Whole Life Times: And Another Thing... Dyer Suspicions

May 2005 | Letters from Readers

And Another Thing... Dyer Suspicions

Wayne Dyer’s outgoing phone message says he “wants to feel good,” but he also notes in your 1/05 interview with him (“Father of Intention”) that the best cure for depression is service to others. Sounds right to me. But service, as many revered teachers have understood it, involves sacrifices in pursuit of higher goals—and no, spending time writing “self-help” books to promote and enrich oneself probably doesn’t count. So I have a question for Dyer, if you can catch him in-between tennis games at his “picture book” Hawaiian hideaway: Given the amount of suffering, hunger, environmental degradation and millions of orphans in this world of ours, how many of his EIGHT children are adopted? If it’s at least, say, five of them, well right on, Wayne. But if not, he’s a one-man ecological and ethical disaster who maybe should do a little more reality-based reading than books by Carlos Castaneda. Intention is indeed important—although Dyer’s hardly the “father” of that (ever hear of Buddhism?)—but as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

I’d also maybe like to ask him how much he’s volunteered his time to others, how much of his income goes to charity, if he’s considered using his publishing clout to insist on recycled paper for his books, and... On second thought, Dyer would probably just say I’m being negative, or judgmental, or even trying to make him feel bad. Never mind.
—Steve Heilig, San Francisco

Bari Book a Hatchet Job

It is amazing how eager people are to tear down anyone who becomes a movement icon. Jim Motavilli seems to get perverse pleasure from lending credence to Kate Coleman’s poorly written book, The Secret Wars of Judi Bari (Dragonfly Review, 3/05). Motavilli manages, in a few paragraphs, to perpetuate more distortions about Bari and Earth First! than can be addressed in one letter.

The most unfortunate distortion is the claim that Bari neglected her environmental work to focus on her suit against the government after the bombing that nearly took her life. The truth is that Bari divided the last years of her life between the lawsuit and her environmental work. She undertook the long, grueling lawsuit (that eventually succeeded in proving the FBI had violated her civil rights) because she saw the implications for future generations of activists if she let this outrage stand. Meanwhile, Bari continued to organize protests and travel to speak on her ever-evolving philosophy of how to effectively oppose corporate destruction of forest and wildlife habitat. She did it with grace and humor and without bitterness; in the process she enriched the lives of many.

To see her now defiled in this right-wing-supported hatchet job [Colman’s publisher, Encounter Books, specializes in titles that critique the left—ed.] and to see the progressive press along for the ride is sad and shameful. It seems movement personalities must be either flawless or overthrown. As one who knew and worked with Judi Bari, I can say she was not a saint but a truly effective and uncompromising defender of the Earth. No time was spent in the review to debunk any of Coleman’s errors and falsehoods. For a detailed list of those errors, see www.colmanhoax.com.
—Mokai, Earthworm Records, San Francisco

And the Writer Went On for Three More Pages...
(Execerpted as written)

I used to recommend your magazine and pick up extra issues to give to people who in my opinion needed to be “enlightened” now... after a couple of months away, i pick your new issue which has a “babe” in the cover (3/05 Eco Couture), to find inside articles on soldiers defecting and uninformed ignorant women discussing or telling us how to opine on politics... to a magazine that doesn’t even promotes vegetarianism, because oh well we must let people make their own choices, we do not want to offend anyone...this is an ironic change...your leftist leaning is now impossible to conceal...we’ll i am a vegetarian for 26 years and an environmentalist for 20...i am an active animal activist and volunteer to cook for homeless people among many things to actively HELP THOSE IN NEED... in THIS country... so, i am not a NEO NAZI or any of the ridiculous nick names the LEFTIST biased children of pot smoking drug experimenting hippies and the media like to call President Bush and people who are promoting of family, god and moral values.
—A. Medici, via email

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