First Letter from the Founder

From Kalpulli Community

First Letter from the Founder

My dear relatives everywhere, after a very long hiatus, Kalpulli Turtle Island multiversity is back online. We are once again in a position to address the entire planet with our agenda. At this juncture it is appropriate for me to tell you what our agenda is. Kalpulli Turtle Island multiversity is dedicated to ecological restoration everywhere, as well as cultural restoration with emphasis on indigenous nations everywhere. The nation state has failed us. Our religious and political ideologies have failed us. If there are better angels in these philosophies, let us find them and separate them from the garbage. But our future is ecological and indigenous, and on this fact we cannot and will not compromise.

Let me begin by explaining the name of this organization. Kalpulli comes from the Aztecs. It means "all-encompassing community." Turtle Island is generally understood as the Americas, although in some cultures, it refers to the entire planet. Multiversity rests on two definitions: some of us hold that there may be more than one universe, in addition, we are to be multifaceted and multicultural. In the Aztec context, a Kalpulli could be anything from a women's center to a university, with unlimited designations in between.

Enclosed you'll find the mission statement for this enterprise, it is entitled "Dancing the Dream Awake." The title is borrowed from the poets of the Cheyenne Nation.

It has been said that nature abhors a vacuum. Although some may debate that idea, it's pretty clear that with institutions and governments in freefall, a huge vacuum is emerging, and we dare not let what Dr. David Corton has called the "corporatocracy" fill that vacuum. As these words go out to the world, the climate change conference taking place in Copenhagen is being cut to pieces by the same tiresome individuals and politicians who've been wrecking the world since Columbus. The current prime minister of Denmark, Mr. Lars Rasmussen, seems to be happily presiding over this failure. Earlier this week, he gave his name and his nation to an obscene document called the "Danish Plan." When one breaks the code, it is clear that developed nations wish to continue with business as usual, as they do little or nothing to reduce greenhouse gases which are clearly wrecking the planet. And yet they are calling upon the global south to reduce greenhouse gases even though these nations contribute very little to the problem. In addition, the assault on indigenous people beginning with Columbus continues unabated from missionaries to oil companies.

Kalpulli Turtle Island multiversity therefore sees itself as a kind of world shadow government. We will dog the empires, the superpowers, and the corporatocracy in general until they are replaced by a world community which could actually work. We shall institute a series of five hundred year plans for ecological and cultural restoration. This will involve education, a very different kind of broadcasting, film making, and the promotion of the better angels in all cultures.

One night in 1969, the Beatles went into a hotel room in Montreal, and they built an entire song around the following line: "All we are saying is give peace a chance." In 1142 A.D. on the common calendar, a group of indigenous people in that same area of the continent gave peace a chance by creating a splendid example of a utopia that actually worked until 1492. They went from absolute war to absolute peace in the space of five years (1137-1142). These are the kinds of facts that Kalpulli Turtle Island multiversity will be putting on the world's plate in the coming years, decades, centuries and millenia. There will be more specific topics dealt with in future editorials, not only by myself, but more importantly, from fellow directors who constitute the governing council of this enterprise.

Recently, one of my colleagues and I, inspired by Ralph Nader's book, "Only the Rich Can Save Us," composed a letter to the seventeen wealthiest people in the United States. We asked for $1 billion. All seventeen of them are worth several billion dollars. It is entirely possible that this request will be a most modest proposal given their wealth. For openers, $250 million will be allocated for the establishment of what will be called Radio Turtle Island. This online and conventional radio broadcasting entity will articulate our radical vision for ecological and cultural restoration, for internationalism, women's rights, deep ecology, health care, and so on. This broadcasting service will not be trashy talk radio, but rather it will be conversation and the articulation of ideas which could reinvent the world. The next $250 million will be utilized for ecological restoration in Carter County, southeastern Montana, in the ecologically and culturally wounded great plains of North America. We shall endeavor to prove that the two restorations mentioned several times in this letter are not only possible but essential. The remaining $500 million, if we get it, will lay the groundwork for the establishment of educational facilities all over the western hemisphere. It is our hope that we can also start building over the next decades an endowment of no less than $10.89 trillion.

At this juncture you may be tempted to question the sanity of the writer of these words. Therefore an explanation is in order. The United States currently has a gross national product of about $15 trillion. Our national debt far exceeds that number. China has a gross national product of about $12 trillion. Imagine a well run enterprise with an endowment mentioned above devoting all of those resources to the two restorations (cultural and ecological) plus education, broadcasting, film making, and other related activities. My relatives this is what it's going to take to offset spending on arms, subsidizing industrial agriculture, and other clear examples of the wasting disease now eating this planet. We are not groveling or begging; we are not a charity, but rather we are an incubator for that marriage of revolution and evolution which may bring about peace, sustainability, and balance on this tormented planet. We wish to link up with other enterprises, but we are not empire builders because empires don't work. Neither will we place ourselves under any other organization. There must be a marriage of autonomy with interdependence.

One could go on forever, but for now allow me to conclude these remarks with the following request. Imagine what this enterprise could do if every person on this planet who was in the position to do so could send the equivalent of $1 US. That is - every person on this planet who values peace, nonviolence, ecological and cultural health, and an end to the predatory nature of modern society. Kalpulli Turtle Island multiversity would be off to a huge advance. To paraphrase the late and lamented master improviser brother John Coltraine, "we could be a force for good;" a force not deformed by the stench of politics or business as usual; a force whose rhetoric and actions would be inseparable. What we do now will one day have implications for the entire planet. Earlier in this letter I mentioned Carter County, Montana. There will come a day when we will be doing similar work in central Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific Basin and Europe. But we're starting small, on an infinitely big enterprise. We will invite our friends from Nature Conservancy, the Rainforest Action Network, the International Indian Treaty Council, the Center for Science Environment and Technology in India, and many other enterprises to join us.

Earlier I basically wrote off most governments. There are a few exceptions to the rule. We want to honor at this time: the new government of brother Abel Morales, president of Bolivia, and an indigenous leader, who does exactly what he says he's going to do, unlike the current occupant of the White House in the U.S. Therefore, I call upon all of you who care about the issues raised in this letter to consider sending $1 or more to Kalpulli Turtle Island multiversity. I'm also letting the world know that I'm making myself available to do paid lectures on an eco-centric and indigenous-centric world, and I will go anywhere on this planet. Kalpulli is a democracy. If my fellow directors wish to do the same, they are free to do so. The governing council consists, and will always consist of autonomous, strong-willed women and men, and we're gambling that we will be able to agree on those non-negotiable principles having to do with a healthy world.

Principle and rigid ideology are not the same thing, and we are about to prove that. We have a post office box, for you can send whatever you can send to
Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity P.O. Box 28152 St. Paul, MN 55128, USA.
Please join us in assertively taking back this planet from those who don't seem to have a clue when it comes to ethical behavior, like the prime minister of Denmark, the president of the United States, the prime minister of Canada, and all the rest of them. We thank you in advance for your efforts and your contributions. To paraphrase a dear old Blues singer friend: We will not let you down. You'll be hearing not only from me again, but from my equal fellow directors.

Thank you.

Very respectfully yours,

Ray Tricomo

+1-651-714-0288