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THERESA
MARIE GANDHI
HerStory
Theresa Marie
Gandhi - New York City, 1989
Photo
Highlights
| HerStory
Biography
"Knowing
I had a mission, in 1970 with my children in grade school, I
started my five years of college seeking to qualify, clarify and
prepare myself. My goal is to Activate Service, Education and
Peace Making for Our Common Future. My stories are about the
serendipitous trail and trials I followed. That still small
voice guided me as I continued to step outside of my comfort
zone." Theresa
Marie Gandhi is among the twentieth century’s most influential activists for environmental, social and economic justice.
Through her poetry, Theresa explores how, specifically to
achieve inner and world peace. Her poems are designed to inspire
and and awaken us with a deeper understanding of the truth
behind the "censored" news, and how we can each
contribute "to be the change we seek to make." Based
on an immeasurable volume of research, as well as her personal
life experiences, Theresa's body of work as a writer spans four decades and
includes more than seven volumes of poetry, and includes more than
five manuscripts on social justice issues. Photo
Highlights
NBC TV
Interview of Theresa Gandhi
Washington D.C. - 1981
Theresa
was interviewed by NBC regarding "The Answer"
computer software in Washington D.C. at the National
Religious Broadcasters Convention.
The
video interview with Theresa aired on an NBC's "Online NewsHour Forum: The Odyssey" program
segment.
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Theresa
Gandhi and President Reagan
In the Oval Office - September 1988
Washington, D.C.
Theresa
met with President Reagan for approval of the National Day
of Recognition for Mahatma Gandhi, to be celebrated on
October 2, 1988.
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Shirley
Temple Black and Theresa
San Francisco, CA -
October 2, 1988
Theresa
M. Gandhi was accompanied by Shirley Temple
Black, at the unveiling of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi erected at the Sausalito
Ferry Port Terminal. Later that evening Theresa escorted
Black to an awards presentation at the Fairmont Hotel, where
Black was presented with a GMIF
Humanitarian
award. During girl-talk that evening, Shirley revealed she
was drawn to her husband, Mr. Black, because he saw her as a
woman... and had never seen any of her childhood movies.
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Unveiling
of Mahatma Gandhi Statue
San Francisco, CA -
October 2, 1988
Theresa
Gandhi, as Director of Special Projects for Gandhi
Memorial International Foundation (GMIF), adorns the
statue of Mahatma Gandhi with a lei of flowers at the San
Francisco unveiling in honor of the anniversary of his day
of birth: October 2, 1869.
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Feading
the Homeless
San Francisco, CA -
October 2, 1988
In
conjunction with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday celebration,
Theresa Gandhi also coordinated an event to feed the
homeless a hot Indian meal under tents erected in front of City
Hall, in San Francisco, CA. |
1989
Bush Inaugural Ball
Washington D.C.
Yogesh and Theresa Gandhi, Laura Birch, and Jitu Soyma
An
evening among the "rich and famous" at George W.
Bush, Sr.'s Texas inaugural celebration, January 20, 1989.
Soyma and Birch were befactors of the Gandhi
Memorial International Foundation (GMIF).
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Lori
Oneal, Bill Walker, and Therea Gandhi
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Green Party Exhibit - August 2002
Island County Fair, Whidbey Island, WA [LEFT]
The
Green Party's "Ecological Wisdom" led the way for
efforts to stop water poisoning in Puget Sound, resulting
from the run-off of roadside spray of toxic herbicides in
Island County.
The Puget Sound ecosystem is a critical and
ongoing focus for Theresa's attention. The Hood Canal became
a massive Dead Zone with dead marine life extending two feet
deep, during the Summer of 2006.
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HerStory
Biography
A life long search for the Presence of God and service to my community started in the 1960s. Got Washington State to sell to the community for a center and co-operative preschool for $1.00, the building eventually became an alternative high school for drop outs and challenging teenagers.
In the 1970s at the University of Washington I was elected to serve on the Women’s Studies Advisory Committee. We acted cooperatively to run the program, forming sub-committees for the different parts with the ½ director having no vote unless there was a tie. I chaired the faculty and course proposal subcommittee, reviewing and interviewing with five others those who wanted to teach within the program, making recommendation to the Advisory Committee where a decision was voted on.
For facilitating communication between housewives and Trotskyite Radical Women, faculty, staff and students was honored at Matrix Table as an outstanding communicator.
I was elected to represent the student body of the U of W on the Human Rights Committee explaining to the Chancellor and Governing Board of the University that Title IX, equal access in sports for women students, was law and had to be implemented.
I earned 3.88 GPA overall and 4.0 GPA one quarter making the Deans List.
I was inducted into Mortar Board, an honor society with requirements in Scholarship, Leadership and Service.
In 1976, at age 30, I transferred to The Evergreen State College to take part of a year long program called; The Shape of Things to Come, where I acted as elder student advisor to others in the program seeking Spiritual Enlightenment.
In 1978 I, with my new husband Stuart, moved our Formica and custom cabinet business to Port Townsend. I went to work for Save the Resources and fought the placement of the Northern Tier oil pipeline under the entrance to Puget Sound by preparing “An Economic Bibliography of the Marine Resources”. A meeting with Michael Moore of
Greenpeace, British Columbia said their success had come when they based their arguments on economic terms as saving the environment held no coin with the current decision makers unless there was a bottom line explained.
At the same time I got active politically to defeat Governor Dixie Ray, former head of the Atomic Energy Commission, who planned to approve the oil pipeline even though it was guaranteed to leak. It was the first time a Democratic incumbent Governor was defeated in a primary.
All my life I’ve had visions of a tidal wave in Puget Sound with the sound emptying and I could see the sea life that in the 1950s I had no idea what it looked like, then knowing it was coming back and running up the hill to get away. I started having the dream again. I signed up to be trained as an Emergency Preparedness Officer for the state and looked at Jefferson County’s Plan. (They didn’t have one. And no tidal wave evacuation plan for Puget Sound. The state folks asked my sister if I was crazy.) The County Sheriff told me that no body from Kitsap County would get into Jefferson because he would blow up the bridges first. My family lives in Kitsap County and the state plan was have them come to Jefferson County and each person would have to house three people.
I went before County Commissioners, wrote letters to the editor suggesting the Sheriff be impeached as he was in violation of the law not having a plan on file. Turned out the Sheriff’s mother was the Democratic Chairman and when I ran to be a delegate to the state convention she wasn’t helpful, but I went anyway as an elected representative.
Governor Ray came to town and I got the President of the local bank to invite me to the gig. There I presented her with a 23 page briefing packet and a list of things that would happen if a natural disaster hit. The next morning when Mt St. Helens blew everything on my list happened. A lot of the recommendations are yet to be implemented. The folks who wondered if I was crazy talking about tidal waves are now working on a plan to evacuate Puget Sound. That sign at the top of the road where you lived is a part of that.
In January of election year I knew that President Jimmy Carter would lose. I refused to be a prophet of doom and refused to acknowledge it or contribute to it by speaking it. When I failed by one vote to be a national delegate to the Democratic Convention in August, Stuart and I got our pink and crème 1955 Nash Rambler ready to carry us to Washington D.C. and we left Washington state. After two years on the east coast and four years of marriage my second marriage ended. (The one between 1 and 2 was annulled from James Hadley just before I married Stuart
Habley.) Battered by Hadley, Habley healed me.
I volunteered at Democratic National Headquarters along with going to the Hill with my briefing packet and résumé to get a job in the US Senate. The power in the Senate you can cut with a knife it is so thick and all pervasive. I was a hostess for the First Lady at an event and met Mrs. Carter.
I photographed 4,000 women marching silently through Arlington Cemetery and surrounding the Pentagon, holding hands and doing an aaaaauuuuummmmmm for forty minutes as we wove the doors shut.
After all the Democrats lost with the Iran hostage deal brokered by
H.W. Bush there was no way I could get work in D.C. A friend offered Stuart and me a free apartment in Manhattan. I met a group of people from a connection I’d made in D.C. and was referred to work for a man who died and left me with a loft in Soho and a rent controlled apartment on the Upper East Side. This provided me with an office, an IBM teletype machine and $1200 a month for one day a week’s work plus a studio apartment for $200.00. Also from this group I was introduced to my future business partner in the Mind Computer Institute who had written software for a Radio Shack TSR64 that enable one to dialogue directly with God and get an answer back. Eventually we opened an office in Greenwich Village where I facilitated over 5,000 people achieving access to dialogue with what ever aspect of being they wanted and to get a print out of the exchange. It worked for whatever God one wanted although the fundamentalist Christians had a bit of a challenge with it. We took the “Infinity Project” with the “Spirit” program to a convention of religious broadcasters in D.C. at the Sheraton. That story is a hoot. I was filmed by NBC-TV’s Odyssey program in New York. The Producer had met me when I was working to get Ben Crème on TV with Phil Donahue, Merv Griffin, etc. telling that the Christ was back and could show up at any time and change economics, education, etc.
I bartered time on the computer with a bunch of people. One of them, Michael, did a weekend workshop where I wrote out a movie script of my life. In it I met an ideal mate and we would travel across the county and world bring peace to the planet. I shared it at the Goddess Parties in Studio City and after I met, married and Marched across the country in 1984 with Gandhi, they were impressed.
In late 1984 in New York my dear friend and former partner in the Mind Computer Institute with “The Answer” program suggested that if I would show up at Profit Technology I would most likely get a job as Orest had decided to develop “The Answer” program into a five disk, 3 volume Creativity and Problem Solving system for the corporate world called “Breakthrough!” As Yogesh and I had no income at the end of the Salt March it seemed like a good idea. I was hired as a Vice President, Special Projects and oversaw the move to the 39th floor at 39 Broadway, original “White House” site before D.C. became the capital. My $2,000.00 desk overlooked the New York harbor and directly at the Statue of Liberty.
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