Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Two hats in the world: Pussyhat vs. MAGA

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Two hats in the world: Pussyhat vs. MAGA

Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; PussyhatProject.com; Wiki

Ears matter. Pussyhat Project for Women's March causes run on pink yarn (SFgate.com)

There are two hats you can wear in the world, Red Hats or Yellow Hats. But that's in Buddhist Tibet up in the Himalayas (see below). Coming down from those heights, we're in a tiny part of America (a big continent) in a country that rules the world or in any case thinks that it does. And here it's MAGA ("Make America Great Again" baseball cap) against Pussyhat (pink knitted beanie). Choose your side. We all want a great America, but we don't need to dress like a trucker to say so. We want a pink, pussy-friendly country.

They should be illegal. Because I said so. I bigly don't like 'em. Makes me want to grab 'em.

PUSSYHAT PROJECT We did it! We created a sea of pink. Women's March on Washington D.C. and over 600 sister solidarity marches took place January 21st, 2017 (pussyhatproject.com).

Pussyhat locations (this Ally offers a #Pussyhat related discount... This Ally will allow knitters to drop off their #pussyhats during business hours...)

Those hat are stupid. These hats are best.

Our Story (Pussyhat Project was co-founded by Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman. Krista is a...Kat Coyle designed the Pussy Power Hat pattern. Kat owns The Little Knittery...

The creators of the Pussyhat Project explain how craft projects... (fastcompany.com) Born from this protest was the Pussyhat Project, a movement with...a bit of a rock star in the knitting community, designed the simple pattern...

United we knit, divided we split: let's make pink pussyhats together. Take that, Trump.

Finally, the pendulum is swinging from fake "liberals" under Obama to real progressives.

Knitters are furiously making pink "Pussyhats" for the looming marches... (dcist.com)
With "Pussyhats" at Women's Marches, headwear sends a defiant... (NPR.org)
Choose COMEDY (Glendale Laughs Comedy Festival)

National Split by Hats: Tibet

Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Yellow Hat sect or Gelugpa school, on the altar in his birthplace temple, Kumbum Monastery, near Xining, Qinghai (Amdo), China (Mario Biondi/wiki).

Emergence as the Dominant School

The 14th Dalai Lama is a Yellow Hat ruler.

By the end of the 16th century, following violent strife among the sects of Tibetan Buddhism, the Yellow Hats or Gelug school emerged as the dominant one over the Red Hats.

According to Tibetan historian Samten Karmay, Sonam Chophel (1595-1657), treasurer of Ganden Palace, was the prime architect of the Gelug's rise to political power.

True colors - sea of pink, Women's March

Later he received the title Desi, meaning "Regent" [person left in power who awaits the return of the king], which he would earn through his efforts to establish Gelugpa power.

From the period of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Dalai Lamas held political control over central Tibet. The core leadership of this government was also referred to as the Ganden Phodrang.

14th Dalai Lama, CIA op.

Scottish Botanist George Forrest, who witnessed the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion led by the Gelug lamas, wrote that the majority of the people in the Mekong valley in Yunnan were Tibetan.

According to his accounts, the Gelugpas were the dominant power in the region, with their lamas effectively governing the area. Forrest said they used "force and fraud" to "terrorise the...peasantry" [giving some credence to China's modern propaganda campaign that it helped average Tibetans by "liberating" them from serfdom under Vatican-style overlords in the Vajrayana Sangha, with the Dalai Lama ("Pope-King") emerging as a kind of authoritarian Trump figure]. More