2010-09-28 - Anthony Marr's CARE-7 tour blog #29 - IL, WI

2010-09-28 - Anthony Marr's C ARE-7 tour blog #29 - IL, WI

This is the second last blog of Anthony Marr's CARE-7 tour (Compassion for Animals Road Expedition #7), and it is ending with a few bangs.



For one thing, the September 25 Madison WI event at the Goodman Community Center, organized by Lynn Pauly of Alliance For Animals, with well over 100 present, so much so that more tables and chairs had to be hauled in, and even so not enough, was one of the best attended on the tour, and, like so many other events on this tour, it was one of the best attended of all events organized by the host group ever.



The September 19 Chicago IL event was an exquisite affair at the near-legendary Karyn's on Green vegan restaurant, which served 4 delicious appetizers at 30 minute intervals before my speech.


[Karyn, >60, looks <40]
[Karyn and Anthony at one of her 3 vegan restaurants in Chicago - Karyn's Raw, Karyn's Cooked, and Karyn's on Green]

Other than my hosts Kris and Pat Konrady and other Chicago notables, it was attended by two terrific FB-friends from Milwaukee - Melissa ("Missy Vegan Oddity") and David ("Junk Food Vegan"), who, having heard my speech, have now arranged for me to speak in Milwaukee on October 2, Saturday, which the Konradys will also attend.


[Melissa, David, Kristin and friend]


[Anthony with Melissa and David]

More on the Madison event, following is the blog of my dear friend Amy Burns, in whose parents Betty's and Marvin's home I'm currently staying, and whose very endearing daughter Luciana is destined to be one of the future leaders of our movement.


[Les Blumreich, organizer of the Sept. 26 Beloit event, and Amy Burns (in red)]

Monday, September 27, 2010
by Amy Burns
on Anthony Marr

We’ve been keeping busy with our friend, Anthony Marr, who arrived last Thursday for a visit. He will be staying here in WI until Saturday, which gives us plenty of time to visit, though I have less time to blog.


[Luciana Burns-Dwyer]

Luciana has been anxiously waiting for this visit for many months and would prefer to have him all to herself. She’s not too thrilled to share his time or attention with others. She has allowed us some time to catch up with him, usually after she’s supposed to be in bed.



Saturday night was the Alliance for Animals’ annual vegan chili fest. It is normally a competition with everyone vying for the best chili title. Mark (*Mark Dwyer - Amy's husband) has won for three years. This year, rather than a competition, it was a chili of the champions dinner. Each previous award winning chili was there for our enjoyment. Mark brought both of his winners. I like them both, though I prefer his “lumpy fart chili” (he came up with that lovely title), because it’s a bit spicier than the “not on a first date” chili.



The event was very well attended. After filling the room, we had to seek additional chairs. Extra tables and chairs were added — as many as could be packed into the room, and we still ran out of seats. That’s awesome, both because it’s a fundraiser for AFA, and because there was a big crowd for Anthony’s talk.



Mark introduced Anthony as the speaker and gave a brief bio and well-earned, glowing praise. I got a fun shot of M giving the introduction, holding up A’s first book, while A was taking a picture of M. Anthony spoke for 1.5 hours, and could easily have continued, but for the time limitations of our room rental. The crowd was entranced for the most part, as his message is obviously true, dire, and frightening beyond belief! There were many, many comments after his talk about how much people enjoyed hearing his message.



I have heard much of the content of this talk before, though there was definitely some new information added. Still, hearing it again was not remotely boring. There aren’t many people who I can listen to talking for more than an hour (with me being forced to sit in one place and do nothing else!) without going stir crazy! As SHOULD any speaker who is confident in the accuracy and content of their message, he encourages his audience to research it themselves. There is no hiding behind a claimed ‘leader’ status and expecting the audience to just accept and swallow it whole. Over and over throughout his talk, he repeatedly tells the audience to verify for themselves, Google the terms and statistics, and otherwise do due diligence in verifying the veracity of everything he says. At this point in my life, I believe nothing without verifying it myself, my way, and with my own sources. I greatly appreciate the confidence in someone encouraging such behavior, rather than so many who expect you to just accept their (often self-proclaimed) authority and simply digest and absorb their ‘facts’.



Even though I know Anthony well, and know him to be a man of great integrity, I still feel it necessary to do my own digging and checking. The beauty of it is, I have found that he is absolutely correct (to my dismay, given the dire implications), and he is not remotely offended by my need to validate. And along with Anthony, I urge you to do your own research and validation rather than just blindly accept my word on it. If everyone one in the U.S. did this — hell, if even a quarter of us did this on a regular basis — this would be an entirely different country!



Sunday was busy for Anthony! He wanted to go along to Luciana’s Bharatanatyam class on Sunday afternoon. He has, in the past, spent much time in India and had seen some performances in India. The music, movement, and costumes are so beautiful, once you’ve experienced that, you want to see more of it. It really is a fantastic art form! Meenakshi and the girls are working very hard this month to get ready for the big performance on the 23rd. They are spending twice as much time in class this month, and will have some additional practices the week before the event.



Anthony took quite a few pics of Luciana in her class, and many of them turned out beautifully (other than the fact that she had not gotten enough sleep Fri or Sat and looked somewhat like a little dead girl). All of the photos shown were taken by Anthony.



We got back in town with enough time for A to have a quick bit of lunch and then head to Beloit for his Sunday evening speaking engagement. He arrived back from that in time for a late dinner of tofurky roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Posted by VeganMom at 9/27/2010 06:57:00 PM


[Right seat: Allegrea and Anthony]

The event in Beloit WI took place in the Poetry Garden of Beloit College. I was driven there by my friend Allegrea and her mother Valerie. It was an intimate discussion around an outdoors table. As in many group discussions of late, a point of common consensus is that we need to build a national coalition of green tech advocates to lobby for a European-style green super grid in America.


[planned to be online by 2015]

And the groups and people I have given my lecture to are prime and primed for forming and joining this green tech coalition.



Thanks again to Catherine Garneau for initiating and scheduling these events.


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
Touring cell 216-386-7362 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              216-386-7362      end_of_the_skype_highlighting