Letter to the editor, South Dakota's Rapid City Journal, August 5, 1999:

As long as he led an average life, avoided the political arena and remained single without child, he was exempted by those who felled his father a generation before. But as he embraced his destiny, his father's fate awaited him, as well as his wife, her sister, and a rumored heir to the legacy.

In righting societal wrongs, conducting foreign affairs, shunning Vatican entanglements and curtailing elitist exploitations of the kingdom, his father had made many adversaries, some who utilized their power, wealth and connections for assassination and cover-up. Afterwards, his mother sought refuge via a dynastic union with a Grecian shipping magnate so powerful the conspirators dared no further, until he, as later she, passed on, leaving her children vulnerable again to those who have for centuries sought extermination of the lineage.

The Prince grew graceful, resourceful, wise and learned of details concerning his father's death. The kingdom once the King's could be his any time, but the enemies of Camelot could not risk disclosure and retaliation. Waiting for the precise moment, under cover of night, they downed the Prince, and with him, any hope of Camelot's return to its rightful role amongst the league.

And the people wept.

—Loren E. Pedersen
Rapid City

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