Hi Blanche! Thank you for the information. I'll try to read through everything more thoroughly tonight and tomorrow to better understand where you're coming from.
Oh boy, concerning the Seattle center... I frequently went there as a kid and it was pretty nice. I think it was 3 or 4 stories with lots of space but I only ever went up to the 2nd or 3rd floor when we were prepping for a performance (IYE). I moved, and just moved back into the area after x amount of years and I thought you guys were joking when you said they sold the center (lol joke's on me).
I'm not sure if they ever gave an explanation as to why they sold it (haven't asked around), but here's what I know. Apparently about 2 years ago (give or take) they sold the building so now it's occupied by some sort of school, however SGI admin offices are still on the top floor. What I've heard from members around here is that the region team is looking for a better place because when they chose the location of the old center, *supposedly* they were only thinking of a good location for leaders to easily get to from the SeaTac airport. I remember parking was pretty shit when we had big meetings so I can understand wanting to move, but what I don't get is why they just up and sold it without a place already picked to move to.
For comparison, the place I lived before I moved back up to the PNW just moved into a new center a few months before I moved. They delayed relocation a few times because they were really taking their time with the remodel, and the end product was a really nice modern building with multiple gohonzon rooms and plenty of seating and parking for every member. Plus all new sound system, projector, screen, giant butsudan, etc. I don't know what the fuck they're doing in Seattle lol.
Like I came back and Seattle is kinda a mess, not gonna lie. I went to a Tacoma meeting (neighboring region) and they were so much more organized and energetic. For reference, Tacoma also got a new center maybe 3? 4? years ago and they're doing fine. In the past month and a half that I've been going to meetings in my new chapter, New Years gongyo was at a hotel and other region meetings have been at a city community center. Get this - chapter kickoff and some study meetings have been at libraries where we can't do gongyo lol.
Since there's no center right now there's no gajokai, and I've only seen byakuren in their uniforms at meetings. I'm not sure why there's one and not the other, but my guess is that there's just no retention of YMD here. Tacoma has a ton because there's a YMD leader who's actually compassionate and cares about how the guys are doing, but it's like the Seattle area has a handful who come out and no YMD actually stepping up to organize gajokai or YMD toso or study meetings.
Sorry about my long rant about the planning and organization here but it's a huge issue and almost all the members are either irritated or pissed off about it. Like all the meetings have been at 1PM because that's the timeslot at the rented venues and everyone's pissed about it because it chops out a huge portion of the day to get things done. I've only gone through this for almost 2 months. Imagine 2 years. Total fucking bullshit and the leaders know it.
Last thing I heard about the new center was that they found a place and have to redo a bunch of licenses and authorizations because they're able to get more space than they thought they originally would and need to apply for the extra, plus they have to fill out some stuff to be allowed to do religious activities there since the space originally wasn't intended for it. Not sure if the paperwork end of this is abnormal or just a Seattle legislation thing.
NOW about President Ikeda. Basically nobody ever says anything about him not being in recent videos or pictures lmao. I didn't even notice until I saw a lot of you posting about it to be honest. The monthly videos are of the headquarters leaders meetings in Japan, as usual, and it's mainly district and chapter leaders sharing their experiences. Then there's a short maybe 5-7 minute clip of President Ikeda's old lecture (could be about anything, it varies but is always a clip of a past hq meeting) and it ends with a message from Vice (uh i think he's vice?) President Harada. Standard video. If we don't watch a hq video then it's usually an old short video about President Ikeda's dialogue.
Nobody has mentioned President Ikeda's health, appearance, age, etc. lately in my area - not sure about anywhere else. Honestly I don't think he's dead like some of you have theorized. I think he's just old and tired and can't get out much. I could be wrong but that's just my opinion, and in my opinion alone I think that SGI doesn't have such malicious intent that they would lie about something like that. Like I don't understand what they would get out of lying about his health.
I think I was going to update about something else I remembered when I started typing this out but I already forgot lol. Let me know if you have a question about anything else.