A soldier's duty does not end with death. Neither does his sense of honor, what is right. I am from a time and a culture in which one's personal honor was everything: assail the standing or integrity of someone and things usually ended in a duel. I am caught between my upbringing and what was drilled deeply into me at the academy on the one hand and the present-day reality.

If you at all have read my blog you are aware that I was slandered by a group of people who decided that I was, in their language, a 'pedo.' A pedophile. In this environment of the Internet, words loose their meaning and become twisted by the evil, the nefarious and malcontents who have access. The word was used as an insult, at least as an epithet by persons who know me not. It is not two hundred years ago; but two hundred years ago these scoundrels would have faced me with sword or pistol.

In my rage I demanded to be heard in a full meeting of the Outlands Community. I was. It was not right, I said, that I be besmirched by persons who have no business deciding who or what others are. To be insulted by persons of narrow sick minds and with no sense whatsoever of honor. I was really angry. I had announced my intent of literally getting into cyberspeace and tracking these vile ghouls to their IPs. I was advised and cajoled aginst this. You might get deleted. I did not care. You will be facing great and unknown dangers. I did not care; I am a soldier and was a spy; I am used to such and in practical term it was how I died.

It was Llam who allowed me to rant and spew forth my rage until I had quieted. He said to me, "Terrence, you will be acting like them. Do you wish to be in the same category as these vermin?" I could not answer that. He went on, this time with a smile: "Do you not recall the great lesson of Vlad Dragool as he was represented by Abraham Stoker? 'Time is on my side!,' he exclaimed. Terrence, time is on our side. You yourself, the members of the Community do not go about raping young children or luring them into carnal destruction. The media-generated idea that labels all enemies of the status quo as criminals and mentally deranged persons is crumbling along with the whole edifice. You can see that in the growing discontent in many quarters, some quite conservative otherwise, with the war in the land of Iraq. Those who chose to identify and take their stand with the imperialist designs of the current oligarchy will be literally going down with their ship." By now I was listening to at least every other word. Continuing, he added "You came from a military academy, and were a soldier in one of the finest and well-disciplined armies the world has ever seen. You are one of the few members of the Outlands Community who values and practices discipline as an enjoyed virtue. As in days gone by you reverenced your teachers of these things, it is your turn to pass on what you know to those who need it most." With those words he swayed me, as laughter filled us all, that he would so impute to even our most prominent members a lack of discipline and in need thereof! Helpless before the quiet humor of our Steward I broke down laughing myself.

So I have voluntarily decided to let the matter lie. While it would for a short space make me feel good to avenge an honor wrongfully stained in the long run, the feeling would fade like water in a desert, and the disease would merely spring up elsewhere. It is better, I conclude, that I do my job, as a good soldier - now and here as a member of the world that we are daily creating. In hoc signo vici.