Given by His Excellency, President Kevin Baugh
October 1st, 2002 XXV
My Fellow Molossians:
I come to you on this day, a dark moment in our history, a history that until this time has been traced back to the time of Ancient Greece. This great history, traceable through our ancestors, follows us up from the ages, up from the dark days when the Romans destroyed the ancient Molossian nation to the modern establishment of the Molossian nation upon the North American Continent.
But now our heritage is in question. A series of telephone calls, given as interviews, but certainly intended as verbal assaults have been perpetrated against me and this nation by individuals of the Greek Press. I agreed to do these interviews in good faith, as a method of bringing Molossia to the world, and the world to Molossia. But as I sat and spoke with these individuals, in the early hours of the morning, it became quickly apparent that the tone of these interviews was to be anything but positive. Instead, I found myself questioned and berated on our nation's connection to the ancient nation of Molossia. While this connection seemed quite tangible to me, as it is to all Molossians, it seemed the opposite to my interviewer. She quickly made it plain that she thought that our heritage was questionable and somehow an insult to Greece. Of course I feel and felt otherwise, but I could not explain to her adequately the connection our nation has to that distant land. Perhaps this was because of her poor grasp of the English language; perhaps it was the poor telephone connection. But I tend to believe that it was her inability to see anything good of anyone claiming Greek heritage and not actually being in Greece. This, in spite of the millions of Americans that are of Greek descent, and of the thriving Greek culture in many American cities. America, from which Molossia has sprung, is a melting pot, and nearly every nation and ethnic group on earth can be found there. There is no shame in claiming Greek descent in this nation, nor should there be. Furthermore, we have never, ever made any effort to disparage Greece, the Greek people, Greek culture or Ancient Molossia. Rather, we have worked hard to make the history of Ancient Molossia known to the world, and to remember the sacrifices of the Molossian People in that dark time over two thousand years ago. We have never portrayed this nation as a continuation of that ancient nation, but have simply acknowledged our ties to that land.
That is no more. In light of the negative publicity this interview is bound to generate, I have directed our webmaster to remove all references to Ancient Molossia from our website, and to place a disclaimer on our website separating our nation from Ancient Molossia. No longer will we attempt to glorify that great land online. Any future acknowledgement of our Greek heritage will be off line, in the privacy of our homes. Henceforth, Molossia will be more "western" oriented, toward those cultural elements that are particular to the Western United States. This will be the way the world sees us from now on, and it is probably for the best, as a child of the United States, not a descendent of Ancient Greece.
Let us more forward now, in this new light. The future is always ours and lies ahead of us always. Molossia is still great, and will ever be great.