Anthony Marr's CARE-7 tour blog #4 - 11 Apr 2010
Northern California
It's been only 10 days Since the start of my 40-states-in-7-months
Compassion for Animals Road Expedition #7 (CARE-7), and already, Vancouver
seems light years away. The only difference between CARE-7 and the early
CARE-tours is that my beloved mother, who passed away in November 2008 at
age 89, is no longer trapped in her body in the care home, but is traveling
with me and watching over me. Although she was constantly concerned for my
safety, she has told me repeatedly that she is proud of me. And though every
time I leave on a long journey she would miss me with all her being, she has
always given me her blessing. Now, her pride in me and her blessing bestowed
upon me remain, and are here to stay until my own dying day. Excuse me while
I go get some Kleenex.
Anyway, after a 13-hour drive from Portland, Oregon, on April 7, we
arrived ,at my dear friend Nan Sea Love's house in Santa Rosa, California
after midnight. This was well past Nan's bedtime, but she welcomed us in,
made us some food, and stayed up chatting with us till past 2 a.m.
Nan, whom I had the pleasure to meet in the 2007 Animal Rights Conference
in Los Angeles, and who billeted me for several days in my CARE-4 tour, is
highly respected in MySpace and FaceBook, and a prominent force in the AR
movement in the internet realm. Her current passion is to crush "Crush
Videos", in cooperation with another great activist and dear friend of
Anthony D's and mine - Marla Patty, who is assisting us with organizing our
tour. Crush videos are underground productions of woman in high heels
crushing live kittens and puppies to death by stepping on them, and even men
crushing live horses with machinery. The courage require to tackle such a
problem is phenomenal. First off, you have to watch the videos. To this day,
I have not been able to bring myself to watching one. It is absolutely
incredible that to distribute and post and indulge in such hideous products
could be legal, and yet, it is. Only to make them is illegal, but them, most
of them are made overseas. To be treated as a top friend of hers is a great
honor. She is also an exquisite artist, whose art is not only for art's own
sake, but for her passion in the cause.
As usual, I got up around 07:00, and began working by 07:30. I hooked up
my router to Nan's Mac computer, and did connect, but the connection was
"limited", and practically inoperative. So Nan allowed Anthony D and I to
use her own two computers, at some inconvenience to herself.
In the mid-morning, Nan took me to the Slice of Life Cafe where some of
her amazing art work was displayed - for a video interview. We did so a few
minutes, but the background noise was too loud and distracting, so we went
back to her place and did the rest of the interview there. She will send me
the DVD with the raw footage c/o my long time friend Coby Siegenthaler of
Northridge, an L.A. suburb, where AD and I will be staying for about 10 days
upon our arrival in southern California. I will edit the raw footage into
youtube videos whenever I can find the time. Thank you, Nan!
Her husband Art is a very fit man who has taken transcontinental bicycle
trips in hyears bygone. Now, at age 65 (still younger than me), he is
dreaming of another one. Just the next morning, he went for a 40 mile ride.
He also has a Yamaha 650 cruiser-type motorcycle, and thought I could beat
him with my Ninja "crotch rocket" in a drag race. We never did have the
chance to determine the outcome.
The evening of Friday the 9th was a vegan potluck at my dear Friend
Vivianne Nantel's place in Marin County, in which I was the "guest of
honor", where the over 20 guests comprised a judge, a psycho-analyst, a
profession, an RN, among others, after a phone interview hosted by Arnold
Levine of KOWS radio based in Occidental, CA.
After a beautiful performance on the keyboard by Vivianne, I gave an
hour-long speech titled "Homo Sapien! SAVE YOUR EARTH" - same as that of my
second book published in 2008.
I first met Vivianne in the 2005 Animal Rights National Conference in Los
Angeles, with whom I had the honor of performing the opening ceremony in
2006 AR conference in Washington DC.
She is another exquisite artist whose work is in a class of its own. Here
is her dedication to the victim of 9/11, titled "Hamsa - ascension from the
fire into the light":
She is a profoundly spiritual person whose compassion for all sentient
beings knows no bounds. In her own words: "Over the last seven years,
Vivianne Nantel (Vivi Devi Atmajyotis) has made a persistent effort to
influence and educate her international well re-known spiritual master, His
Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the amazing non-profit
organization, Art of Living Foundation, on the current issues on animal
rights & environmental issues, by asking him to speak and extend his
beautiful spiritual teaching, wisdom and human values such as compassion
with action, kindness, reverence, respect, care, nurturing, and love, not
only to humans, but to all sentient beings. In her last trip to India to the
International center last February, H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar personally
promised her to finally do his (including the Art Of Living) very best for
the animals. This is a phenomenal statement coming from such a highly and
extremely influential Holy and enlightened realized master. He also asked
Vivi Devi to write and create a proposal in regards to the well-being of the
animals on Mother Earth. She will be presenting it to him next week in Los
Angeles at the grand inauguration of the Los Angeles Art of Living center.
If the content of this proposal achieves its full manifestation over the
years, the potential for saving millions of animals, and expanding the
collective consciousness of millions of followers, as well as opening their
hearts to the animals around the globe, would be enormous and phenomenal!
"In brief, Vivi Devi is proposing an amazing animal sanctuary for all
kinds of homeless, sick & injured animals with two intensive care animal
hospitals (for large and small animals) to be created at the heart of the
Art of living organization at the International Center located in southern
Indian near Bangalore. The Sri Sri Compassionate Animal Center (rescue,
educate, advocate, and adopt) will also be offering many different programs
& creating campaigns promoting non-violence (Ahimsa) and our precious human
values to all creatures within the One World family. This center will be
beyond just an animal sanctuary. Vivi Devi envisions this international
compassionate center for non-violence and human values to all creatures,
serving as a great inspiration to millions of children & youth, adult
participants, Art of living teachers and ashramites alike within this huge
International non-profit educational & humanitarian organization, benefiting
billions of animals around the world. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has
over 500 millions of followers, disciples and devotees around the world,
including some very influential dignitaries. She has raised already US$4.000
for this project. Sri Sri Compassionate Animal Center will become a great
source of beauty, light, joy, happiness, spiritual unfolding and serenity,
where each individual will blossom in the practice of the art of Oneness by
experiencing the spiritual & healing connection to the animals and Mother
Earth. This international Center will become a compassionate oasis of Divine
beauty & light for the animals, the human beings, the little children and
Mother Earth, dedicated and devoted to the art of Oneness! If you are
interested in participating somehow in this wonderful project in the near
future, you can contact Vivi Devi directly at [email protected]. This
project will land many amazing opportunities to help the animals at a grand
level."
Vivianne is the embodiment of the earth goddess herself, whom wild deer
allow to touch. I have seen with my own eyes how she gives a belly massages
to her dear friend Mimi who is expecting a new baby very soon!
If you wish to look deeper into her work, here are a few links:
www.VivianneNantel.com (official site for Vivi Devi)
www.srisri.org (Official site for H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)
www.artofliving.org (Art of Living Organization)
www.vvmvp.org (AOL International Center in India)
April 10, Saturday, was a mixed blessing. While driving from Marin County
to the Bison Paddock in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park where the Funeral
Motorcade for the Black Bears was to assemble and begin, we encountered a
heavy rainstorm to which we said a collective "Uh oh." And true to
expectation, the participation was much diminished. On top of the weather,
we again proved our bad timing by having scheduled the event for the busiest
Saturday this time of year, when, elsewhere, there was the commemoration of
Cesar Chavez, plus another green festival somewhere else, which drew away
larger numbers of potential fellow mourners.
At the assembly point, Hope Bohanec, of In Defense of Animals headquarted
in San Rafael, gave a talk about the Black bear hunting scene in California.
What the government wants is to have unlimited Black bear hunting, plus the
use of dogs for the nefarious purpose. They even want to put GPS units on
their dogs so that they will lead the hunters to the treed bears. How much
lower can the application of high tech go?
After Hope, I gave a short speech on hunting in general and on the Global
Anti-Hunting Coalition. By then, too late, the weather had dried out, and we
moved on with the motorcade. At least, I enjoyed a dry ride on my motorcycle
all the way to San Rafael.
At the IDA office, we were met warmly by founder and president Dr. Elliot
Katz, whom I call "The Greatest Vet in the World". We were treated to an
array of delicious vegan snacks. Dr. Katz said that he would come and attend
my potluck speech in the evening sponsored by the San Francisco Vegetarian
Society on Geary Street in SF. While at the IDA office, Hope handed me a
check of $990 - the donation to the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition via IDA
thus far. It was addressed to my name. To honor my commitment to Anthony D,
I asked Hope to change the name from Anthony Marr to Anthony Damiano.
Unfortunately, during the switching process, Anthony D. left his important
"little black book" for new GAHC members behind, and we had to go back to
IDA to fetch it, hoping that it was left in side the IDA office and not
outside somewhere in the parking lot. Jokingly I said to him, "We can't
afford to have this happen every day." (See previous blog.) We arrived at
the San Francisco Vegetarian Society potluck venue by 7 pm, and was received
warmly by host Doxie Mahy, who MCed the event.
The audience size had again been thinned out by the other events around
SF, but by speech time, more people came in from other vanues which had run
their courses. True to his word, Dr. Katz also did arrive. By popular
request, he gave a short and compelling speech.
After Dr. Katz stood well known vegan talk show host Bob Linden, who Dixie
said would have trouble staying within his time allotment. True to form, he
exceeded his allotted two minutes by a whole second.
After Bob, Dixie introduced me with my two books in her hands, and I gave
my hour-long keynote speech, again without any premeditation. As it
happened, I touched upon the role of vegetarians and vegans in saving our
children's future, preventing mass extinction and saving the planet, with
special emphasis on global warming, as well as the corruption on all levels
of government forced by the powerful oil and hunting lobbies. When I was
done, I received as thunderous an applause as a small audience has ever
rendered unto me. After the speech, I "passed the helmet" for donations to
fund the tour, and counted about $400 in total. Not bad for an hour's work.
In the middle of the night, I was awakened by the sound of torrential
rain, which has not let up, dooming whatever Sacramento motorcade to a
non-event. Now it is past 8 pm, and it is still pouring. It is my
opportunity to write this long blog, and I took it.
Until next time, happy vicarious traveling!.
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
[email protected]
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.ARConference.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.YouTube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Anthony-Hunting_Coalition
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com (search for �Anthony Marr Heal Our Planet Earth�
Touring cell: begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 216-386-7362
Return to Care Tour 7
Since 