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The Summer of Star Wars at make-believe Presidio

By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Toronto, ON-- The summer of 2005 is destined to go down in history as The Summer of Star Wars. Star Wars Epic II: The Revenge of the Sith is attracting the schoolbag set like proverbial flies to honey. Not just in darkened, air-conditioned cooled theaters where out-of-school youngsters will follow anakin Skywalker's movie land adventures while munching on popcorn. Star Wars' creatures have literally come down from the big screen to become a perpetual part of real life. Real life, that is, in state of the art digital.

Star Wars is the world's most popular movie series of all time.

In the virtual world of fantasy, children don't contract cancer, have fathers out of work or live in abject poverty. In a digital world, the closest thing to a child molester is Darth Vader.

Star Wars creator George Lucas has sent his troops to San Francisco's Presidio, where the imaginary, politically correct creatures of the silver screen are replacing the real thing: living, breathing american soldiers.

GI Joes are offensive to Presidio tenants like former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who still works to have american bases like the one that he calls home, decommissioned.

Lucas creatures join the murky, hypocritical, we-have-a-monopoly-on-peace taxpayer-supported Neverland of the populous United Nations brethren. Lucasfilms can now boast a $350-million headquarters at the Presidio, and its 1,300 to 1,500 employees will be housed at the new complex come fall.

according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Lucas' company is "already on track to become what many say is the future of the entertainment industry: a fully converged operation, in which video games and movies are produced on parallel tracks with the same computer technology".

For his part, billionaire Lucas sees the Presidio as "a place that will encourage creativity in a new way."

already waiting for him at the Presidio is a tenant population who moved to the historic landmark fuelled by a self-styled mission "to build a unified, earth-friendly, global civilization based on `new' universal beliefs and values."

From all reports, Lucas shares this vision. In the LucasFilms popular children's' book, I am Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), tells us in his own words, "The Jedi are a very special group of beings. For many thousands of years, we have worked to promote peace and justice in the universe."

It's a politically correct message being sent out to schools, and it's one that is reinforced through video games and computers everywhere.

Words to ignite the imaginations of youngsters that could not have been better spoken by UN Secretary-General Kofi annan.

In the reality of time, the Presidio has been tied to the UN since 1988, when it became part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program.

The recent arrival of LucasFilms is a coup for Presidio tenants waiting to complete their mission and change the universe.

No group is more excited about the arrival of LucasFilm than the Presidio Interfaith Center. "George Lucas has made his interfaith sympathies clear," says a statement on the Interfaith Group's website.

"When a dysfunctional hospital complex was taken down, Mr. Lucas was there to bid to develop the land," explained the Interfaith Center. "There are now 900,000 square feet of beautiful new buildings, magnificently landscaped on 23 acres of the Presidio."

Members of the Interfaith Center, a non-profit organization, aren't doing too badly in their own digs at the Presidio's Main Post Chapel.

In March of 1996, the U.S. National Park Service invited the Interfaith Center group to officially take over the Presidio chapel for its own use after the departure of the Sixth army.

The Interfaith Center at the Presidio is a model for future United Religion projects.

The United Religion group was inspired when the UN asked Episcopal Bishop William Swing to host the 1995 celebration of its 50th anniversary founding at San Francisco's Grace Episcopal Cathedral. also present was Fr. Gerry O'Rourke, director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious affairs for the archdiocese of San Francisco.

although Fr. O'Rourke as traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe seeking support for the United Religion Initiative (URI), it does not enjoy support from the Vatican.

URI is a group that seeks the coming together of all religions in order to solve "global issues and problems".

URI claims that since 1996, over 1,000 people have participated in six regional conferences around the world. The cathedral in Chartes, France is the latest to join the movement. Its global headquarters and interfaith board of directors are located in San Francisco. Supporters have waited since 1996 for the release of a draft charter from the organization, and the draft is scheduled for release in June of 2005.

Darth Vader will be right at home with Mikhail Gorbachev, and the United Religions Initiative, and incredible as it may seem they all draw from the same "Force".

Tantalizing to locals are how the scores of environmentalists now at the Presidio have allowed, with no noticeable complaint, the displacement of wildlife during ongoing construction. Some of them insist that the Sixth army would have done better by the baby red foxes they have found killed.

as one local laments, "San Francisco's spectacular army base was built to defend america. It has become an open door to forces that would destroy our freedom, sovereignty and values."

Meanwhile, Jedi knights will roam the grounds of the Presidio at the George Lucas Digital Center.

In this sad chapter of the Presidio, there'll be no wolves or coyotes baying at the moon. Carnivores are real and there's no room for real in the make-believe world the Presidio has become.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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