Headline Aug26,2012 / "TOWARD A ZOMBIE-FREE WORLD!"

"TOWARD A ZOMBIE-FREE WORLD!"

A glorious moment as I thank the President of Philippines, - this Great Nation, and my Student Heroes! Some decades ago, Venacia Ramos, Capital Placement Inc, Elmer - my driver friend from Mandarin Hotel, daily witnessed this heroic nation get rid of that 'Tormented Crook' Marcos.

Despite every warning from the Hotel and the Authorities to me, to stay clear, I did not. Never could I imagine, that the distant future would cascade even greater tiding! Thank you, for the Honour! But please, step out now, and help build World Class Honour for all Students the world over!! So that from the promising buds, fine flowers may blossom!

To give it to you straight: there is no good staying through a Pig Farm for 15 odd years and then saying "Really I was meant to be a ballet dancer!" By then, "Pigs will be your style!?" So if you've ever wondered whether an eight-by-eight office or worse, a cubicle - is the finest place to spend the bulk of your time on earth, then you ought to track down Mike Marriner, Nathan Gebhard,and Brian McAllister, because they would like to have a word with you! Their group, Roadtrip Nation, set to prove that making a living does not have to mean forfeiting your life.

"We were the oldest twenty-three-year-olds in the world," Marriner says, recalling the day when the three long-time friends with degrees from Pepperdine realized they were about to embark on careers they totally 'detested.' Marriner graduated pre-med, Gebhard was headed to Arthur Andersen, and  McAllister planned to join the family business: a Burbank landfill. "I don't know if you want to call it an epiphany or what," Marriner recalls, "but we thought, maybe we just need to get out of here for a while." And so they did.

Maxing out a fistful of credit-cards, they bought a decrepit thirty one foot RV with a tendency to belch fire, painted it lime green, and hit the road. Their purpose?? To meet poeple who'd created interestng lives apart from the mainstream, doing what they loved. "We wanted to know, how did they escape?" McAllister says. Charting a seventeen thousand mile, three month odyssey across the country, the RV dropped in on eighty-two self-made individuals, from Film-maker Errol Morris to Sandra Day O'Connor, to a mechanic named Doc. They filmed the interviews for an eventual documentary. Along the way it stopped at the Universities and recruited students to come along. RTN struck a chord : it wasn't unusual for "frustrated students to burst into tears when they heard about the Group's mission!"

Today, there are more than 15 green RVs criss-crossing North America, helmed by teams of students; a PBS series produced from RTN's new HQ in Newport Beach, California, a series of books and documentaries, and a website and blogging hub. And somewhat ironically, considering that one of the group's tenets is Benjamin Franklin's idea that 'all education' is self-education, colleges have embraced them. Along with promoting lectures and documentaries, career centers on a hundred campuses recruit students for the road trips. What started a simple curiosity has become a full-on grassroots movements with a stunningly resonant message. The World doesn't need more Zombies! All pay heed!

With many thanks to !WOW!

Good night and God bless.

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless