To the Temple of The Jedi Order,
I've been here a few years now, started as a guest, registered as a member. I spent time like most of you at that point arguing about what Jediism is, what it should be, what the temple should be and so on. After listening to some advice I decided to go through the IP. During of which I learned of quite a few things about myself but also some better perceptions of the world. I started down the road of attempting my first meditations, and many failures leading up to actually having one. I started to better connect with my envrionment, had a few eureka's and epiphanies about life, had a whole new perception of the world around me, and what some of us might call the "force". Mostly it was the start of a path for myself, a big change.
I finished the IP, and found a good connection with one of my graders and started an apprenticeship. We learned quite a bit from each other, challenged some of my ideals and views, grew to further think outside the box on things, and learned to better be open minded and understanding. Focused a lot on the Tao side of things and how those lessons can be applied to Jediism, how we should behave as Jedi and what our goals in life should be. Even wrote a fairly nice document per those who have read it. From there and getting into a regular meditation cycle I became quite the pupil, made it through my knighthood interview and into a knight rank.
That's when It started to go down hill. There was some discussions in apprenticeship during my time there but they were limited, but getting into knighthood and starting to see all the work that needs done behind the doors, the discussions that ensue, some of the debates that go on, was almost un-real. As any eager knight though you try and jump in and see where you can help out. One of my life long skills of being a programmer fell into the mix and eventually I Started helping out with the website, after a bit of trust was gained. That and some of my perspectives on things also landed me a spot on the council when it chose to expand. When I got to actually see EVERYTHING that goes on behind all doors, and how much work is being done by volunteers it got even more amazing to see how things came to be.
But that only made things worse.
My time spent at the temple at one point used to be spiritual, I was here to learn from those who walked the path before me, I respected them, I took what they said on the merit that they knew more about this then I did, even if I didn't understand it at the time, or even agreed. Eventually I learned most of that was true, I just needed to have a bit of faith, and let things run their course and trust that they were leading me in the right direction.
I would come to this temple for peace, some serenity, occasional drama but never like it has been recently. I think my favorite time frame was spent as a Novice here honestly, apprenticeship was great too but drama started to rear its head in towards the end, in relation to some of the big issues with members at the time frame.
Now that I sit on council I've seen quite a bit. I see members who don't get to spend a lot of time in the forums working the hardest behind closed doors tracking IP students, grading IP journals, reviewing knighthood candidates, membership applications, long lists of moderation reports, monitoring of chats and community, watching over communications with minors, doing site backups/fixes/upgrades, managing groups, coordinating public chats, sermons, private outreach. over a hundred hours a week is put into this temple by council and other volunteer knights combined, all voluntairly.
It's also this same group of people that seemed to be attacked the most, complained against the most, have assumptions made against the most. These volunteers who spend hours upon hours taking care of the plumbing all of you take for granted. That some of you disprespect, that some of you feel "entitled" to have regardless. Hour spent away from familes, hours spent away from personal time, hours spent away from helping others, all for you, to get treated the way some of us have is beyond wrong. Yet you seem not to care(some of you).
I used to come to this temple for spiritual peace, anymore I come to this temple to deal stress, stressful situations, uncessairy situations, blown out of proportion situations. It's unbelievable the things that get complained about on here. We hang on each others words looking for reasons to personally attack each other. We take absence of words as assumed positions or attacks as well. We make big deals out of situations that aren't actual situations, we call for votes and accountability on things that didn't actually happen. Hell we have even made changes to the forums based on these situations which is even worse.
You talk about corruption of council, the only thing I've seen is this council hell bent on trying to meet every one of your demands, while getting attacked constantly in the process. Half of the discussions are spent on how to deal with "Jedi" attacking each other, which should NEVER HAPPEN. People running around claiming the title but not actually following it.
Coming here is stress, managing here is stress, and its all for unnecesairy BS. Seriously the things you guys come up with sometimes is just insane. To the point several council have had to go on 2-5 day breaks at a time to just step away its so infuriating but at the same time still come back and try to accomidate for some reason. The council is so deathly afraid to try and say no or discipline or tell someone they are out of line because everytime they do theres someone else to backlash it in their faces for whatever reason. The millenial snowflake syndrome has made it into the temple as well and its just rediculous from my point of view.
There are people dieing out there, dieing from starvation, sickness, poor living conditions...and we are having arguments and debates about whether someone has the right to say certain words to another person. Some of you have all lost perspective on why you are here, and what it means to be a Jedi. Most importantly I did after having to try and shovel the crap around here in council.
I spent quite a few days this week and last staying away from the temple, and stress was down, life was better, and I got to remind myself whats actually important in life, and how trivial and pathetic some of the complaints and other issues that are so heavily focused on around here are.
It's this recent realization that I've decided this is not the place for me to be. I can do far greater good not at this temple but out in my neighborhoods, my towns, my county, then I can ever do here. Not while this remains the norm, and since the majority of people here seem to prefer the "lifestyle", it's not my place to change it, so don't bother with those speeches. Change doesn't require others, it requires yourselves, and in this case the majority.
As of this post I'm officially resigning my position on council, to be filled as the council votes to see fit, if needed I'm leaving my voting position to Rosalyn, as I feel she best understands my perspectives and interests that were on the temple, until they place an interim or replacement council position.
I am also resigning from assistant sys admin role, so that I can focus more of my time on matters of importance, and actually do some good where it needs to be done.
I am also resigning from the title of Knight at this temple, I'm no teaching master, but I don't believe a portion of the knights here are either, I feel like too many have been brought in based off a need of volunteers and a need to not feel terrible about leaving novices hang out there, this has caused more apprenticeships and knighthoods of people who aren't getting trained at the quality I believe was originally intended. Since there is a lack of a standard it just leads to a slippery slope that has continued to fall. But again thats only personal opinion.
Following all that I also am resigning from general membership of the temple as well. While I believe in its doctrine, the fact the teachings aren't enforced, or even required anymore out of a desire to feel numbers, I no longer feel that this temple is a temple I "belong to". I will still continue on the path set before me, I still believe in the force, and want to regain the strong spiritual connection I used to have to it. In order to do that I need to strip myself of all this unnecessairy drama and get back to whats important in life.
I started out great in this temple, and I am grateful for all the experiences I learned and got to share while I was here, but all the corruption in my life recently and stress and other issues was caused by the temple, not by the council not by the higher ups but ultimately by the members. I know some of you will be upset at this, others will deem this mission accomplished, in either case I don't care really to be honest. But I need to focus on me, You can't take care of someone else if you can't take care of yourself first. There are too many terribly chosen priorities here and for all the talk about corruption it starts with the members and works its way up, not the other way around. Those in council despite what everyone has said have been the most dedicated group I know to be out there trying to keep everyone happy while getting shit on every waking moment of it, and they don't deserve it, any of it.
All that being said, thank you for your time, your patience, and your experiences, thank you for all the fish!
The force will be with you, always
-Tom, AKA Tellahane
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Go , go where they need you and be happy ! 
