a loud mouth, and I feel my loud mouth on the Internet got alot of reaction, good and bad. And I can definitely say this is a learning experience, and I'm grateful for the challenges planning this event has brought, I guess it just didn't see other Browncoats (or their groups) as the hurdles I would have to overcome.
Regardless, again I am sorry if I have offended anyone in my pursuit of trying to be a part of the World's Greatest Event and inviting other people from around the world to be a part of helping another city succeed. But I will not give up. Long live CSTS, in Nashville, and everywhere else.
-Will Prater, CSTS Nashville

PS I am going to remove the email from the group, not because I feel it was wrong to post, but because it is taking needless energy and focus away from our purpose, spreading the love of the Browncoat, and getting the message of Equality Now out there. I got nothing but love for all my Browncoat brothers and sisters.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:54 pm 
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Past Local Event Organizer/Crew

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Hi Will, First off, I want to thank you for removing those email responses you posted up. Despite it being legal to have those posted up for the world to see, some folks don't particularly like that and like you said, it takes away from the energy and focus. So for that you have my thanks.

What I did want to point out though is that , generally, Browncoats are what you said. Open, accepting, totally awesome. The boundry that you faced wasn't one of distance, but one of communication. While there are some distance based boundries and factors to what Browncoats can do to help out other Browncoats, you'll see that generally distance is not a factor. CSTS is just one instance of how Browncoats from all over work togather to help raise money for EN, despite that fact that we are sometimes half a world away from eachother.

Now, going back to the communication, the message we all got was a blanket copy and paste message, extremly non-personal, sent to every forum without seeing if it was an appropriate venue and judging from your responses to the responses you got from your message, didn't appear to be the message you were trying to convey. So the boundry you hit was communication, not distance. I think if we better understood what you were asking, we would have all pointed you to the CSTS forum where the kind of help you were looking for is freely available and is the most appropriate place for that kind of discussion.

While I know the experience you went thru regarding the mass message fiasco isn't the most pleasant one, I hope that you don't continue to feel that other Browncoats and Browncoat groups are hurdles you have to overcome. We're all here to help eachother. This is why the CSTS forums exist, so that Browncoats from all walks of life and all locations have a common place that they can go to make their local event the best it can be.

I'll leave you with this: You can't stop the signal! But please be sure that signal is clear and that it is broadcasted to the right place.

If anyone wants to discuss specifics, please email or PM me.


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