collective antidote

More from the The Mystery of Love, a two-hour PBS documentary special, airing prime time Dec. 13 across most of the country. (Check local listings.)

Meet Azim Khamisa, a Sufi Muslim father whose 20-year-old son was murdered by 14-year-old gang member Tony Hicks. As he dealt with his sorrow, Azim came to realize that there were “victims at both ends of the gun.” In his heart, he forgave his son’s murderer and began working with the murderer’s grandfather, Ples Felix. Together they formed a foundation and speak with kids about the terrible effects of violence. In the process, they have become as close as brothers. Out of tragedy has developed a loving friendship.

It's a powerful story, a perfect example of an antidote to the revenge, anger and despair that would typically dominate such a tragedy. The video below was posted on DarynKagan.com, a new online inspirational community from the ex-CNN anchor. (If you don't see the embedded video, click here.)

Victoria is coming clean with her dirty little secret.

Victoria's Secret has been bombarding mailboxes with more than a million catalogs each and every day (395 million a year!) on virgin paper that comes directly from forests, some endangered. The retailer has been destroying one of our planet's most vital resources — North America's Great Boreal forest — for junk mail.

But Victoria has seen the error of her ways and will announce a major change in its catalog practices. See below. If you're in NYC, come by.

This shows that change can happen, corporate mobilization campaigns can work. The future is looking more and more green.


MEDIA ADVISORY


WHAT: Theatrical, colorful event to announce a milestone in ForestEthics’ environmental campaign to transform the catalog industry. Reverend Billy and his choir and a whole cast of characters will stage a spectacle to celebrate the victory — with street theater, costumes, dancers, camera-friendly high jinks and sound bites.

WHEN: Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2:45 PM (Please arrive promptly by 2:45 for all the action)

WHERE: Victoria’s Secret Herald Square store, 565 Broadway @ 34th Street, Manhattan

WHO: Leaders from ForestEthics; Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping (www.revbilly.com); a coterie of chainsaw-bearing angels; concerned citizens

For more than three years, San Francisco-based ForestEthics has been educating the catalog industry about its negative environmental impact on the Canadian Boreal Forest. Two years ago, the group launched a campaign against Victoria’s Secret and shortly after began discussions with the company.

At issue throughout the discussions and campaign has been the impact of Victoria’s Secret’s catalog production on Canada’s Great Boreal Forest, which contains 25% of the intact, roadless forest remaining in the world. Stretching from Alaska to Canada’s Atlantic coast, the Boreal is a key regulator of global climate, providing one of our first lines of defense against global warming. It is critical habitat for many species, including endangered caribou and half of North America’s songbirds, and provides $93.2 billion a year in ecosystem services like air and water filtration. Currently, the Boreal is being logged at a rate of two acres per minute, 24 hours a day — an area the size of Manhattan every 5 days. Paper production accounts for nearly 50% of that logging.

ForestEthics spokesperson and Reverend Billy will be available for interviews. More info at www.victoriasdirtysecret.net.

I'm doing publicity for The Mystery of Love, a two-hour PBS documentary special, airing prime time Dec. 13 across most of the country. The program puts love on the public agenda and is an interesting take on a subject often dominated by one-dimensional and misleading caricatures in popular culture.

One of the most compelling segments explores "love's darker sides" with Dr. James Hillman, world-famous Jungian psychologist and author of A Terrible Love of War. Hillman discusses the feelings of community and brotherhood soldiers find on the battlefield.

"The ecstasy can be the highest moment ever experienced, as many battle veterans say. That would make it in common with other kinds of passionate love: sexual love; divine love; mystical love. You become crazy, in a way, just as you do in a passionate affair. You break the rules; you break the bounds; you're outside of yourself; you find a whole new personality in yourself. Maybe that's a shadow of love."

Here are a couple snippets I posted to YouTube.


"There's a beauty in war people don't like to talk about."


"When the men in the [two World Wars] were asked what they were fighting for, why they were there, the interviews all came out the same way: they were there not because of democracy, not because of protecting the country; but for the other guys. They were there for love of their unit."