Field Journal #5 - 1 Aug 2008
by Anthony Marr
founder of HOPE
lead campaigner of GEO
“road warrior” of CARE-1, CARE-2, CARE-3, CARE-4, CARE-5 & CARE-6
Dear HOPE-GEO team and all friends in compassion:
I know, I know, this HOPE-GEO CARE-6-tour field-journal #5 has been
long in coming. However, I have to abide by my own rule that this is a
report of action. If I went through a temporary period inaction, the
journal would have to wait. Either this, or I went through a temporary
period of intense activity with no time to write, but I cannot apply the
latter to the last ten days.
Of course few things are 0% or 100%. These last ten days have served
as the time required to study the book Stupid to The Last Drop (by
William Marsden, given to me by Patrick Moore of CURE, Montevideo,
Minnesota). Even for me, who has created the website part of which
dealing with the Alberta tar sands, the book is an eye-opener. It takes
a historical perspective to the beginning of tar sands discovery to how
the Canadian government contemplated using nuclear weapons to extract
oil from the tar sands, to the selling out of Canadas resources to the
U.S.A. via the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in which, for
example, Canada is required to ship to the U.S.A. 60% of its oil output,
regardless of whether Canada itself falls short of oil or not, and via
other political and commercial devices, by incompetent and impotent
and/or unethical and corrupt, and/or foolish and, yes, stupid, statesmen
such as former Prime Minister Brian Mulrooney, former Alberta Premier
and former Alberta Environment Minister Ralph Klein, current Alberta
Environment Minister Rob Rennie, current Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and
current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who have shown not one iota of
concern for human health (e.g. the cancer epidemic amongst the First
Nations peoples inhabiting the Athabasca watershed) nor environmental
integrity (e.g. the deformed fish they consumed and the ducks that died
by landing into one of the tailing ponds), and how psychopathic and
sociopathic Big Oil took and are still taking full advantage of this
weakness and all but invaded Canada with their heavy machinery for
leveling the forest and tearing up the land, and light bribes for
officials and natives (see Chapter 5 titled Washingtons Doomsday
Politics in which the Americans discover the oil sands, contemplate the
invasion of Canada and find its not necessary) , and, worst of all, how
Canadian and especially Albertan investors and voters keep voting these
criminals-against-nature-and-humanity back in, even though their deeds
are destroying the Canadian ecology, the entire biosphere, and their own
childrens future. This infuriates me, and has hardened my resolve to
defeat them ASAP, and given me the extra ammunition to hasten our
victory. So, these 10 days have in fact been very fruitful, without
which, charging full speed ahead, I would have had no time to read at
all.
I arrived at Janesville, Wisconsin, on July 17th, on the same evening
of which I gave a talk to about a dozen people in the gazebo of a park
in Beloit, including organizer Les Blumreich and my dear friends Amy
Burns, her husband Mark Dwyer and their daughter Luciana, Allegrea
Rosenburg, and a few others I did not recognize. When I was concluding
my talk, it was twilight, and all around the gazebo the fireflies
performed their magic. It was beautiful and enchanting. Unfortunately,
there was no reporter there to witness it.
On Saturday the 19th, Amy and I went to Madison to attend the Dalai
Lamas public talk. When we were standing in line waiting to enter the
stadium, in the fierce sun in the asphalt parking lot, we could not help
but notice a demonstration by a group of Tibetans against the Dalai
Lama. There were large banners saying DALAI LAMA, STOP LYING! The
demonstrators were chanting DALAI LAMA! (Something something in
Tibetan)! Amy went over to talk to them, and was told that they were a
Buddhist sect not recognized by the Dalai Lama, who had refused to meet
with them. In other words, they were accusing the Dalai Lama of
religious persecution! Upon finally entering the stadium, a guard
confiscated my bottle of water. We were seated way up on the third level
and the sound system left a lot to be desired. I had to strain to catch
the odd recognizable phrase from His Holiness (a term I disdain, be it
applied to the Dalai Lama or the Pope or any other spiritual supreme
master). The format of the talk basically involved the man sitting next
to him asking him questions which he then answered. Unfortunately, the
questions were posed by one with almost no environmental or global
awareness, and most questions were mundane and pseudo-spiritual in the
extreme, and the terms global warming, much less mass extinction, did
not arise even once that I could discern. Amy did not hear them either.
She has attended the Dalai Lamas talks before, and said that indeed this
time his performance was substandard. Subsequently, she gave me a book
by the Dalai Lama in support of science. However, Julie Johnston
attempted to gain me access to the Dalai Lame, and it was not granted.
Here is how I feel about the Dalai Lama; many who admire him may feel
personally affronted, but so be it this being a field journal of truth,
at least truth as I see it. The Dalai Lama has the power to fill a
stadium with ease. If I were him, especially since he is a man of
science and a global warming acceptor, in view of the urgency of the
matter, I would not rest, but instead give public talks everyday, 365
days every year, city after city, country after country, until the world
is enlightened, Big Oil is trounced, and the tar sands are shut down for
good. But that afternoon, I saw little if any sign of urgency. I cannot
respect a world leader with his enormous power of global influence, who
would not try to accomplish at least what the miniscule HOPE-GEO team is
trying to accomplish. And to add to the mediocrity of the day, except
Amys company, I ended up with a heat stroke for the trouble, which led
to my vomiting later at her parents place.
Amys parents are Betty and Marvin Burns, age 58 and 60, who are
staunch Christians and Creationists, which normally would have set me
diametrically opposed to them, but their caring hospitality has not only
neutralized this intellectual barrier, but instilled within me a sense
of unconditional love for them. While their son Michael has followed in
their footsteps and become a pastor, Amy has struck out on her own into
the realm of science, logic and evolutionary thinking, and is
home-schooling her delightful younger daughter Luciana, while
maintaining an uneasy yet loving truce with her parents. Marvin is a bit
of a missionary at heart. After finally raising the money, he is now
poised to go back to Uganda on August 3 for 15 days to help build a
house for their Ugandan minister. He had had his luggage packed 10 days
ahead of time, unlike me who seldom start packing until the very morning
of my departure, even on a 4.5-month-long tour. Betty is a homebody, and
could only look on in semi-amusement and semi-resignation, with their
three cats around her heels. About Marvs trip, I have always found
Christian missionaries indoctrinating Third World people with their
dogma objectionable, but again, on the personal level, I sincerely wish
Marvin a safe and fruitful journey. Whereas they, fully knowing that Im
an evolutionist, have avoided broaching the subject even once for all
the time Ive known them since 2005. On Amys side of the family, she has
had recent heated debates against Marv in blog form about carbon-14
dating, but I have yet to see them duel it out verbally in person. Quite
a few late evenings, I walked the several blocks from Bettys home to
Amys to unwind and hang out, with Allegrea and Mark, and of course all
nine of Amys cats. I love their whole family deeply.
When I arrived at Bettys place and checked into my assigned bedroom,
I found the proof copy of our new book Homo Sapiens! SAVE YOUR EARTH
lying on the bed. I looked at it for a moment before picking it up and
holding it in my hands, as if it were a new-born babe. By the time I
entered Wisconsin, I had contacted Lightning Source to have 2000 copies
of the book printed ($3980 vs $3363 for 1500 copies) and have 200 copies
sent to Peter and Julie on Pender Island BC, 150 copies to Lanes place
in Bedford Ohio, and 1650 copies sent to the Alternative Mini Storage in
Maryland rented by Charlotte (shipping cost $702, vs $648 for 1500
copies). They would be shipped on August 1, Friday, and should arrive
within 3-4 days, in time for the AR Conference.
On July 29, Tuesday, I bade farewell to Amys family, and drove to
South Bend, Indiana, for the engagement at the St. Joseph County Library
scheduled for 6-9 pm, organized by Lisa Funkhouser, a MySpace friend of
mine. I arrived at 4 pm as arranged, and
was instantly struck by her feel of freshness, youthfulness and warmth
when we met at the library parking lot. She and her friend Jim, who
brought his video and projector equipment, treated me to dinner in a
Thai restaurant nearby. While driving, I called Lisa on my cell to see
if she had contacted the local media, she said, while we were walking to
the restaurant, You have to teach me how to do it properly next time. As
she had feared, the audience was small, but it could also have been
caused by some mix up on the date on the part of others. While still in
Wisconsin the day before driving to Indiana, i.e. July 28, Monday, I
received an email from an Indiana woman named Jamie, who wrote that she
had heard about the presentation at her work place, and would like to
attend, but the date she mentioned was July 28, Monday. I wrote back to
give her the correct date of July 29, Tuesday, and she did show up, but
goodness knows how many people went to the library on the wrong date.
Lisa, who opened her home to me for my stay, where she lives with her
young daughter Kaley, is a highly intelligent woman with a university
degree and excellent computer skills, and is applying them to improve my
websites and my telecommunications capabilities. She offers to host
another event for my return visit in October, and to help with the
HOPE-GEO campaign in the long run, pro bono. To help save the Earth has
been her aim in life, and she deems our campaign worthy of her time,
energy and talents.
Jim did video-record the presentation, and is working on the
recording for YouTube and elsewhere as we speak.
The next 2 weeks will be busier than the last 2 weeks, with 2-3
presentations in Ohio and at least 2 in West Virginia prior to the AR
conference starting the 14th. Alex (FARM) just wrote me saying that
Joanne Chang could not make the conference, and asked me to take on one
of her talks. So now, I have 12 speeches at the AR Conference to make.
One important strategic change for the campaign: The HOPE-GEO team
has found that asking environmental groups to host or sponsor speaking
events for an AR activist is like pulling teeth. After some
deliberation, I have arrived at a new strategy. On July 14, I send the
following memo to the HOPE-GEO team:
[HOPE-GEO team:]
[Alright, so the going has been tough. One of the reasons is that we ask
people to organize speaking events for us.]
[Now I'm considering having our team take control of the speaking events
ourselves. Let's ourselves organize these speaking events. We rent a
library room or ask a student group to donate a free university room,
and we do our own publicity. And we will invite the local groups to
attend. They should be much more amenable to this arrangement than the
previous one where we put the burden on them.]
[We will also manage the events, and raise awareness as well as
donations with the events.
[So, now we ask no one for favors. We control our own destiny. The
task is easily >90% success by just concentrating on finding low-cost or
free library rooms and/or free university rooms. After the events are
set up, we will talk about publicity.
[Cost of course is a factor, but it is mild, and can be easily
recouped by post-talk donations. Best of all, this way, we are totally
in control.
[Right now, this is just an idea, but it is ready for a field trial.
[Feedback welcome. All feedback should be CCed to
[email protected], so that all have access to the
discussion.
[Anthony]
The feedback from the HOPE-GEO team has been by-and-large positive,
and room-bookings have already begun.
More later.
Return to
Care Tour 6
Since 