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There is that saying "We are only humans" and it is referred to the fact that we make mistakes in our lifetime and not only one. Some of them are more serious than others but they are still mistakes that you either learn from or not. Some are easy to be forgotten while other mistakes in your life comes with consequences that might hunt you for rest of your life.
Due to recent events, I, Declan Harp, have decided to publicly address something I did several years ago which was put into a different light that it was intended at the beginning and it was not accepted well in public's eyes. Few years back there was a video published on facebook from the "Britain First" political movement who is british nationalist movement therefore considered racists and almost compared to Nazis of our days. That particular video was quite shocking and showed quite hostile attitude from Muslim people for just being a white person walking through "their" area. The video shocked me, as how can people say such things and behave in such manner when we all are living together, next to each other, in the same area, town, country. So I shared the video in disbelief of what I have seen in the video.
Soon after that the whole hell broke loose and I was almost sided as the organisations supporter, member and message spreader. I have never, ever had nothing to do with this organisation, nor with their beliefs or their actions. I tried to explain myself and give my reasoning for sharing the video, which was the fact that they showed how hostile it can get, but that did not help, rather opposite, it felt like it added even more fuel as all was focused on the fact that it was "Britain First" and it was twisted that now I was defending them, instead of trying to defend myself and my action.
Thankfully it all calmed down after some time and it became past but there always were those people around who remembered.
So you might be wondering why am I telling you all this? As you might know I was drafted into DSFL team - Kansas City Coyotes. So far in the season I believe I have been doing decent job and I know that I have been growing with each and every day and game. So only natural that some of the NSFL teams started to contact me to do some early scouting for the upcoming NSFL draft. As we all know that is a common thing to find out which players you want and which ones would fit in the team perfectly. But unfortunately the first team that contacted me to do some scouting focused too much on the negative side of my past that had nothing to do with them, my skills, my beliefs or the actual persona of mine.
San Jose SaberCats invited me to a private meeting and beforehand put it down as an early scouting as they might be interested in drafting me. Of course I agreed and went to the meeting. I was in good mood, I was honestly hyped as I was about to have my first meeting with a NSFL team GM's. But that did not last long as almost straight away they asked me about the video. I tried to keep my cool and be professional and I said that I am more than happy to answer it. Yet again I gave my reasoning for sharing it but to be honest it did not feel like they were sold. Maybe the fact that I said that I do not regret sharing the video as it was shocking to me and I felt like showing what was showed there to others but who knows. They did apologise that it might have felt like an ambush meeting and they said that they had to talk about that matter to know would I cause any problems in their locker room, but honestly that did stick with me. That was enough for me and with angrily tone I asked - next question? No questions where asked so I just stood up and left. The fact that they focused on that one thing from years back, nothing else, showed me that they are judging me by my mistakes not by how I have grown and changed. Probably my announcement would not change much as probably they got the same wish that I have but still gonna announce.
Due to this here is my announcement: I, Declan Harp, publicly request to not be drafted by San Jose SaberCats!
Now all of this is out there and those GM's that did not know about it or would like to hear more detailed story of what happened are invited to contact me and ask about it. If you have any issues with what I have just said and you, same as San Jose, have thoughts that I might be an issue to your locker room, although I have not done nothing like that again for several years already, do not draft me!
P.S (This is based of true story but only the idea of it has been kept. The actual story is about a different matter.)
There is that saying "We are only humans" and it is referred to the fact that we make mistakes in our lifetime and not only one. Some of them are more serious than others but they are still mistakes that you either learn from or not. Some are easy to be forgotten while other mistakes in your life comes with consequences that might hunt you for rest of your life.
Due to recent events, I, Declan Harp, have decided to publicly address something I did several years ago which was put into a different light that it was intended at the beginning and it was not accepted well in public's eyes. Few years back there was a video published on facebook from the "Britain First" political movement who is british nationalist movement therefore considered racists and almost compared to Nazis of our days. That particular video was quite shocking and showed quite hostile attitude from Muslim people for just being a white person walking through "their" area. The video shocked me, as how can people say such things and behave in such manner when we all are living together, next to each other, in the same area, town, country. So I shared the video in disbelief of what I have seen in the video.
Soon after that the whole hell broke loose and I was almost sided as the organisations supporter, member and message spreader. I have never, ever had nothing to do with this organisation, nor with their beliefs or their actions. I tried to explain myself and give my reasoning for sharing the video, which was the fact that they showed how hostile it can get, but that did not help, rather opposite, it felt like it added even more fuel as all was focused on the fact that it was "Britain First" and it was twisted that now I was defending them, instead of trying to defend myself and my action.
Thankfully it all calmed down after some time and it became past but there always were those people around who remembered.
So you might be wondering why am I telling you all this? As you might know I was drafted into DSFL team - Kansas City Coyotes. So far in the season I believe I have been doing decent job and I know that I have been growing with each and every day and game. So only natural that some of the NSFL teams started to contact me to do some early scouting for the upcoming NSFL draft. As we all know that is a common thing to find out which players you want and which ones would fit in the team perfectly. But unfortunately the first team that contacted me to do some scouting focused too much on the negative side of my past that had nothing to do with them, my skills, my beliefs or the actual persona of mine.
San Jose SaberCats invited me to a private meeting and beforehand put it down as an early scouting as they might be interested in drafting me. Of course I agreed and went to the meeting. I was in good mood, I was honestly hyped as I was about to have my first meeting with a NSFL team GM's. But that did not last long as almost straight away they asked me about the video. I tried to keep my cool and be professional and I said that I am more than happy to answer it. Yet again I gave my reasoning for sharing it but to be honest it did not feel like they were sold. Maybe the fact that I said that I do not regret sharing the video as it was shocking to me and I felt like showing what was showed there to others but who knows. They did apologise that it might have felt like an ambush meeting and they said that they had to talk about that matter to know would I cause any problems in their locker room, but honestly that did stick with me. That was enough for me and with angrily tone I asked - next question? No questions where asked so I just stood up and left. The fact that they focused on that one thing from years back, nothing else, showed me that they are judging me by my mistakes not by how I have grown and changed. Probably my announcement would not change much as probably they got the same wish that I have but still gonna announce.
Due to this here is my announcement: I, Declan Harp, publicly request to not be drafted by San Jose SaberCats!
Now all of this is out there and those GM's that did not know about it or would like to hear more detailed story of what happened are invited to contact me and ask about it. If you have any issues with what I have just said and you, same as San Jose, have thoughts that I might be an issue to your locker room, although I have not done nothing like that again for several years already, do not draft me!
P.S (This is based of true story but only the idea of it has been kept. The actual story is about a different matter.)
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