Here's part of what my friend Nathan Bauman wrote me:
Hi Kevin,
I've just emailed our press release to:
-Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun (he's the religion and ethics writer for our daily broadsheet)
-the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (I called to check that they got the press release)
-The Tri-City News (a local thrice-weekly paper)
-The Coquitlam Now (a local thrice-weekly paper)
-The BC Christian News
Better update that website soon! I just hope this press release thing works out. I think I've done a good job on it, but the idea has to catch their eye...
Nathan's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to help make this walk happen. I'd normally say that I owe him my firstborn child, but because I have no children, I probably owe him a few vital organs instead.
Thanks, Nathan!
If anyone out there has notions of how to get the word out and get religious communities interested in this walk, please write in. We're always looking for ideas.
_
5 comments:
Just for the record, promises of firstborn children were usually made (back when they were made in seriousness, and not as a figure of speech) before the child was born, so you could still run with that if you wanted.
You asked for ideas. Here's one I had. Contact them European film-makers and comic artists. You know, the ones who have invited heaps of scorn from certain angry Muslims. I don't know...maybe they'd be interested in your walk for tolerance, even though it's half a world away.
Anyhow, I love the theme of tolerance. I think it's a great idea for a walk across America. Obviously, if more people had tolerance, there'd be less violence in the world. Or is that not true? Maybe then the remaining wolves would only increase their wolfishness. As to whether we should tolerate others' violence against us (and like Gandhi, preach nonviolence), that is another question.
Max,
That's a toughie re: the artists and the angry Muslims. Personally, I'm on the side of free speech: Christianity, for example, is routinely and ruthlessly mocked in the West (often with good reason), and I usually find the irreverence hilarious. All religions are fair game in the West. No religion should be asking for special privileges, or for some special protection from the slings and arrows of disrespectful rhetoric.
People usually have it backward when they talk about "incitement to violence." "Incitement to violence" occurs because violent people have no self-control, not because uncharitable people have pushed poor victims to the limit. Victimology has got to go; people need to take responsibility for their own actions, including violent actions.
People who move to Western countries should expect to live according to Western values, among which are tolerance and the free exchange of both palatable and unpalatable ideas (which is why we tolerate neo-Nazis, etc.). Feathers are often ruffled and that's just part of the overall process (if "process" is the correct term here).
As for nonviolence... personally, I'm not a pacifist (if we assume pacifism to be an all-or-nothing stance, which it might not be), but I do think that, as the kid-oriented martial arts movies like to preach, violence should always be a last resort. Peaceful, reasonable dialogue needs to be given a chance-- more than one chance, actually.
To be fair, I think that people who move to non-Western countries have to live in accordance with the values of those countries. For example, I find it arrogant when an American moves to Korea and expects to get around only in English, year after year. I sympathize with the French folks who laugh at those loud American tourists who make no effort to learn a few important things about French history and culture. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," as they say.
But moving to another country, then establishing a hermetic community within that country-- a community that comes with its own very detailed system of jurisprudence-- should not be allowed.* Tolerance has limits. I think many Western countries are still trying to figure out what the boundaries of tolerance are.
Kevin
*Limited jurisprudence can and should be allowed, I think; we see examples of this already in, for example, Catholic canon law or Presbyterian rules of discipline.
Kevin,
The most complete list I know of of Buddhist-related sites in North America is at http://www.buddhanet.net/wbd/region.php?region_id=1.
BTW, I know you're starting near Vancouver and heading south, but if you can swing about 100 miles north, this is a good place to visit:
http://birken.ca/
Thanks, Alan.
Kevin
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