Quote
Dassi
I campaigned door to door for the Independents for Godly Government, Sid’s first attempts to overturn the government. I was one of the unpaid lower life forms in the group. No doubt considered retarded.
During this first campaign in the 1970’s, men and women were housed in separate apartments. Usually we slept in sleeping bags on the floor. Living with a bunch of hormonal chicks was no pic-nic. But we thought we were doing the right thing. We’d wake up and chant our rounds as we loaded up in trucks and vans to have an early morning kirtans in a public park. Sid of course was never there and we were forbidden to reveal he was involved or even if we were Hari Bol peeps. The cook would lay out all the food for the day on blankets on the grass. We had yogurt and fruit in the morning and some piss poor lunch of some tofu burger thing. We would work morning till night. We ate a non-descript dinner and passed out till morning. I missed dinner one time because my ride forgot to pick me up. When I finally found my way home by bus, the guys in charge gave me sh*t.
Sid told us a bunch of lies about Cec Heftel (I think Hoshijo or Moore was running against him) at the time. I ended up being invited in to the home of a man who played for the Honolulu symphony. I spewed the party line. He noticed how hot and tired I was and fed me lunch. He was really cool and happened to know Mr. Heftel very well. He proved to me that what we were being told was a lie. I was embarrassed. It was just “another brick in the wall” for me.
Thanks, Dassi, for sharing your experiences of the "[b:2ae5ff4f81]door-da-door[/b:2ae5ff4f81]" campaign.
Yes, hunger.
Being on one's feet all day and tramping from door to door does burn up a lot of calories and hence can make one very hungry. Also, the hot Hawaiian sunshine can cause dehydration. (don't forget to say the magic wordage: "Sri Vishnu, sri Vishnu, sri vishnu" before drinking water???!)
Yes, we all went hungry.
For the cause.
One devotee confided in me that he had been marching door to door all day long, and at the end of the day he was offered one frozen banana.
One frozen banana!
Meanwhile Katyayani's fridge was chokablock full of food!
for herself and her children.
This devotee was wise enough to think "To hell with that"
and he promptly helped himself to some food from Katyayani's fridge!
Good for him.
Some of us were so brainwashed, we would have been so guilt-ridden for "stealing" food from the pure devotee's fridge!
(Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa???)
You were wise, Dassi, to accept sustenance from the "demonic" Cec Heftel supporter!!!...
some of us were so brainwashed we would not have accepted food from the kitchen of a "demon" and politely refused...
I remember the yogurt made from powdered milk (yuck!)...
the meager servings...
Certainly, exploitation.
Sid also wanted us to go door to door not only for his political campaigning, but also to sell the Reincarnation Explained book and to promote his religious agenda...
I remember knocking on people's doors to tell them that they were "not the material body" ...
They thought I was crazy!
Crazy indeed.
Fanatical? Yes.
Brainwashed? I believe, yes.
Sid said we needed to approach people at the grass roots level and mentioned that the Jehovah's Witnesses were very successful with their door to door canvassing.
I wonder if any of the Haribolers still do it?
Probably not...
It was a waste of time and energy.
:(