Common Ground: Soldiers Speaking Truth to Power

February 2005 | Dock of the Bay

Soldiers Speaking Truth to Power

Any soldier will tell you it’s easier to fire a rifle than to shoot off your mouth. But 13 years after he was exposed to depleted uranium during the Gulf War, Bay Area vet and author (Support the Truth) Dennis Kyne learned that free speech can still cost you.

On August 31, Kyne was in New York for the Republican National Convention when he stood on the steps of the New York Public Library and shouted: “The government is taking away our rights. They lied to you; they lied to me.” Kyne was promptly busted and charged with “riot in the second degree” and six other crimes. Each charge carried a potential one-year sentence. The arrest warrant claimed that Kyne spoke out in a “boisterous” and “tumultuous” manner that “caused a crowd to gather…and people to express alarm.” He also was charged with resisting arrest because, as one officer stated, his “mouth, heart, and eyes” were moving. On December 19, in the first jury trial resulting from hundreds of arrests during that week of protest, Kyne was acquitted of all charges. Ironically, a videotape of the bust showed that the arresting officers had, in fact, lied — about Kyne’s demeanor and their own use of physical force against the former Army drill instructor.

Increasingly, the doubts and anger of soldiers are being heard — through the Internet, organizations like Military Families Against the War, and books like Michael Moore’s Letters from the Troops. One of the best sites is Operation Truth (www.optruth.org ), which profiles individual soldiers, raises money and morale for the troops and features stunning first-hand reports, photos and even videos from soldiers serving on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. OpTruth gives active members of the Armed Forces the opportunity “to reveal the truth about the war” and provides civilians with tools to support the troops while challenging US war-makers. In January, OpTruth’s homepage featured two demands: an investigation of the Humvee armor scandal and the removal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. When it comes to defending personal truths over institutional lies, this website’s motto is Semper Fi. —Gar Smith

Soul Dance

Not surprisingly, a Brazilian brought this message to the world: The first step to healing body, soul and mind is a dance-step. Belisa Amaro, co-director of the US School of Biodanza, discovered the healing powers of dance in her native Brazil through the work of Biodanza’s founder, Rolando Toro Araneda, a cultural anthropologist and clinical psychologist. Areneda was fascinated with the way music, drumming and dance could increase feelings of vitality, self-esteem, confidence, solidarity and altruism. Turning observation into therapy, Araneda created Biodanza, which uses music and dance to induce “vivencias,” an acute experience of being alive and in-the-now.

Biodanza has gone on to become an international craze, with more than 100 schools in Latin America and Europe. The first US Biodanza school is set to open in San Francisco this March, headed by Amaro and co-director Ron Carter, MD. Biodanza practitioners believe this form of meditation-in-motion can actually “affect the psyche of our cells, tissues and organs.” Talk about “deep healing.”

For more information on Biodanza and the International Biocentric Foundation and for a schedule of events and classes, contact Amaro at (415) 806-8067 or visit the website: www.biodanzasf.com. —GS

Findhorn Spreads Its Web

Can you imagine how much easier the journey to Mordor would have been if Gandalf and Frodo had cellphones? Mordor-fied? Get ready. Findhorn, the famed center for eco-spiritual teachings, has gone online. Its leap into cyberspace begins with an online Global Network offering news, articles, and “synchronized meditations.” Now, instead of booking a flight to Scotland, you can join Findhorn’s virtual community with a couple of keystrokes.

For 42 years, the Findhorn Foundation and Community has been synonymous with the spiritual/holistic movement’s quest for trans-formation through deep listening, meditation and community. Now, thanks to the Internet, spiritual teachers like Caroline Myss, William Bloom, and David Spangler will be contributing monthly columns and Findhorn residents will be able to share their daily experiences with network members around the world. “Though tucked away in northern Scotland,” Findhorn’s Mattie Porte says, “we have always held a planetary perspective [and the] Global Network enables our light to shine brighter and further.” Rejoice with fellow Hobbits online at www.findhorn.org/globalnetwork —GS

Hats Off

Pantropic, a North Bay company, is one of the few manufacturers still selling hats made by traditional artisans in Ecuador’s Cuenca region whose meticulous weaving skills are passed down over generations. It can take up to eight months to hand-weave a single Montechristi fedora (the straw hat favored by the crafty businessman Signor Ferrari in the film, Casablanca).

“I love these hats; this is what I grew up with,” says Pantropic sales representative Vivienne Miranda, a native Ecuadoran. Her entertaining anecdotes about weavers and Panama hat lore sound more like cultural pride than a sales pitch. No less refreshing is Pantropic’s high regard for its personnel. Their comfortable Sebastopol factory is the antithesis to a sweatshop. “We’re really into being a community and supporting each other,” says Donna Waldman, who started the company in 1982 after years as a teacher in Ecuador. Drawing inspiration from Aaron Feuerstein (the textile factory owner who famously continued to pay his workers’ salaries after his plant burned down), Waldman goes out of her way to support her workers, even arranging doctor’s appointments for ailing employees.

Equally inspiring in this time of rampant corporate unaccountability is Pantropic’s concern for the world beyond its own doors. “We carefully pick our clients,” says Waldman, who visits each factory, here and abroad, to assure safe and healthy working conditions, strict adherence to child labor laws, and proper waste disposal. By keeping good company, the Pantropic hat has weathered the storms of economic uncertainty. “If you run a business with a lot of integrity, people tend to treat you fairly,” says Waldman of her customers’ loyalty, even through the recession. “I think it works, and if it doesn’t, I’m going to do it anyway.”

To look as stately as F.D.R., or as sly as Al Capone, visit www.pantropic.biz or www.villagehatshop.com. —David Sason

Books We Like

You say you like buying books but you don’t like supporting chain stores? You have catholic tastes but you’re conflicted by the Pope’s plea to forswear materialism? Well, Books We Like (BWL) could offer a path to redemption. The Media Venture Collective (with help from SF-based AlterNet) came up with this “cool new approach to activist e-commerce.” No donations, fees or registrations are required and you can shop on any existing Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or AbeBooks account. The difference is that your book purchases (about $1 per purchase) now will help fund independent media. And since it’s your money, you get to determine where the funds go, using online feedback to determine which projects are most deserving of support. Other goodies include: improved comparison shopping and peer-to-peer book recommendations.

With less hassle than replacing a bookmark, BWL promises to generate a “potentially large source of funding for important public-interest media efforts.” As the Media Venture Collective puts it: “No one who cares about reclaiming the media should ever buy another book online without starting here.” www.bookswelike.net —GS

Direct Buddha

You can hear the sound of both hands clapping for the films being screened at the International Buddhist Film Festival. The Buddhist Film Society’s 50-plus film roster begins February 13 in Berkeley, San Francisco and San Rafael. Highlights include rarely seen films about the late Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center; a new look at Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (starring Johnny Depp); as well as A Pure Formality, a little-known classic starring Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu; two Korean films, Beyond the Mountain and Hi! Dharma; the controversial documentary What Remains of Us and works local filmmakers Ellen Bruno, Isaac Solotaroff and Sapana Sakya. For information: (510) 601-5111 www.ibff.org.

A fund raising “Compassion Concert” with Mickey Hart, Hamza El Din, and former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud is set for February 11 at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. In addition to benefiting the Buddhist Film Society, 10 percent of the proceeds will go to tsunami relief efforts.

And if this cinema surfeit leaves you reeling, check out “Speaking for the Buddha? Buddhism and the Media,” a free, two-day conference hosted by the Center for Buddhist Studies and the Institute of East Asian Studies that begins Tuesday, February 8 at UC Berkeley’s Barrows Hall. The first day is devoted to print media; the second to film. Panels will discuss Buddhist themes in movies and the use of Buddhist concepts and images in American advertising. For information: www.ieas.berkeley.edu/events/speakingforthebuddha. —Tricia Cambron

Mythos for Mañana

With Time Magazine choosing George W. Bush as “Man of the Year,” there is a rising chorus chanting, “We need new heroes!” Not content to preach to the choir, Praxis Peace Institute founder Georgia Kelly is going beyond the talking headlines to explore the hidden mythos that drives (and oftimes misdirects) human societies. Beginning in February, Praxis is joining with Walter Link from SF’s Global Academy to host a yearlong seminar on “Reinventing Civilization: An Exploration of Culture and Mythos.” Co-hosts Kelly and Link have invited a dozen deep-thinkers to “track the emerging stories that are harbingers of cultural mutations.”

As author Karen Armstrong observes, the mythos of a society “provides people with a context that makes sense of their day-to-day lives.” What makes “day-to-day” sense may not make for long-term survival. “To explore mythos is to explore the social psyche of a culture,” Kelly explains. “Mythos informs belief systems, worldviews, morals, and values.” Unfortunately, she adds, “the lessons of history are usually learned selectively and therefore not really learned at all.”

The idea behind this yearlong chautauqua is to put “prejudices and proclivities under a microscope” and create a place “for new stories to emerge and be nourished.” The first requirement, Kelly says, is to understand “the social psyche that is reflected in our cultural patterns.” It is necessary to delve into the “shadow side” of mythos to discover why “the same wars surface over and over again,” why “the same ethnic hatreds recycle after a generation or two,” and why “the same power brokers run the world economy.” Kelly believes that “understanding the social, cultural and political patterns that form the hidden bedrock of a civilization will provide an opportunity to alter that foundation and change the course of history.”

The series begins on February 18 with a presentation on “Tracking Emerging Stories” led by cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, author of The Four-Fold Way and Signs of Life (winner of the 1993 Benjamin Franklin Award). The program will start at 7:30 at the Sonoma Community Center. An optional daylong workshop is set for February 19. The next session, on March 25, will feature a discussion of “Language, Propaganda and Imagery” by authors George Lakoff (Don’t Think of an Elephant) and Sam Keen (Faces of the Enemy). For details on future seminars, call the Praxis Peace Institute at (707) 939-2973 or visit www.praxispeace.org . —GS

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