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Saturday, December 18, 2010

We are all one....



Below I quote one of the most truthful passages I have ever read.
The fact that animals are voiceless is a relief to us, it frees us from feeling much empathy or sorrow. If animals did have voices, if they could speak with the tongues of angels - at the very least with the tongues of angels - it is unlikely that they could save themselves from mankind. Their mysterious otherness has not saved them, nor have their beautiful songs and coats and skins and shells, nor have their strengths, their skills, their swiftness, the beauty of their flights. We discover the remarkable intelligence of the whale, the wolf, the elephant-it does not save them, nor does our awareness of the complexity of their lives. It matters not, it seems, whether they nurse their young or brood patiently on eggs. If they eat meat, we decry their viciousness; if they eat grasses and seeds, we dismiss them as weak. We know that they care for their young and teach them, that they play and grieve, that they have memories and a sense of the future for which they sometimes plan. We know about their habits, their migrations, that they have a sense of home, of finding, seeking, returning to home. We know that when they face death, they fear it. We know all these things and it has not saved them from us. Anything that is animal, that is not us, can be slaughtered as a pest or sucked dry as a memento or reduced to a trophy or eaten, eaten, eaten.

Joy Williams, The Inhumanity of the Animal People
Change begins with you, if you are not now vegan, begin your journey.

6 comments:

dirtyduck said...

im copying and pasting this to a friend, its so sad and true.

Murph's mom said...

If it were possible that all of mankind could be sitting in a room together after having read this we would hear only the clock on the wall. Mankind can do better.

veganelder said...

Thanks for commenting Murph's mom. I hope so.

veganelder said...

Thanks for commenting dirtyduck, thanks for spreading the word.

So I'm Thinking Of Going Vegan said...

Great passage by Joy. I'll be copying and pasting as well.

veganelder said...

Thanks for commenting SITOGV....copy and paste away.