Anthony Marr's CARE-7 tour blog #14
Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix is a beautiful name, with mythological origins. It signifies rebirth by the incineration of corrupted values, from whose ashes rise those of a higher state of being.
So when, in the 100 degree heat, I became one with the Phoenicians in the Funeral Motorcade for the Animals, the rising of a higher state of being was very much on my mind. And the corrupted values are personified by a concentration camp called Covance, in which hideous experiments are being performed by the likes of Dr. Joseph Mengele, where only the victims are not the same. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself. I should first tell you the story of the crying child.
The first time I laid eyes on this child, I was searching through the trunk of my Green Hornet parked outside the Andria residence for my favorite T-shirt, the black one with the majestic white-tailed deer on its front, the one I wore at Love's Alchemy Spiritual Center in Las Vegas. I was kicking myself that not only did I leave my car key in the ignition, I had left the T-shirt and its accompanying black jeans at the house of Greg Lewis and Dale Gilbert where I stayed the night.
I heard a sound, turned, and saw this beautiful 10-year-old boy with golden hair smiling at me. "Hi, I'm Anthony. You must be Nicholas."
Like his mother Michelle and step-father Chris, Nick made me feel welcomed and at home without trying. By the time I met him, which was in the mid-afternoon of May 7, Friday, I had already established an entertaining interactive pattern with Chris where we set up a chess board on the kitchen counter, and made moves whenever we came up for air from our respective computers, the whole game lasting the greater part of the day. I had my book [Homo Sapiens! SAVE YOUR EARTH!] lying next to the board. After I had made a move, I would turn it face up, and after Chris had made a move, he would turn it face down.
When Nick came in, he was at once drawn to the game, and the next time I went to the kitchen to make a move, he had turned all the pieces facing exactly the right ways, Chris's facing east, mine facing west. As it happened, this first game between the appreciative guest and the hospitable host ended perfectly - a stalemate with only the two kings left standing nakedly on the board.
Michelle Andria, my gracious host
When 5 pm came around, I followed the Andrias to the home of Susan Mazey, the host of the vegan potluck. There, I found Jan McClellan, the organizer of the funeral motorcade schedules for the next day, with whom I felt an immediate rapport. There was also Shaynie Aero, who had arranged more than one speaking opportunity for me in my previous visits to Phoenix.
Another lady, Estee Flynn, introduced herself to me as the mother of Shauna Saling who was present at the Las Vegas event.
The others I did not recognize, but all made me feel as if they had known me for ages. The dogs they had brought were obviously well loved.
After the delicious dinner, Jan introduced my talk, which I gave with my usual gusto. When I touched upon the New Jersey state constitution stipulating that of the 11 voting commissioners determining wildlife management policy, at least 6 must be hunters, there was the usual collective groan, followed by Lisa Baker of United for Animals informing me that in Arizona, there will be a ballot in November to determine whether hunting should be entrenched as a constitutional right. After talking about the conspiracy by bow-hunters at Trexler, and the ~250 human traffic fatalities per year caused by hunters boosting the deer population by 30 million using food-plots for hunting purposes, and the unconstitutional state-level hunter-harassment laws exemplified by the case of Jan Haagensen, I moved on to global warming. I started by first asking the audience who among them doubt global warming as a fact. Only one hand came up, and it was Chris's. I said, "I'll have to beat the hell out of you in our next chess game then." The resulting laughter was light-hearted, but as usual, my talk was dead serious. The main body of the audience took it in like spirit, so much so that towards the end, young Nicholas began to cry.
Upon seeing his tears, I suspended my speech, and went to comfort him. While Michelle took one of his hands, I held his other hand and said to him, "Don't lose heart, Nicholas, I will do all I can to help save the world for you, but you must be brave and lead your generation to save it for yourselves and your own children." After some long seconds, he nodded almost imperceptibly, but the whole time, tears kept streaming down his face.
Afterward, Michelle said quietly to me, "I believe you. I think it is too late. But the people in the street don't care." I responded that it was not necessarily too late, since I had a secret formula to save the world on the brink of global and irreversible catastrophe. She looked at me questioningly. But the evening had run its course.
On my way back to the Andria's place in my car I was slightly concerned that Chris might be angry at me for upsetting Nick, but amazingly, he was even friendlier with me than before.
May 8, Saturday, the day of the funeral motorcade in the Phoenix area, temperature 100 degrees plus. About 15 cars assembled at the city park in Chandler near where the Covant laboratories are located.
Michelle Andria's SUV, which brought up the rear
Jan McClellan deliberately excluded the name of Covant from her press releases so that media would not pre-alert Covant about our plan to "invade" their property. Fox-10 sent a camera down, and Jan served as spokesperson.
After the interview, she led the procession on her predetermined route,
but as soon as we enter the Covant parking lot, we were intercepted by a police vehicle, joined minutes later by another.
Jan being in the lead was the one to be questioned by police. My Green Hornet was the second vehicle, and I could see the policeman clearly, and his body language was not hostile. The second policeman looked a little more stern, who, while Jan was still talking to the first, he came down the line and told each of us, rather quietly, to leave the Covant property in an orderly fashion, which we did.
Later, Michelle, whose SUV was bringing up the rear, told us that the police cars had been following her for blocks, and as soon as we got near Covant, they sped off in the different direct to intercept us. And Jan told us that the first policeman was actually quite pleasant and sympathetic, saying that he understood our sentiments about Covant, but his job was to enforce the law, and the law says that we could not demonstrate on a private property.
We ended the procession in the parking lot of another city park and took group pictures,
after which we went to the Kokopelle restaurant for drinks and dinner. Michelle, who was sitting across the table from me asked me about my "secret formula" to save the world, and I told her about Integrative Transcendence, which she seemed to have grasped. Somewhat later, Chris asked what we were talking about. Michelle said, "We're talking about I.T., about it is not your kind of I.T.," Chris being a computer techie.
Tomorrow, I'll go to Tucson to speak at the Lovin' Spoonfuls restaurant, hosted by Cheena.
Even though Anthony Damiano begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting has returned to his home state of Florida, his heart is still with the tour. The following thread will show his continuing dedication to the cause:
Anthony Damiano: Please contact us if you wish to support Anthony Marr on the CARE-7 tour!
Missy VeganOddity: I wish I could..anything else I can help with?
Anthony Damiano: Cathy, Christine and Chrissy need help calling groups to organize vegan meet-ups and trying to get people/groups out to the motorcades...
Pam Davis: Anthony, just talked to Anthony Marr in getting our Dallas tour leg planned. Is this called the CARE-7 tour?
Anthony Damiano: Yes it is. His 7th Compassion for Animals Road Expedition :-)
Pam Davis: Kewl. Wanted the 'official' name. He is posting each tour stop to his blog too :)
Anthony Damiano: Yes, he will keep everyone updated. I am so sorry that I will miss Texas because there are some really great people there, but I could not put financial pressure on the tour. Please make your event huge for Anthony. :-)
Pam Davis: I'm sorry Anthony that you can't make it as we really wanted to meet you! Do you know any specific AR people? If so please tell me, and I will include them in our postings. We are going to make this event VERY BIG Anthony. I just spoke with Dr Pippin of PCRM, and he did a motorcade for the seals with Anthony a few years ago, and he is going too... See more post-it to his newsgroups, and we have 5 area Petland campaigns, where we protest EVERY saturday, so I know we'll have all our usually Dallas store protesters, plus the additional AR people and every day folks. Dr Pippin will get in touch with the media, and we already have our ACT Community Center lined up to meet there for the funeral start, and will have a vegan potluck there when it's finished. I expect close to 50 people EASILY!
Dian Hardy: Hey, Pam! Be sure to include me in your posts. Although I'm in Europe now I still want to keep in touch.
Artist Catherine Garneau: If anyone wants to schedule an event with Anthony Marr on his tour... please message me a.s.a.p. Thanks!
Pam Davis: Hey Dian, where did you live before? I will include you ... going to create a Facebook 'event' and will send link @Artist Catherine.... do you help coordinate the tours?
Thank you, everyone! And Anthony, see you in Florida in June, my brother!
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.YouTube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com (search for “Anthony Marr Heal Our Planet Earth”)
www.ARConference.org
2 comments:
Best of luck on your tour. That is too bad the adults were in the kitchen, while the young boy was the person listening. But there is a moral of the story in there somewhere. Children have not learned to be so passive or acceptive of things that are wrong, etc.
I just love the mythology. The Phoenix's ability to be reborn from its own ashes like sildenafil citrate (a famous writer in Russia...) implies that it is immortal, though in some stories the new Phoenix is merely the offspring of the older one. In very few stories they are able to change into people.
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