MikeD: Beastie Boy
Registered: 03-25-01
Posts: 1
Thanks everybody for your awareness and commentary on some X-Large brand items being manufactured in China. I am forwarding on your various posts along with a note of my own to the peoples at X-Large and will follow up from there. This being said, there are a few things that I think I need to say, or things that should be clarified. One, though Milarepa no longer supports or mandates a boycott of goods made in China, I think it is of the utmost importance that we all exercise real awareness, thinking and compassion when it comes to buying goods made in China. Of course it should not stop there, we should be equally aware of looking at labels and thinking about the conditions that all kinds of things that we buy are made under. Bottom line: will we be bringing ourselves more happiness by buying these items that are possibly creating suffering for others? Of course, as we are all in the midst of such a consumer interactive economy, we cannot be 100% pure in this. I am right now typing on a computer keyboard that is made in China and wonder if the same is true for most of you who are making posts. Just lift it up and look. Yet it is necessary for me to have a keyboard as it is for all of you. So I guess the idea I am trying to get across is: If we can't be 100% pure, how can we cause the least harm possible? Judging others does not help ourselves, nor does it help those being judged, and it certainly does not bring any happiness to anyone. However, bringing an awareness to something like this (X-Large using some Chinese made goods) can help bring about change. If it weren't for your posts, I truthfully would not have known, as A) I am not involved on a day to day basis with X-Large at all. Truthfully, I am just a shareholder and swing by to grab some clothes every once in a while. At one time X-Large was just a store started by some friends in the neighborhood where I live in Los Angeles (before moving back to New York). Back then I would be around more often, visiting my friends hanging out at the store, but that was a while ago. B) Back when Milarepa was involved in boycotting goods made in China after the first Tibetan Freedom Concert, X-Large was in compliance. I do not know why this has changed. But I can find out. One post that I feel compelled to answer directly, maybe ultimately only to foolishly involve my own ego is the one from someone comparing my participation in X- Large to that of the Kathy Lee/K-Mart non sense. I do not know, nor do I want to know what Kathy Lee had going on with her peeps @ K-Mart, but I believe it was her name and her image, etc., being used on and attached to a line of clothing that K-Mart was manufacturing and distributing. In return, I would guess that she was receiving cash $ compensation, likely in the form of a royalty. To compare this to my involvement with X-Large is a very poor analogy at least, and possibly even venomous and misleading to be more extreme. My face, my name, my band's name and my image are not on X-Large clothes, not on hang tags, not in advertising, nowhere. I do not approve or see what the designs are, or how they are manufactured or sold. This in no way excuses me from being responsible for my actions, but let's be clear about what these actions are. Again, as an investor it falls on me now to check into things, but this Kathy Lee analogy is some bull shit, straight up. In summation, Damn, I am sorry this got so long. My bad. Anyway, let's all just try to be as aware as possible in our actions in the form being consumers, or for that matter being shareholders in any given company. Again it's about causing the least amount of suffering. As a vegetarian, I don't believe in eating and killing animals, because I don't believe that will bring me or any other being any lasting happiness, but only suffering. However, I still own a pair of suede desert boots that I've had for a few years and that I wear a bit, and they are made from the skin of a cow that has been slaughtered. I bring this tangent up, because it is on me that I still wear this pair of shoes, but also, I do so with awareness that I will try to do my best in causing less suffering in the future. I try not to judge others who may eat meat or wear leather, but instead try to refine my own behaviors and encourage others to do the same when it feels appropriate. Damn, I've gone on even longer now. Enough, enough. thanks again party peoples. May we all truly live and learn. Peace.
-Mike D posted 03-26-01 11:03 AM