Diary of a Chapter Leader

I own a business and have been asked to do this bail-out fundraiser about 10 times. This time I said I would do it. My problem? I never asked anyone to donate. Now I’m two days away and thinking I should tell them I have swine flu to get out of it. But as I am a procrastinator on this, I thought I would ask for your help. The donations are for MDA and I copied the email I was supposed to send out.
I’m proud to tell you that I’m being locked up…that’s right, I’m going behind bars to help Jerry’s Kids and MDA. To be released on good behavior I have to raise bail and I need your help!
All you have to do is click here to make a secure, online donation before 10/21/09. Your donation will help families living in our community and help guarantee me an early release. I can’t wait to add you to my list of contributors.
Thanks in advance for your help. Don’t hesitate to call or email me with any questions.
Together we’ll make a difference,
Nancy
P.S. I’m counting on you, click here to donate.
If the link above does not work, please cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your Internet browser.

https://www.joinmda.org/2009salinas/nt/

You will need to copy and paste the link at the end of the message. Hey, I’m not asking for much… $5, $10 would be great. I just don’t want to go there with nothing. Thanks.
Now on to my actual entry.

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I continue to support my former district by chanting giving up my Mondays. We chant every Monday. Something is going to happen in this district. For the last district meeting, the district leader planned to read an article from the World Tribune, The Bodhisattva Vow, and then she would talk about her trip to FNCC. The afternoon of the meeting she called to tell me her car broke down in another city and she would not make it to the meeting. I couldn’t talk about her trip to FNCC, so I decided to do a little study at the end. Several members attended and the two area leaders. Area is one step up from chapter. After gongyo, the very new vice-district leader read the article in her very heavy Japanese accent. The article was about… all together now… mentor and disciple. But near the end, it quotes Pres. Ikeda as saying the organization need members who think for themselves - think for yourself. When she was done I wanted to talk about what that means, to think for yourself. I said I wonder how that would work if someone disagreed with Pres. Ikeda. The area leaders jumped in and one of them read from her notes, Pres. Ikeda does not want dupes. Holy crap, Batman! Now this is a discussion topic! But, no it was not a discussion topic, it was just left there. Every time I tried to start something, the “leaders” were there to set it straight, Pres. Ikeda does not want dupes. Don’t think about it, just trust me, Pres. Ikeda does not want upes.
Now, I think this needs to be discussed. What does that statement mean? How would you go about disagreeing with a “leader” in SGI?
At another meeting, we watched a video of a teleconference from earlier this month. A top MD leader was talking about his trip to Japan. Apparently, the Kometo Party lost big in the recent election. Many Japanese members worked very hard to get their members elected, but I guess the Japanese people did what we do sometimes — they voted for a change. The Japanese members were very upset that they had lost. Pres. Ikeda told them, “When you lose, you win!” Wait, what? There must have been more to this. I must have spaced out after he said that. The the MD told of blocking Pres. Ikeda as he walked across the dais and telling him some jargon filled crap in language no one would ever use. You have all heard it before, so just fill in your own jargon. Why do we need to talk like that? I have been working on a list, The 5 Words Used in Every Christian Song. I can’t listen to it, so I can’t get all 5. Here is what I have so far, Glory, Rejoice, Worship, Praise. You can help me with the last one.

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