Moscow, May 7, 1999
Dear Tribe,
Today was my day to fast. We are chain fasting
for world peace and for Mother's speaking tour. She
will come to Russia on May 22. Some people
connected with the orthodox church are trying to
stop her appearance.
I went out to the store down on the street to buy
some yoghurt etc. for after midnight when I break my
fast. This place is rather chummy, people kind of
know each other. They know me too, because I've
been here at Kropotkinskaya St. for over four years.
Before, they knew me as Moonie. People look at
you like, "Is he human? Is he brainwashed? He must
be an enemy of our Orthodox faith... a heretic." Now
that has been superseded by "He's an American!
They're bombing our brothers in Serbia!" They don't
get angry; just look at me. Last time they said,
"Well, here's the flyboy, just dropped in."
This time.... A mother was there at the counter
with her boy. He said something quietly, and she
said to him, "Yes, he has a foreign accent." Then
she asked the girls behind the counter, "Where's
he from?" They said, "He's from Kosovo."
I just heard them say that as I was walking
out. I was thinking about that all evening. "He's
from Kosovo," meaning "He's from America."
Actually, that's rather appropriate. If you say
"He's from America" here, it lands rather heavy,
like a pallette of steel ingots. It was already like
that before Yugoslavia. Now it carries new import.
Also, if we reflect, America is made up almost
entirely of refugees and their descendants. Ours
too. "Give me your poor and downtrodden." It was
ever so. So all those people who were persecuted
and exiled came to America, and finally, after
about two hundred years or more, gathered the
power and strength to eventually go back to those
kinds of situations and this time beat up the bully.
I'm not saying it's effective or necessarily right.
But it does go to show where we are all coming
from. So this time we are sympathizing with the
refugees who were kicked out of Kosovo, and
that's mostly what the Yugoslavia situation is
all about (of course there's more to it too).
We are actually like the younger brothers and
sisters, who were given a hard time and driven
out, and now we have restored the position of
elder brothers and sisters, and have the strength
to say what goes and what doesn't, but still we
have the heart, the personality, the sympathies,
of the younger brothers and sisters.
That's great!
They said, "He's from Kosovo" (meaning
America).
Yours truly,
William S.
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