I feel joy, just like you.
I feel pain, just like you.
I feel love, just like you.
I feel fear, just like you.
I play, just like you.
I have friends, just like you.
I feel sorrow, just like you.
I love my life, just like you.
I am a cow.
I am a chicken.
I am a pig.
I am somebody.
(the video contains no graphic images)
Causing those who have done you no harm to suffer and die is wrong. Their lives belong to them, not to you. Begin to live a live free of causing others to suffer...of causing others to die. Please begin your journey toward living as an ethical vegan and do your part to rid our world of unnecessary suffering and death.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I do wonder what a non-vegan feels inside when/if they watch a video like this. They'd have to feel something. Guilt, shame...at the very least uncomfortable. But I wonder if they feel compassion. I wonder if they feel sorrow and sympathy. If they "get it". I don't think they really get it about us ALL being someone.
Thanks for commenting Krissa. Good question, I don't know the answer. Back when I was freshly awake to ethical veganism I was astonished that anyone could watch even a minute of Meet Your Meat and not immediately go vegan (to tell you the truth it still astonishes me). I learned that people can watch every second of that horror show and immediately go out and order KFC.
I irritated the hell out of some of my friends by pressing them about their reasoning (or lack of it) and usually the exchange ended by them contradicting themselves, lapsing into silence and getting quietly (or not so quietly) pissed at me. If you haven't conducted your own foray into probing people about their thinking...go do so...just be sure to make sure you have easy access to some exit. :-)
Easy access to an exit is good advice in any situation. Made me laugh. Krissa's question and your answer VE reminded me of an incident on Oprah's Vegan Challenge 2 days ago. One of her staff who participated in the week long vegan challenge was chatting with Kathy Freston back stage. Kathy commented that people sometimes become very angry with her as she guides them through the first steps of becoming a vegan, that they admit that they want to hit her. The staffer immediately said that is what she wanted to do - she said, "I wanted to hit you in the face!" Kathy told her it is because she is addicted to fast food (the staffer nodded her head in agreement) and taking that away from her is going to create anger, just like taking away drugs from an addict would. The exchange was interesting. Oh, and another speaker commented during the program that I thought was interesting was that if and when someone embraces the vegan life to be prepared for anger from others who aren't, that you are insulting their mothers. Maybe so. But if my mom were alive today I know she would take no offense. I am positive she would go vegan too.
"Compassion begets compassion" ~ Unknown
I think that about sums it up.
Thank you for commenting Patty...let the "begeting" begin!
Thank you for commenting Murph's mom. Great anecdote about Kathy Freston...thanks for sharing...and good for your Mom!
Great video! I too often wonder what someone who's unfamiliar with animal interests think when they watch films like this. Or when they are exposed to any of the (horrible) truths about animal "use".
I always remember the way Tom Regan described it in Empty Cages. That there are basically three types of people who eventually "get" animal rights:
The majority of people are muddlers. "Muddlers," people who slowly put the pieces together, muddling on the path to AR and veganism, and one day they look in the mirror and see an Animal Rights Activist.
The second are the "Damascans," after the story of Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul had an epiphany, a life changing experience and he became Paul, a convert to Christianity. This is the way it happens to some Animal Advocates, a sudden life changing experience.
And there are some who people are just born with an empathy for animals, this is the category he names "Da Vincians," after Leonardo, the vegetarian activist who had compassion for animals all his life.
I believe this is true except that many of us would have been "Da Vincians" had we had truthful information about animal issues. I think this is why things come as such a "shock" to "Damascans" because most of us were deceived or hoodwinked into thinking we WERE acting kindly. When it was very far from reality.
I also think that we are all born Da Vincians. It is only culture and social indoctrinations that change us into less compassionate, and often "cruel" people.
I know... I'm always whittling on this same stick. Always griping about being tricked into the betrayal of the innocent. I'm sure that's another reason why it's so urgent for me to help others not to fall in that same pit... I try, but most don't listen. :(
Thanks everyone here for doing so.
Post a Comment