Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)’s
Global Emergency Operation (GEO)’s
Compassion for Animals Road Expedition #6 (CARE-6)’s
Field journal #5
August 12, 2008
Dear HOPE-GEO team and all friends in compassion:
This entry covers Ohio which was good to me and for the tour.
I left Indiana with fond memories and headed for Ohio on August 3 and drove to my long time friend Vicki Trachsel’s in Galena which is a satellite town of Columbus . She has a large trailer and a big GM truck to match, but due to rising fuel prices, she’s had the rig parked semi-permanently in a large gated trailer park, the best I’ve seen where trailer parks go. Vicki is a childhood buddy and close friend of soprano Sharon Christman, of whom I was guest of honor in the 2004 New Year’s Eve concert at the Kennedy Center , who is also the chair of the Music Department of the Catholic University in Washington DC . Vicki herself is a music major. When she sold her grand paino, she purchased a harp which I took to like fish to water. I was plucking fairly fluently through a Bach piece by nightfall, you know, the one that goes: 3123544655171531234565432317125724323123544… (1 = doe, 2 = ray, 3 = mee, etc., blue = higher octave, red = lower octave). Vicki said something about my genes.
After night had fallen, I went on a solo walk through the maze of unpaved, unlit and winding roads in the huge compound, with a flash light in my hand and a cell phone in my pocket. After a few turns, I found myself hopelessly lost. The trees were so thick all around that I could not even take a bearing from the stars. Since I’m a man, I did not deign to knock on any door for directions. Half an hour later, past 11 pm, I finally relented, and called Vicki on my cell, getting her out of bed in the process. Not just out of bed, but out of the trailer. After a bit, her truck appeared, and I climbed in meekly. She drove me back to the trailer, which happened to be only a couple of hundred yards from where I was. So much for the intrepid globe trotter.
On Aug. 4, Monday, I went to the nearest Starbucks by GPS first thing in the morning, but unlike other Starbucks outlets elsewhere which offer wireless internet access for free, this one charges $5 for 5 days, 2 hours max per day. I noticed a Caribou Coffee nearby, and drove over to see. They did offer the service for free, so I settled in for the day. I had so much internet work to catch up it took me until dinner time to get done with it.
On Aug. 5, Tuesday, I drove to Lane Ferrante’s in Bedford , to where Lightning Source was supposed to have shipped 150 copies of Homo Sapiens! SAVE YOUR EARTH. Lightning Source was supposed to call Lane at her work number upon delivery, but as of late Tuesday afternoon, still no call, and no notification card in Lane’s mail box either. I had a lecture to give at the Lancaster campus of Ohio University the next morning, so, after a quick dinner with Lane, I drove the three hours to Lancaster and arrived in the late evening at the place of Janice Kobi, who had generously taken on organizing events for me in Ohio .
Janice is all business by email and phone, but in person could not be warmer and friendlier. The next morning, she drove me to campus. In the audience was a bearded man name Fritz from the Parks Department, who paid laser-like attention to every word about RUNAWAY global heating and every picture of the Alberta tar sands. After the lecture, he said to me, “Very interesting. Too interesting.”
After the talk, Janice took me to meet a 98-years-old local environmental activist named Grace Ray Moon at the quality care home where she resides, where I also met Lancaster City Parks Director Mitch Overton. Subsequently, Janice wrote up a press release as follows:
International Speaker Raises Awareness of Global Warming
Anthony Marr, author, lecturer, environmentalist and founder of the organization HOPE – Healing Our Planet Earth, stopped by Carriage Court for a visit with one of Lancaster’s own environmentalist, Grace Ray Moon. At 93 years old, Moon was the recipient of the Floyd Wolf Community Service Award in 1993. Today, at 98, Moon continues to offer her services to make Lancaster a “Green” community. Joining Marr to recognize Moon for her years of service were Janice Kobi, Fairfield County CARES President and Mitch Overton, Lancaster City Parks Director.
Marr was in Lancaster to present a program on Global Warming. Kobi arranged for Marr to make a stop in Lancaster on his sixth cross country tour in an effort to raise awareness to climate change and how it affects all life on earth. He also has a new book just published entitled, Homo Sapiens! Save Your Earth.
This year’s tour is entitled, “Global Warming and Mass Extinction.” Marr presented his program at Ohio University- Lancaster Campus on Wednesday, August 6, 2008. During the program, Marr made the comparison that the earth is a living planet. He pointed out by taking a terrestrial view from space that earth has gone through many noticeable changes. He added that from a cosmic perspective, “the earth is sick.” He listed six planetary diseases. “Any one of them alone can kill you but they are all linked together”, he injected.
Marr stated, “The earth has a planetary fever…and it’s called Global Warming.”
During the presentation, Marr discussed the serious nature of high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere but emphasized methane gas is a much more lethal gas. His concern is that as the permafrost melts around the world more methane gas will enter the atmosphere and increase the speed of global warming.
Trees take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Marr stresses that as man destroys the rain forest worldwide we not only destroy trees but many species that depend on each other for survival. Scientists warned for years that destroying the Amazon rainforest would have negative results. These scientists predicted these areas would dry up and become deserts. Recent droughts in these areas indicate this may be their fate.
Marr’s first book is entitled, Omni-Science and the Human Destiny.
For more information go to the website at www.HOPE-CARE.org.
Shortly after the lecture, I called Lane and asked her about the books, suggesting that perhaps she should call her apartment manager to see if the books had arrived anyway. She did, and got back to me saying that the books had arrived, and actually arrived on Monday, but had the wrong apartment number for them, and the notice of delivery had been placed into the wrong mail box. GRRRRRR. By then, it was past 2 pm, and the manager’s office in which the 5 boxes of books were stored would be closed at 5 pm, while the drive would take some 3 hours. I gave it a try anyway, but did not arrive till 5:30. So, I overnighted at Lane’s, and got the books the next morning. As it turned out, each box contained about 50 copies of the book, so 4.5 boxes equaled 225 copies, instead of the 150 as ordered. I left with Lane 1.5 boxes, all copies signed, and took away 3 boxes or 150 copies, and headed back to Janice’s for the evening, from where I would head for Athens where my next events were scheduled on Thursday.
Subsequently, Lane wrote me an email saying: “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!! I have tried to call you but your voice mail has been full. I wanted to tell you that your book is utterly fantastic and I think every human that inhabits this earth should be made to read it cover to cover. I actually cried. I have it at work and am really pushing people to read it. I have even gotten Reggie to start reading it…”
Janice said that she could distribute a number of copies of the book to her contacts, so I left her one box, for now and upon my planned return to Ohio Oct. 6-9. In the early afternoon, I drove south to Athens for my two events. The first was thought to be a radio interview at WOUB, which turned out to be a TV interview, which began with a discussion on animal rights and the AR Conference, which then moved on to global warming and mass extinction. My local hosts John and Kati Davis, who went into the TV room to watch the interview, later told me that I had received a compliment. There were two program directors present, one of whom said to the other, “This guy’s good. Looks like he’s done it all before.”
After the interview, we drove on to a lake, on the bank of which the local Sierra club was holding its annual meeting. There were about 20 people there. The meeting also double-duties as a vegetarian pot-puck. After the dinner, club president Loraine McCosker asked me to make a speech, which, judging by their questions and comments afterwards, seemed to have captured their attention and imagination. I said at one point that we should internalize environmental cost in fossil fuels extraction and charge it against the oil companies up front, and got many agreements in return, including one from Loraine. I gave each a copy of the book, and there were several $5-$20 donations without solicitation.
I was going to overnight in Athens , but received a dinner invitation in Columbus from Michelle Gatchell (Deputy Director of Communications for Nancy H. Rogers, Attorney General, State of Ohio ) for Friday evening, so I drove back to Vicki’s for the night. In the course of the day, Michelle called to inform me that more people are joining the dinner, including Ritchie Layman, who had hosted a tiger preservation presentation for me at the University of Ohio at Columbus a couple of years back.
On Friday, the 8th, I spent all day at Caribou Coffee until the late afternoon when I drove to the Dragonfly restaurant in Columbus by 5:30. Participating in the dinner were six women including Michelle, Ritchie, Elizabeth Bonfield (Director of Capital Giving, Wittenberg University ) Linda Orenchuck, who had attended one of my talks before, Alita _____, Michelle’s mother, and myself. Upon my arrival, Alita, in a spiffy western cow-girl suit complete with hat, was saying something about Anthony being a Romeo. I sat down and said, “I didn’t know that Ohio women were so fast. I’ve hardly sat down and am already being called a Romeo.” HAHAs. As it happened, “Anthony” was Alita’s dog. At one point, Alita said that she had been single for 30 years. I said, “That’s nothing. I’ve been single for 64 years.” They looked at me as if I were Methuselah. I went back out to my car to get 6 copies of the book and gave them one each, all signed upon request. Without solicitation, Ritchie donated $25, and Linda wrote me a folded cheque, which of course I did not opened to look at. They talked and planned an event for my return to Columbus on Oct. 7. After the dinner had broken, and I back in the driver’s seat of my car, I then opened and looked at Linda’s cheque, and it said $500.
After the dinner, I drove back to Vicki’s place, ready to drive off to West Virginia for my next adventure.
More later.
Anthony Marr
Anthony Marr, founder
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.ARConference.org
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