I've heard hundreds of versions of this metaphor, but none so affectively well phrased and poignant.

>That agency has been stripped away from us. I feel like if I stay hiding behind my diamond moderator I'll be like a captain staying at the tiller of a boat whose rudder has been removed. The wheel I'm holding doesn't do anything any more and I know it. So why pretend this is going to be anything but a shipwreck eventually?

Regardless of one's viewpoint, the whole letter is a great example of persuasive-testimony. Or I thought so, anyway.