Spirit Magazine - May 2014 - (Page 82)

'woo-woo,'" he says. But after some coaxing, he continues. The whale swam alongside him for three or four hours. And for reasons Scott can't explain, it made him feel loved in a way he never had before. It turned up an eye, regarding him, and Scott felt as if it conveyed a message: You belong among the living. He turned the boat around and sailed back to California. Within two weeks, he was in San Francisco, at a Joan Baez concert. She sang for a Chilean folk singer, Victor Jara, who had been tortured to death under the dictator Pinochet. At the end of the concert, Baez solicited volunteers for Amnesty International. Soon after, Scott volunteered at the Amnesty office in San Francisco and quickly got involved in the group's Urgent Action Network. This watchdog operation attempts to stop torture around the world by gathering real-time information on dissidents and political prisoners. The network then floods government officials in those countries with faxes, telegrams, phone calls, and letters. "The purpose," Scott says, "was to inform those officials, often from small towns and villages, that thousands of us from around the world knew what they were planning." A petite, raven-haired woman named Ellen Moore was also working there, and the two of WHITTLE BIRD As the years went by, the war veteran's carvings became more elaborate and masterful. 82 SPIRIT MAY 2014 them, along with six other Amnesty staff and volunteers, helped stop an estimated 10,000 cases of torture. Along the way Scott and Ellen fell in love, married, and had two children. IN 1982, Scott obtained one of the first portable computers on the market, which would allow him to work just about anywhere. He got his boss to let him move to Colorado and work out of his home. After months of searching the state for a location suitable not only for the volumes of Amnestyrelated mail, but also for his vision of a mountain meadow, he landed in Nederland. Back in California, just before they moved, he attended an art exhibit in Oakland featuring carousel animals. The vision of a carousel in a meadow had been playing in his head for years like a Chopin tune. A beautiful, 6-foot, carved rabbit particularly impressed him, and he sketched a full-scale profile of it. He wasn't entirely sure why. In Colorado, Scott and Ellen ran the Urgent Action Network, working with a crew of interns from the University of Colorado. Many of their attempts to stop the horrors were unsuccessful; even the successful cases were not the sort of stories you want to go to bed remembering. Still, between the years of 1975 and 2007, they helped

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Spirit Magazine - May 2014

Spirit Magazine - May 2014
Contents
Gary’s Greeting
Gary’s Greeting en Español
Star of the Month
Freedom Story
From the Editor
Your Words
Your Pictures
Media Center
Eat Drink Sleep
Beef up broccoli (the vegan way)
Bunk over in Kennebunkport
Encourage creativity in the workplace
Wise Guide
Strengthen your sense of humor
Numbers
Lengthen locks
Learn a minty-fresh fact
Business
Uncover indie e-books
Share with strangers
The Art of the Veer
The Carousel of Happiness
Your Adventure In Providence
Promotional Series: Spirit of California
Promotional Series: Spirit of New Mexico
Calendar
Find fun on the fly
Fun!
Spotlight
Community Outreach
Products & Services
Flight Service
Terminal Maps
Information
Rapid Rewards and A+ Rewards Partners
Route Map
Sit down with Sarah McLachlan
The “If” List

Spirit Magazine - May 2014