In the well done movie Contagion , currently playing in theaters, we are given a look at a potentially deadly problem. The ending presents an obvious conclusion and solution. This conclusion and solution is apparently eluding reviewers and probably most audience members too.
It is serendipitous that I attended this movie right after the previous post. Once again in a movie we are presented with violence toward animals that is ignored and invisibled but in this movie we are given the clear and compelling information that killing and then handling the corpses of the murdered animals is inviting diseases to jump from the victims to the murderers. The whole movie is about the devastation waiting to happen when a viral organism present in another species mutates and begins making the rounds in the human species.
The movie clearly and openly shows this fact yet not a single review that I have read of the movie including ones in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Boston Globe or by multiple reviewers referenced at RottenTomatoes.com points out the obvious and that is converting to an ethical vegan lifestyle would preclude many if not almost all of such disease transmission.
It is estimated that around 60% of all human infectious diseases and around 75% of all emerging infectious diseases originate in other animals and then are passed directly to humans or mutate and acquire the ability to infect humans. For instance AIDS is believed to have originated in chimpanzees.
Want to reduce or eliminate disease transmission between species...leave the animals alone to live their lives...quit imprisoning them, quit killing them, quit cutting them up and eating them.
Live as an ethical vegan, a compellingly obvious conclusion once you see this movie but apparently nothing is too obvious for culturally induced blindness to make invisible and....based on my sampling of the movie reviews so far...not one sees the obvious.
Go see the movie, it is fairly well done even if mildly shallow and 1950ish feeling, and see if you are able to spot the obvious.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
The Pledge is a movie...
that I have watched several times. I have a tendency to review or reread (sometimes multiple times) books or movies that resonate with me. For instance, Thelma and Louise is a movie that stuns me each time I see it and I have watched it multiple times. Ridley Scott, the director of Thelma and Louise was one of the first to place a female human into the role of 'hero' of a movie way back in his scary as hell classic Alien. I remember thinking the first time I saw Alien that it was a phenomenal movie and went around hustling friends of mine to go see it. Starman is another movie that knocks me out each time I revisit it although the homage paid to human beings by the alien character played by Jeff Bridges at the end of the movie is a little syrupy and too not true...I wish the makers of the movie had been courageous enough to be more truthful and accurate.
The Pledge is a good movie that is well made and acted with a number of talented folks in it including Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Shepard and others. Directed by Sean Penn, the movie is about a retired policeman's focus and near obsession on the identification and pursuit and capture of a human that is killing small blond female human children.
This movie is not, by the way, one of the movies I place in a special category I have (Thelma and Louise for instance). This category for books or movies is made up of those that I can return to repeatedly and each time extract something new or can be reminded of some enduring near or actual universal about life or living or nature or something. Either that or they are comedies that extract humor in some way that is timeless to me. Many of Laurel and Hardy's short comedies are in this latter group. The Pledge doesn't quite make it to this classic category although it is a fairly good movie.
I say each time I can extract something new or be reminded of a truthful thing, this might occur because I notice or understand something that had eluded me before or...something new might be apprehended or understood because I have changed since the last time I read or saw this particular work. Of course something like this can happen with any book or movie or artwork or music that is experienced more than once, but some creations are much more pleasant or interesting or thought or feeling provoking when indulged in repeatedly than others.
What was so powerfully apparent to me as I rewatched The Pledge was how much my perceptions had changed since I last saw this movie. Shortly after the beginning is a scene that almost short-circuited my mind as I watched. In it we see Nicholson looking grim after having notified parents that their young child has been murdered, we also see the parents collapsing in grief and anguish. What is absolutely amazing and astonishing in this terrible scene are the thousands of babies surrounding the human characters.
The distraught parents are turkey 'farmers' and they were in a turkey 'barn' when notified of their daughter's death by Nicholson's character. These are people who "make a living" by taking baby turkeys away from their parents and imprisoning them in conditions akin to a concentration camp and once the babies reach a given age they then have these babies killed. And they are anguished, destroyed, grief-stricken by the fact that their baby was killed.
This scene, to me, exemplifies the profound schizoid, psychotic like, ignoring and dismissing of elements of reality that characterizes aspects of our culture involving other animals. The horrors these human animal parents engage in as a matter of routine are ignored...not mentioned...not even a whisper and the whole focus is on the anguish and grief and discomfort of the human animals in the scene. The thousands of babies, terrified and lost and facing a certain horrible death instigated by these wounded human parents, serve as nothing but an ignored and dismissed noisy backdrop of feathered children crying in anguish for their parents. I simply was stunned as I watched thousands of victims, thousands of small feathered children...fearful and doomed...relegated to invisibility and the death of one child, one human child presented as if it were the only significant loss and tragedy while all around a multitude of small spirits wailed and asked that their existence and anguish be acknowledged and alleviated.
This ongoing invisibling of our animal sisters and brothers is ubiquitous, "normal" and omnipresent. I see and hear instances of it constantly, everyday and in everyway. From the ignored bodies of animals killed by automobiles laying unmourned and unacknowledged beside the roadway to the "humorous" representations of cows in commercials telling us to "eat more chickin". We are awash in this invisibling and diminishing of the importance of the lives of those beings that don't look or act or sound like human animals. We swim in it, we breath it and our animal relatives are being killed by the billions, their deaths facilitated by these incessant cultural sermons about the nothingness of the meaning of their lives.
I remember clearly the consternation and confusion and upset and ridicule that accompanied the protestations and objections to racist portrayals of humans that weren't white Europeans. I remember clearly the same sorts of consternations, confusions, upsets and ridiculing that were evoked by protestations and objections to sexist portrayals of humans that weren't male. This still occurs, the battle goes on...objections continue to be raised....ridiculing and dismissals still happen. No cultural wars are won completely and often need to be fought over and over...ignorance and oppression and exploitation and reality avoidance are mighty foes and they never give up and they never go away. They have to be challenged and resisted again and again...anywhere they occur.
I would like to think that the director of this movie and the author of the novella on which it was based were aware of the irony in the scene depicted, that they were making an astute and subtle observation about the narrowness and limitations of our compassions and awarenesses. Whether they were or not, scenes like these must be noticed, commented on and discussed. The herculean task of facilitating awareness of and care for the lives of all beings requires that this happen...but for it to happen common cultural presentations must be clearly recognized for what they are and consciously acknowledged and challenged.
It is incumbent upon all to be willing to be thought of as a crank, as peculiar, as silly, as 'too sensitive', as 'dumb', as whatever...for objecting...but I think that we must again and again object to and challenge cultural messages that minimize, hide, ignore or glorify the infliction of suffering and death on my brother and sister animals...no matter what those messages are, no matter how silly it might seem to be to protest...protest we must. Again and again and again. The messages of ignoring and of invisibling are multiple and incessant and the objections to the billions of hidden and not so hidden tragedies must also be incessant.
If you aren't living as an ethical vegan...why not?. If you are living as an ethical vegan...time to think about how you are going to expand to others the awareness and compassion you have achieved and after deciding how you want to act...then act. Our sister and brother animals need us and they have been without acknowledgement and recognition and consideration for way too long.
As a for instance, I recently discovered that our local city council keeps track of letters to the editor published in our local newspaper about topics the council is interested in. Writing to your local newspaper is an avenue available to most all and using that venue to promote a change in cultural concepts can help in consciousness raising. Every voice is important, every single one...including yours. Recently I managed (astonishingly enough!) to get a letter published locally pointing out the cruelty of 'dairy' and of the hideous ways cows and their babies are treated. We need to make heard the voices decrying injury to or exploitation of sentient beings...the voices of misery and suffering and death have prevailed for way too long.
The Pledge is a good movie that is well made and acted with a number of talented folks in it including Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Shepard and others. Directed by Sean Penn, the movie is about a retired policeman's focus and near obsession on the identification and pursuit and capture of a human that is killing small blond female human children.
This movie is not, by the way, one of the movies I place in a special category I have (Thelma and Louise for instance). This category for books or movies is made up of those that I can return to repeatedly and each time extract something new or can be reminded of some enduring near or actual universal about life or living or nature or something. Either that or they are comedies that extract humor in some way that is timeless to me. Many of Laurel and Hardy's short comedies are in this latter group. The Pledge doesn't quite make it to this classic category although it is a fairly good movie.
I say each time I can extract something new or be reminded of a truthful thing, this might occur because I notice or understand something that had eluded me before or...something new might be apprehended or understood because I have changed since the last time I read or saw this particular work. Of course something like this can happen with any book or movie or artwork or music that is experienced more than once, but some creations are much more pleasant or interesting or thought or feeling provoking when indulged in repeatedly than others.
What was so powerfully apparent to me as I rewatched The Pledge was how much my perceptions had changed since I last saw this movie. Shortly after the beginning is a scene that almost short-circuited my mind as I watched. In it we see Nicholson looking grim after having notified parents that their young child has been murdered, we also see the parents collapsing in grief and anguish. What is absolutely amazing and astonishing in this terrible scene are the thousands of babies surrounding the human characters.
 |
| The background of the scene is populated by thousands of baby turkeys. |
This scene, to me, exemplifies the profound schizoid, psychotic like, ignoring and dismissing of elements of reality that characterizes aspects of our culture involving other animals. The horrors these human animal parents engage in as a matter of routine are ignored...not mentioned...not even a whisper and the whole focus is on the anguish and grief and discomfort of the human animals in the scene. The thousands of babies, terrified and lost and facing a certain horrible death instigated by these wounded human parents, serve as nothing but an ignored and dismissed noisy backdrop of feathered children crying in anguish for their parents. I simply was stunned as I watched thousands of victims, thousands of small feathered children...fearful and doomed...relegated to invisibility and the death of one child, one human child presented as if it were the only significant loss and tragedy while all around a multitude of small spirits wailed and asked that their existence and anguish be acknowledged and alleviated.
This ongoing invisibling of our animal sisters and brothers is ubiquitous, "normal" and omnipresent. I see and hear instances of it constantly, everyday and in everyway. From the ignored bodies of animals killed by automobiles laying unmourned and unacknowledged beside the roadway to the "humorous" representations of cows in commercials telling us to "eat more chickin". We are awash in this invisibling and diminishing of the importance of the lives of those beings that don't look or act or sound like human animals. We swim in it, we breath it and our animal relatives are being killed by the billions, their deaths facilitated by these incessant cultural sermons about the nothingness of the meaning of their lives.
I remember clearly the consternation and confusion and upset and ridicule that accompanied the protestations and objections to racist portrayals of humans that weren't white Europeans. I remember clearly the same sorts of consternations, confusions, upsets and ridiculing that were evoked by protestations and objections to sexist portrayals of humans that weren't male. This still occurs, the battle goes on...objections continue to be raised....ridiculing and dismissals still happen. No cultural wars are won completely and often need to be fought over and over...ignorance and oppression and exploitation and reality avoidance are mighty foes and they never give up and they never go away. They have to be challenged and resisted again and again...anywhere they occur.
I would like to think that the director of this movie and the author of the novella on which it was based were aware of the irony in the scene depicted, that they were making an astute and subtle observation about the narrowness and limitations of our compassions and awarenesses. Whether they were or not, scenes like these must be noticed, commented on and discussed. The herculean task of facilitating awareness of and care for the lives of all beings requires that this happen...but for it to happen common cultural presentations must be clearly recognized for what they are and consciously acknowledged and challenged.
It is incumbent upon all to be willing to be thought of as a crank, as peculiar, as silly, as 'too sensitive', as 'dumb', as whatever...for objecting...but I think that we must again and again object to and challenge cultural messages that minimize, hide, ignore or glorify the infliction of suffering and death on my brother and sister animals...no matter what those messages are, no matter how silly it might seem to be to protest...protest we must. Again and again and again. The messages of ignoring and of invisibling are multiple and incessant and the objections to the billions of hidden and not so hidden tragedies must also be incessant.
If you aren't living as an ethical vegan...why not?. If you are living as an ethical vegan...time to think about how you are going to expand to others the awareness and compassion you have achieved and after deciding how you want to act...then act. Our sister and brother animals need us and they have been without acknowledgement and recognition and consideration for way too long.
As a for instance, I recently discovered that our local city council keeps track of letters to the editor published in our local newspaper about topics the council is interested in. Writing to your local newspaper is an avenue available to most all and using that venue to promote a change in cultural concepts can help in consciousness raising. Every voice is important, every single one...including yours. Recently I managed (astonishingly enough!) to get a letter published locally pointing out the cruelty of 'dairy' and of the hideous ways cows and their babies are treated. We need to make heard the voices decrying injury to or exploitation of sentient beings...the voices of misery and suffering and death have prevailed for way too long.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Quinn (the Mighty)...
is a major cutie. His fur coat is grey with some brownish highlights and sort of fluffy so that he looks a little scruffy even when he isn't. Quinn's name was inspired by the Manfred Mann song "Quinn the Eskimo" which was written by the genius Bob Dylan.
Quinn came to Heartland Rabbit Rescue back in August as a result of a call from a local municipal shelter. It seems that Quinn's time had run out and he was at risk of execution because no human family wanted him. The Heartland Director squeezed and squoshed and managed to find a place for Quinn even though Heartland is way over capacity.
He was picked up running the streets and we don't know how or why...no one claimed him at the municipal facility and a kind, caring worker there gave Heartland a call and made a plea for him. His is just a baby, maybe a couple of months old.
At first he didn't much want anything to do with humans, but has now figured out that human animals can act pretty decently and he is becoming one of those rare bunnies that endures being carried around, even seeming to actually enjoy it. His personality is maybe 5 or 6 times larger than his physical being (he's a fairly small guy, only a couple of pounds right now) with energy to burn.
At the time of this writing he is having to stay inside his enclosure for a few days because his recent surgery (neutering). Once recovery is far enough along, he'll be going everywhere again with all the life and joy anyone could wish for. Quinn is a real treat to be around, one of those folks that makes you smile when you see him. It is astonishing how much niftiness mother nature can pack into a small package.
I'm writing about Quinn because he is a pleasure worth sharing and because Quinn represents all the many millions of "domesticated" Earthlings that are without a human family to call their own. Quinn could be a poster child for adopting, never ever ever purchasing from a "breeder". Too too many of our brother and sister Earthlings don't have homes.
I helped out with an adoption event recently for a local cat rescue group, Hands Helping Paws, and 28 lucky kittens and cats found homes. Hooray!
Bunnies are a little bit different. They are a little more vulnerable, a little more requiring of some education for proper care and a little more needful of a particular mindset if a good fit is going to be made between a family or human and a bunny. Maybe part of the problem is that the stereotypes of popular culture (for instance, the Easter Bunny) and the reality of rabbit behavior don't match up too well. Suffice it to say that most of us (me included) have to put in some time, effort, attention and learning in order to be in a position to be able to offer adequate care to a rabbit.
This means an adoption event like the one for the kittens would probably not work for the bunnies...oh you might get a number of bunnies into homes, the cute factor for a bunny is off the charts...but the likelihood is high that bunnies would be placed at risk for inadequate care and humans placed at risk for disappointment and upset and failure. These factors mean that bunnies finding a home that works is a fairly intricate and involved operation. Compared to a cat or a dog, a bunny is more 'high maintenance'...not too difficult once you get used to it and care becomes routinized...but definitely different than most humans are familiar with or used to. Which means that learning and change has to happen and that is sometimes tough for humans to accomplish.
Quinn is now safe, Quinn is now loved and Quinn will grow and develop. That's pretty good.
You can do your part in helping make all animals safer and more likely to grow and develop if you live as an ethical vegan. And, for goodness sake, adopt one of the Earthlings without a human family from a shelter...if you can....if you can't then volunteer or donate and help out a shelter or a rescue operation...remember...they are trying to repair or stop the damage we have done to the animals. They are trying to clean up and rectify part of the mess the rest of us have made for living beings on our planet...that's a pretty good thing to do.
Quinn came to Heartland Rabbit Rescue back in August as a result of a call from a local municipal shelter. It seems that Quinn's time had run out and he was at risk of execution because no human family wanted him. The Heartland Director squeezed and squoshed and managed to find a place for Quinn even though Heartland is way over capacity.
 |
| Quinn (the Mighty Quinn) |
At first he didn't much want anything to do with humans, but has now figured out that human animals can act pretty decently and he is becoming one of those rare bunnies that endures being carried around, even seeming to actually enjoy it. His personality is maybe 5 or 6 times larger than his physical being (he's a fairly small guy, only a couple of pounds right now) with energy to burn.
At the time of this writing he is having to stay inside his enclosure for a few days because his recent surgery (neutering). Once recovery is far enough along, he'll be going everywhere again with all the life and joy anyone could wish for. Quinn is a real treat to be around, one of those folks that makes you smile when you see him. It is astonishing how much niftiness mother nature can pack into a small package.
I'm writing about Quinn because he is a pleasure worth sharing and because Quinn represents all the many millions of "domesticated" Earthlings that are without a human family to call their own. Quinn could be a poster child for adopting, never ever ever purchasing from a "breeder". Too too many of our brother and sister Earthlings don't have homes.
I helped out with an adoption event recently for a local cat rescue group, Hands Helping Paws, and 28 lucky kittens and cats found homes. Hooray!
Bunnies are a little bit different. They are a little more vulnerable, a little more requiring of some education for proper care and a little more needful of a particular mindset if a good fit is going to be made between a family or human and a bunny. Maybe part of the problem is that the stereotypes of popular culture (for instance, the Easter Bunny) and the reality of rabbit behavior don't match up too well. Suffice it to say that most of us (me included) have to put in some time, effort, attention and learning in order to be in a position to be able to offer adequate care to a rabbit.
This means an adoption event like the one for the kittens would probably not work for the bunnies...oh you might get a number of bunnies into homes, the cute factor for a bunny is off the charts...but the likelihood is high that bunnies would be placed at risk for inadequate care and humans placed at risk for disappointment and upset and failure. These factors mean that bunnies finding a home that works is a fairly intricate and involved operation. Compared to a cat or a dog, a bunny is more 'high maintenance'...not too difficult once you get used to it and care becomes routinized...but definitely different than most humans are familiar with or used to. Which means that learning and change has to happen and that is sometimes tough for humans to accomplish.
Quinn is now safe, Quinn is now loved and Quinn will grow and develop. That's pretty good.
You can do your part in helping make all animals safer and more likely to grow and develop if you live as an ethical vegan. And, for goodness sake, adopt one of the Earthlings without a human family from a shelter...if you can....if you can't then volunteer or donate and help out a shelter or a rescue operation...remember...they are trying to repair or stop the damage we have done to the animals. They are trying to clean up and rectify part of the mess the rest of us have made for living beings on our planet...that's a pretty good thing to do.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
When regrets outnumber hopes...
...so the saying goes, then you are old.
I'm old.
I have something like 5,326 regrets and only a few hopes. My regrets are too numerous to specify and I only have one hope that I choose to share.
I hope enough humans begin living as ethical vegans in time to prevent the transformation of this planet into a poisoned desert surrounded by polluted seas populated only by human animals and those few sorts of sentient beings that human animals believe profitable to exploit and kill.
We behave despicably and have done so for thousands of years, my hope is that we stop and the only way to begin to stop is to live as an ethical vegan.
We must begin to acknowledge and embrace the natural world that we are part of and live as good and just members of that community. We must relinquish our childish and willful view of the planet and everything on it as a "resource".
We must.
Not because it is the only thing that will save us (even though it is) but because we have no right to destroy the other beings on this planet or to destroy the environments which those other beings need to survive. I commend Gary Yourofsky and his excellent video where he talks about this evilness in which we are engaged.
The terrible thing is, my hope is...in fact...our only hope.
I'm old.
I have something like 5,326 regrets and only a few hopes. My regrets are too numerous to specify and I only have one hope that I choose to share.
I hope enough humans begin living as ethical vegans in time to prevent the transformation of this planet into a poisoned desert surrounded by polluted seas populated only by human animals and those few sorts of sentient beings that human animals believe profitable to exploit and kill.
We behave despicably and have done so for thousands of years, my hope is that we stop and the only way to begin to stop is to live as an ethical vegan.
We must begin to acknowledge and embrace the natural world that we are part of and live as good and just members of that community. We must relinquish our childish and willful view of the planet and everything on it as a "resource".
We must.
Not because it is the only thing that will save us (even though it is) but because we have no right to destroy the other beings on this planet or to destroy the environments which those other beings need to survive. I commend Gary Yourofsky and his excellent video where he talks about this evilness in which we are engaged.
The terrible thing is, my hope is...in fact...our only hope.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
All of us animals...
is a phrase that sometimes offends or upsets those humans who are ignorant about their own origin and makeup. "Animal" is a word that carries a lot of human social and psychological weight, most of it negative. Earlier I wrote about the fact that the constituents of our DNA are the same for all inhabitants of the planet Earth, no matter what sort of living being we happen to be called. I wrote: "You, me, crabgrass, cockroaches, George Washington...we all share the same four bases for our DNA...the only difference between any of us is the nature of the arrangement."
This fact is sadly not very widely known or promoted. I wonder why?
Testosterone and estrogen are hormones associated respectively with males and females. Actually all males have estrogen in their systems and all females have testosterone in their system, it is the ratio of the hormones that is associated with female and male characteristics. Most folks are vaguely aware of the connection of female - estrogen and male - testosterone though.
Those two hormones are present in some degree in the bodies of all mammals (and some reptiles, birds and insects) that call the planet Earth home. Those two hormones exert some influence on the functioning of all mammals (including human animals) living on this planet.
According to Wikipedia: "Mammals share the same reproductive system, including the regulatory hypothalamic system that releases gonadotropin releasing hormone in pulses, the pituitary that secretes follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and the ovary itself releases sex hormones including estrogens and progesterone."
Way back in elementary school you were all told (at least I hope you were) that humans belong to the group of animals called mammals. If you weren't told this, then you were lied to either by omission, commission or neglect.
I'll bet you weren't told this: "Living mammal species can be identified by the presence of sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk." Hmmm, one way to identify a mammal is whether they have sweat glands (and milk is produced by a specialized sweat gland). Puts a new perspective on "dairy" doesn't it.
I am an animal, if you're reading this...you are an animal. We are all animals. Let us all live like good citizen animals of our planet and be ethical vegans...that minimizes the damage we do to our fellow animals and to our planet.
This fact is sadly not very widely known or promoted. I wonder why?
Testosterone and estrogen are hormones associated respectively with males and females. Actually all males have estrogen in their systems and all females have testosterone in their system, it is the ratio of the hormones that is associated with female and male characteristics. Most folks are vaguely aware of the connection of female - estrogen and male - testosterone though.
Those two hormones are present in some degree in the bodies of all mammals (and some reptiles, birds and insects) that call the planet Earth home. Those two hormones exert some influence on the functioning of all mammals (including human animals) living on this planet.
According to Wikipedia: "Mammals share the same reproductive system, including the regulatory hypothalamic system that releases gonadotropin releasing hormone in pulses, the pituitary that secretes follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and the ovary itself releases sex hormones including estrogens and progesterone."
Way back in elementary school you were all told (at least I hope you were) that humans belong to the group of animals called mammals. If you weren't told this, then you were lied to either by omission, commission or neglect.
I'll bet you weren't told this: "Living mammal species can be identified by the presence of sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk." Hmmm, one way to identify a mammal is whether they have sweat glands (and milk is produced by a specialized sweat gland). Puts a new perspective on "dairy" doesn't it.
I am an animal, if you're reading this...you are an animal. We are all animals. Let us all live like good citizen animals of our planet and be ethical vegans...that minimizes the damage we do to our fellow animals and to our planet.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Proxy morality (zwei).
Earlier I wrote about the astonishing disconnect that exists in our lives due to the fact that many of the items (and services) that we use for our lives are made, grown, carried-out or manufactured by organizations and peoples that we do not know and that we have no effective control over.
I didn't mention that, in some instances (not all by any means), we can gather information about items...and make decision based on our acquired information. I didn't write about this because I'm not at all sure that practical use or implementation of this behavior is a viable solution to our ongoing cultural freefall. For one thing, finding out about the parameters of creation of stuff can be (and often is) a major pain in the ass.
For instance, recently a new grocery opened here in Norman. Natural Grocers is one of a chain of stores operating across several states (Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Oklahoma). Now if you go to their website and read about them...well...what is not to like? They use all the buzzwords dear to the hearts of those of us who want to do well by our planet. Words like 'sustainable', 'family farms', 'natural and organic', 'nutritious', yada yada yada. Great, right?
Oops, maybe not so great. Here is an example. They have their own house brand of various items in bulk like organic split peas, organic steel cut oats, organic pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are of interest to me because we use them daily out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue. A few pumpkin seeds a day sprinkled on the pellets of the bunnies serves as a treat for them and also is good for their health. The bunnies love them and it is a good thing all around. Well, we want to always avoid as many pesticides or chemicals as possible so organic is the way to go. There is a problem though...anymore most pumpkin seeds you can find are not grown in the U.S. They come from China. China? China?
Someone else will have to explain the sense of that...and I suspect there isn't any "sense" at all except one of profit. I have little doubt that the reason pumpkin seeds are showing up here that are grown in China is profit. No sense, just profit. And, lest we forget, one of the principal (if not the primary) reasons our world looks like it does now is because of actions taken in the pursuit of profit. So, while things can be done in the name of profit that are not necessarily bad, from what I can see, on the whole, pursuing profit as a primary goal results in disaster after disaster after disaster.
Pumpkin seeds. Now when you shop at this grocery, their house branded bulk items are packed in bags with their logo on it. The label for pumpkin seeds touts that they are organic and they are "packed" in some town in Colorado (Lakewood, I think). The label didn't say "grown and packed" in Colorado, it said packed. Hmmm, I says to myself. If they are so proud of where they packed the seeds why aren't they proud of where the seeds were grown? Obviously they aren't themselves too impressed with the growing place or they would have touted that too. Nowhere on the label does it tell me where the seeds are grown. Hmmm.
In addition, the seeds are "Certified Organic". Hmmm. I had visions of the seeds being grown in say, Tibet, and then I had visions of the United States Food and Drug Administration loading up an inspector and flying her (or him) over to Tibet and that inspector overseeing the growth and harvest of the pumpkin seeds to ensure they are "organic". Look, I am mildly suspicious of the organic certification of things grown here in the U.S. where they actually might be inspected...I have no belief at all that anything coming from outside of the U.S. resembles anything I might think of as being "organic". I am suspicious of the food from here because I am aware that the pursuit of profit produces (even encourages) cheating and I have no doubt that cheating in the "organic" food area goes on...I guarantee that cheating goes on in the food area for stuff grown elsewhere. Still, organic may offer some degree of greater safety in many instanceses so that is what I endeavor to purchase. I am also aware that food "manufacturers" and "producers" are constantly trying to assault, water-down and de-fang any kind of regulation or inspection of their "products" or their operations so who knows how long any refuge is offered by "organic".
Anyway, the "packed" message on the label set off warning bells so I went home and looked online to see what I could find out about the company and about their pumpkin seeds. The online info about the seeds says they "source" from "around the world". Ok. So I emailed them and asked where their pumpkin seeds came from. After about 3 weeks (no exaggeration) I got the message their seeds come from China. I emailed back and asked if they had any pumpkin seeds from the United States. Within 2 days I was advised that all their pumpkin seeds came from China.
Look, I know the seeds I could buy in my local chain supermarket came from China too. The irritating and dismaying factor here for me is that this "Natural" food store touts that they are the home of "real Natural food" and here they are using all the same slippery and uninformative and misleading "marketing" stuff all the other slimeballs use. In truth, I have no belief that the current structuring of manufacturing, growing and marketing of "stuff" can operate in any way that is going to end up being positive for people or the planet...it is going to operate in a way that is good for "profit" and nothing else. It will mislead, omit and twist information and data any old time that profit might be enhanced by such dancing and this has been the case since the beginning of "profit".
By the way, Adam Smith, author of "The Wealth of Nations" and often referenced by the current crop of profit mongers seemed to only see a profit system working in a small setting where everyone knew everyone else and cheating or greed could easily be discerned by direct experience. This "global" stuff or stuff coming from somewhere that is not easily inspected or learned about personally is a different sort of thing. As I mentioned before, I can easily end up (and have no doubt that I do) paying people to despoil the earth, use toxic chemicals and pesticides, harm animals and people and then take the profits and support politicians to further defang any sorts of regulations that might slow down their headlong pursuit of profit with no regard for the consequences or side effects.
No, I fear that tweaking the system or fine tuning the system isn't going to work...we've been fiddling around with that sort of thing since the days when coca cola actually had cocaine in it and...well...you can look around and see what is happening and what is happening isn't pretty...or positive...for living beings or the planet herself. We're in a major mess and as far as I can see one of the prime drivers of the mess making has been and is the pursuit of "profit".
I didn't mention that, in some instances (not all by any means), we can gather information about items...and make decision based on our acquired information. I didn't write about this because I'm not at all sure that practical use or implementation of this behavior is a viable solution to our ongoing cultural freefall. For one thing, finding out about the parameters of creation of stuff can be (and often is) a major pain in the ass.
For instance, recently a new grocery opened here in Norman. Natural Grocers is one of a chain of stores operating across several states (Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Oklahoma). Now if you go to their website and read about them...well...what is not to like? They use all the buzzwords dear to the hearts of those of us who want to do well by our planet. Words like 'sustainable', 'family farms', 'natural and organic', 'nutritious', yada yada yada. Great, right?
Oops, maybe not so great. Here is an example. They have their own house brand of various items in bulk like organic split peas, organic steel cut oats, organic pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are of interest to me because we use them daily out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue. A few pumpkin seeds a day sprinkled on the pellets of the bunnies serves as a treat for them and also is good for their health. The bunnies love them and it is a good thing all around. Well, we want to always avoid as many pesticides or chemicals as possible so organic is the way to go. There is a problem though...anymore most pumpkin seeds you can find are not grown in the U.S. They come from China. China? China?
Someone else will have to explain the sense of that...and I suspect there isn't any "sense" at all except one of profit. I have little doubt that the reason pumpkin seeds are showing up here that are grown in China is profit. No sense, just profit. And, lest we forget, one of the principal (if not the primary) reasons our world looks like it does now is because of actions taken in the pursuit of profit. So, while things can be done in the name of profit that are not necessarily bad, from what I can see, on the whole, pursuing profit as a primary goal results in disaster after disaster after disaster.
Pumpkin seeds. Now when you shop at this grocery, their house branded bulk items are packed in bags with their logo on it. The label for pumpkin seeds touts that they are organic and they are "packed" in some town in Colorado (Lakewood, I think). The label didn't say "grown and packed" in Colorado, it said packed. Hmmm, I says to myself. If they are so proud of where they packed the seeds why aren't they proud of where the seeds were grown? Obviously they aren't themselves too impressed with the growing place or they would have touted that too. Nowhere on the label does it tell me where the seeds are grown. Hmmm.
In addition, the seeds are "Certified Organic". Hmmm. I had visions of the seeds being grown in say, Tibet, and then I had visions of the United States Food and Drug Administration loading up an inspector and flying her (or him) over to Tibet and that inspector overseeing the growth and harvest of the pumpkin seeds to ensure they are "organic". Look, I am mildly suspicious of the organic certification of things grown here in the U.S. where they actually might be inspected...I have no belief at all that anything coming from outside of the U.S. resembles anything I might think of as being "organic". I am suspicious of the food from here because I am aware that the pursuit of profit produces (even encourages) cheating and I have no doubt that cheating in the "organic" food area goes on...I guarantee that cheating goes on in the food area for stuff grown elsewhere. Still, organic may offer some degree of greater safety in many instanceses so that is what I endeavor to purchase. I am also aware that food "manufacturers" and "producers" are constantly trying to assault, water-down and de-fang any kind of regulation or inspection of their "products" or their operations so who knows how long any refuge is offered by "organic".
Anyway, the "packed" message on the label set off warning bells so I went home and looked online to see what I could find out about the company and about their pumpkin seeds. The online info about the seeds says they "source" from "around the world". Ok. So I emailed them and asked where their pumpkin seeds came from. After about 3 weeks (no exaggeration) I got the message their seeds come from China. I emailed back and asked if they had any pumpkin seeds from the United States. Within 2 days I was advised that all their pumpkin seeds came from China.
Look, I know the seeds I could buy in my local chain supermarket came from China too. The irritating and dismaying factor here for me is that this "Natural" food store touts that they are the home of "real Natural food" and here they are using all the same slippery and uninformative and misleading "marketing" stuff all the other slimeballs use. In truth, I have no belief that the current structuring of manufacturing, growing and marketing of "stuff" can operate in any way that is going to end up being positive for people or the planet...it is going to operate in a way that is good for "profit" and nothing else. It will mislead, omit and twist information and data any old time that profit might be enhanced by such dancing and this has been the case since the beginning of "profit".
By the way, Adam Smith, author of "The Wealth of Nations" and often referenced by the current crop of profit mongers seemed to only see a profit system working in a small setting where everyone knew everyone else and cheating or greed could easily be discerned by direct experience. This "global" stuff or stuff coming from somewhere that is not easily inspected or learned about personally is a different sort of thing. As I mentioned before, I can easily end up (and have no doubt that I do) paying people to despoil the earth, use toxic chemicals and pesticides, harm animals and people and then take the profits and support politicians to further defang any sorts of regulations that might slow down their headlong pursuit of profit with no regard for the consequences or side effects.
No, I fear that tweaking the system or fine tuning the system isn't going to work...we've been fiddling around with that sort of thing since the days when coca cola actually had cocaine in it and...well...you can look around and see what is happening and what is happening isn't pretty...or positive...for living beings or the planet herself. We're in a major mess and as far as I can see one of the prime drivers of the mess making has been and is the pursuit of "profit".
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Pippin, a bunny with a zenlike demeanor is...
...a new fellow that lives out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue. Pippin is an elder and has shown himself to be a mild-mannered guy with an deep calmness in his demeanor.
His fur is a beautiful golden color with some white markings on this left shoulder. In the next picture you can see him lit up by the early morning sun.
The Pip is a fairly small bunny, 3 or 4 pounds, and is about 8 years old. His story, regretfully, is not a happy one for those 8 years. Heartland was contacted by someone who described himself as a grandfather who was trying to find a home for a bunny. Apparently Pippin was "owned" by a little girl (the granddaughter) and now she wasn't interested in him anymore and didn't want to take the trouble and time to care for him and wanted him to be gone.
Pippin was reported to have lived his whole life in a small hutch with a wire floor located in a backyard. As a result (we think) his right rear paw is not fully functional and he holds it out to the side somewhat stiffly when he hops or walks. Wire is not a natural or acceptable flooring for a bunny, a human, a chicken or...any living being that I can think of. When you consider anything but temporary and brief use of "wire flooring", associate that lengthy usage with perpetual low-grade torture and systematic abuse.
One of the perks of encountering rescued animals is getting to know them. (One of the pains of encountering rescue animals is hearing their stories.) When Pippin first came he was sort of shy but after a few days of having regular outside time along with lots of attention he began to move into being the easy going, laid-back sort of bunny that may be his core self.
We try to get him as much outside time as possible and recently he has taken to always finding a patch of dirt and stretching himself out and staying stretched out on the dirt for most of his outside time.
Here is a photo taken this morning (8/28/2011) showing Pippin enjoying his dirt bed.
I was reminded of a video I saw recently that was apparently of a lion who had spent years confined in a cage (info about the video is not very detailed) and his obvious joy at feeling dirt under his paws again. It is a fairly brief clip.
Watching Pippin, watching the lion is a horrifying reminder of the casual and not so casual cruelty we inflict on our fellow living beings. This planet belongs to them too. They have come into being by the same processes and dynamics that brought human animals into being.
They have just as much right to this planet as we do, yet we confine them, manipulate their breeding and reproduction, deprive them of their birthright...this planet...the earth, the sky, the wind, the rain, the plants, the rocks...all of it is theirs too. They are children of Earth just as we are yet we behave as if they are simply here for our pleasure, our whim, our use.
When I think of this, when I see the joy of that lion, when I see Pippin laying in contentment on his planet I am almost paralyzed with horror and shame at how my fellow humans act. Could we be this way, act this way toward others without there being some terribly important element missing in our make up? Could we act this way if we weren't terribly damaged somehow? I have to not dwell on this too much lest my head explode. It is all too much to comprehend, to take in, to wrap my mind and feelings around. Even if I think of it a little it makes it hard for me to look at other people, hard to talk to them...especially if they aren't living as a vegan. It is very difficult.
We've structured our culture, most cultures, to where dishing out cruelty and suffering is the default position. If you go with the flow, if you act "normal"...then you are inflicting deprivation, cruelty, suffering, pain and death on billions and billions of living beings.
Just think of it, to be normal is to be monstrous...to be kind or uncruel...is to be "different" or "weird" or "radical". To refuse to use, exploit or harm other living beings makes you "strange".
There is a major derangement impacting this planet and all the living beings on it, and I do not think it is centered anywhere but in our own species.
Pippin is very polite when he is carried from his inside enclosure or anywhere, he rides along looking interestedly at the sights (which look peculiar I imagine, to a bunny used to being at ground level all the time) and calmly puts up with the giant clumsy humans. He has slowly come to accept petting and stroking and always gives polite and enthusiastic teeth purring when he gets a cheek massage. Pippin accepts, endures and maybe even forgives.
I have a much more difficult time with accepting and forgiving...so Pippin the zenmaster still has much to teach me.
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| Pippin, looking somewhat pensive. |
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| Pippin in morning sunshine. |
Pippin was reported to have lived his whole life in a small hutch with a wire floor located in a backyard. As a result (we think) his right rear paw is not fully functional and he holds it out to the side somewhat stiffly when he hops or walks. Wire is not a natural or acceptable flooring for a bunny, a human, a chicken or...any living being that I can think of. When you consider anything but temporary and brief use of "wire flooring", associate that lengthy usage with perpetual low-grade torture and systematic abuse.
One of the perks of encountering rescued animals is getting to know them. (One of the pains of encountering rescue animals is hearing their stories.) When Pippin first came he was sort of shy but after a few days of having regular outside time along with lots of attention he began to move into being the easy going, laid-back sort of bunny that may be his core self.
We try to get him as much outside time as possible and recently he has taken to always finding a patch of dirt and stretching himself out and staying stretched out on the dirt for most of his outside time.
 |
| Pippin napping in small indentation in the dirt. |
 |
| Pippin in the 'red dirt'. |
Watching Pippin, watching the lion is a horrifying reminder of the casual and not so casual cruelty we inflict on our fellow living beings. This planet belongs to them too. They have come into being by the same processes and dynamics that brought human animals into being.
They have just as much right to this planet as we do, yet we confine them, manipulate their breeding and reproduction, deprive them of their birthright...this planet...the earth, the sky, the wind, the rain, the plants, the rocks...all of it is theirs too. They are children of Earth just as we are yet we behave as if they are simply here for our pleasure, our whim, our use.
When I think of this, when I see the joy of that lion, when I see Pippin laying in contentment on his planet I am almost paralyzed with horror and shame at how my fellow humans act. Could we be this way, act this way toward others without there being some terribly important element missing in our make up? Could we act this way if we weren't terribly damaged somehow? I have to not dwell on this too much lest my head explode. It is all too much to comprehend, to take in, to wrap my mind and feelings around. Even if I think of it a little it makes it hard for me to look at other people, hard to talk to them...especially if they aren't living as a vegan. It is very difficult.
We've structured our culture, most cultures, to where dishing out cruelty and suffering is the default position. If you go with the flow, if you act "normal"...then you are inflicting deprivation, cruelty, suffering, pain and death on billions and billions of living beings.
Just think of it, to be normal is to be monstrous...to be kind or uncruel...is to be "different" or "weird" or "radical". To refuse to use, exploit or harm other living beings makes you "strange".
There is a major derangement impacting this planet and all the living beings on it, and I do not think it is centered anywhere but in our own species.
Pippin is very polite when he is carried from his inside enclosure or anywhere, he rides along looking interestedly at the sights (which look peculiar I imagine, to a bunny used to being at ground level all the time) and calmly puts up with the giant clumsy humans. He has slowly come to accept petting and stroking and always gives polite and enthusiastic teeth purring when he gets a cheek massage. Pippin accepts, endures and maybe even forgives.
I have a much more difficult time with accepting and forgiving...so Pippin the zenmaster still has much to teach me.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
"What's in a name?"
"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." The quote is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The astute Juliet is pointing out to Romeo that it isn't his name that she is infatuated with, it is him. In other words not the referring device (a name) but the being or thing referred to (him, Romeo Montague).
I ran across a study some time ago about names that has kept nagging at me ever since. The study itself is a couple of years old and was about the finding that cows kept on a dairy seemed to produce more milk if they were given a name and treated as individuals. Here is a link to a fairly well done summary of the study (conducted in the UK) and what the researchers thought about the results.
Now, keeping cows on a dairy is a not so accurate way of referring to a profit-making activity where living beings are imprisoned and exploited by being raped, impregnated and having their children taken away from them (such children are then killed immediately or sold into slavery) and their lactation fluids stolen...when these living beings are adjudged by their jailers as having decreased "efficiency" they are then murdered. Dairy takes on a different cast when we expand and explicate what it actually means doesn't it?
Anyway, not discussing for the moment the horrors of "dairy", one of the interesting things in the study is that we find that positive attention to cows seems to make them happier (the presumption is that their making more milk means they are happier). I say positive attention because the researchers point out that assigning a name is a proxy for the cows being the recipients of "nicer treatment" by their exploiters. The results of the study would have been different if the cows had been assigned a name and then routinely beaten every day. It is not the naming of the cow, per se, that is important, it is the behavior toward the cow that results in increased happiness.
A fairly straightforward little study that focuses on greater benefit for the humans if the cows involved are treated nicer.
I found the whole thing repulsive and disgusting.
Let's substitute the animal studied, let's pretend the study is about human animals in a slave labor and death camp called a dairy. The study shows if you treat the human animals better they produce more when working (prior to your murder of them after they are 'less efficient').
A more accurate name for the study would have been: "How to Maximize Your Profit While Committing Atrocities". But no matter the name; imprisoning, manipulating, hurting and killing sentient beings is unjust and atrocious.
I ran across a study some time ago about names that has kept nagging at me ever since. The study itself is a couple of years old and was about the finding that cows kept on a dairy seemed to produce more milk if they were given a name and treated as individuals. Here is a link to a fairly well done summary of the study (conducted in the UK) and what the researchers thought about the results.
Now, keeping cows on a dairy is a not so accurate way of referring to a profit-making activity where living beings are imprisoned and exploited by being raped, impregnated and having their children taken away from them (such children are then killed immediately or sold into slavery) and their lactation fluids stolen...when these living beings are adjudged by their jailers as having decreased "efficiency" they are then murdered. Dairy takes on a different cast when we expand and explicate what it actually means doesn't it?
Anyway, not discussing for the moment the horrors of "dairy", one of the interesting things in the study is that we find that positive attention to cows seems to make them happier (the presumption is that their making more milk means they are happier). I say positive attention because the researchers point out that assigning a name is a proxy for the cows being the recipients of "nicer treatment" by their exploiters. The results of the study would have been different if the cows had been assigned a name and then routinely beaten every day. It is not the naming of the cow, per se, that is important, it is the behavior toward the cow that results in increased happiness.
A fairly straightforward little study that focuses on greater benefit for the humans if the cows involved are treated nicer.
I found the whole thing repulsive and disgusting.
Let's substitute the animal studied, let's pretend the study is about human animals in a slave labor and death camp called a dairy. The study shows if you treat the human animals better they produce more when working (prior to your murder of them after they are 'less efficient').
A more accurate name for the study would have been: "How to Maximize Your Profit While Committing Atrocities". But no matter the name; imprisoning, manipulating, hurting and killing sentient beings is unjust and atrocious.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
And babies grow up...
Back in June Linda Barcklay, the founder and director of Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary, was brought 3 baby cottontail rabbits someone had found when mowing their lawn. Linda knew I volunteered out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue and asked if I could help out. Linda, like most rescuers and sanctuary operators, often ends up with animals belonging to species other than the ones they concentrate on. Her sanctuary has a number of dogs that for one reason or other have ended up living there and she knew her land would be unsuitable as a place to try to return these little ones back to the wild. (by the way, if you discover some wild babies, unless there is a compelling reason not to, it is best to leave them alone)
I offered to transport them to Wildcare Oklahoma where the knowledgeable folks there have lots of experience with nursing along baby wild rabbits and getting them prepared to return to wild living. Once I picked up the little ones I realized they might be old enough so that they wouldn't need to be bottle fed (or fed with a syringe) and took them on over to Heartland for the director there to evaluate them. It was decided they were mature enough that they were ready to dine on vegetation exclusively so they were put in a safe area at Heartland to wait until they were ready to be on their own. Once it was seen they were eating well and were energetic it was decided to release them on Heartland property.
The video shows their coming out into the world, they are being released near one of the warrens at Heartland where the vegetation has been allowed to grow and as it turns out they have chosen to stay in this area. It is now past the mid-point of August and each day that I go out to the sanctuary I see the babies hanging out, eating breakfast and eyeballing the sanctuary rabbits when we let them outside to get some exercise and fresh air. The domestic bunnies are much larger (usually, but not always) than the native cottontails but the two sorts of rabbits coexist quite well. If one of the domestics tries to get too close to a cottontail, the cottontail will move away just far enough to feel safe and continue grazing or sometimes just watching the antics of the rescued rabbits.
The babies are being released early in the morning and while they are tiny they are fully able to survive on their own...as you can see from this photo of one taken a few weeks after their release.
These (and all bunny folk) rabbits rely on their hearing (along with their smelling and seeing) capabilities to alert them to danger. They are prey animals and must constantly be on guard to avoid those that might harm them, their ears are a serious part of their ability to stay away from harm.
This next picture was taken in August, about 6 or 7 weeks after the release. Here you can see one of the babies has grown even more. This particular bunny gives me they eye whenever I am tramping around doing chores but unless I make a sudden move or a loud noise, she (or he) pretty much ignores me and goes about looking for tasty plants without paying me too much mind.
It is somehow nourishing to have some wild ones accept your presence in their world, to not be a human who is a source of terror or pain or death for those we share our planet with.
Central Oklahoma has some really great folks who provide sanctuary for some of our fellow Earthlings. Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary takes in monkeys and primates, these are often refugees from laboratories or other settings where these living beings have been treated like objects and then discarded once they have served their 'usefulness'. Wildcare Oklahoma attempts to care for wild animals (native to Oklahoma) that have been disturbed or harmed in some way by humans or natural forces (storms, drought, etc.)...once rehabbed, Wildcare then releases the animal in a safe area. And of course, Heartland Rabbit Rescue. These three refugee centers operate within a 25 mile radius of Norman, Oklahoma (and I'm not mentioning the several rescues and sanctuaries for dogs and cats in the area), pretty amazing that there are so many committed and caring folks right around here.
Even if you don't operate a sanctuary or rescue, you can do your part to support the right of each living being to their own life by commencing to live as an ethical vegan. I would appreciate it and I guarantee you that the other animals will appreciate your choice.
I offered to transport them to Wildcare Oklahoma where the knowledgeable folks there have lots of experience with nursing along baby wild rabbits and getting them prepared to return to wild living. Once I picked up the little ones I realized they might be old enough so that they wouldn't need to be bottle fed (or fed with a syringe) and took them on over to Heartland for the director there to evaluate them. It was decided they were mature enough that they were ready to dine on vegetation exclusively so they were put in a safe area at Heartland to wait until they were ready to be on their own. Once it was seen they were eating well and were energetic it was decided to release them on Heartland property.
The video shows their coming out into the world, they are being released near one of the warrens at Heartland where the vegetation has been allowed to grow and as it turns out they have chosen to stay in this area. It is now past the mid-point of August and each day that I go out to the sanctuary I see the babies hanging out, eating breakfast and eyeballing the sanctuary rabbits when we let them outside to get some exercise and fresh air. The domestic bunnies are much larger (usually, but not always) than the native cottontails but the two sorts of rabbits coexist quite well. If one of the domestics tries to get too close to a cottontail, the cottontail will move away just far enough to feel safe and continue grazing or sometimes just watching the antics of the rescued rabbits.
The babies are being released early in the morning and while they are tiny they are fully able to survive on their own...as you can see from this photo of one taken a few weeks after their release.
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| One of the cotties a few weeks after the release, notice the ear size. |
This next picture was taken in August, about 6 or 7 weeks after the release. Here you can see one of the babies has grown even more. This particular bunny gives me they eye whenever I am tramping around doing chores but unless I make a sudden move or a loud noise, she (or he) pretty much ignores me and goes about looking for tasty plants without paying me too much mind.
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| Here she (or he) is almost grown...and keeping an eye on me. |
It is somehow nourishing to have some wild ones accept your presence in their world, to not be a human who is a source of terror or pain or death for those we share our planet with.
Central Oklahoma has some really great folks who provide sanctuary for some of our fellow Earthlings. Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary takes in monkeys and primates, these are often refugees from laboratories or other settings where these living beings have been treated like objects and then discarded once they have served their 'usefulness'. Wildcare Oklahoma attempts to care for wild animals (native to Oklahoma) that have been disturbed or harmed in some way by humans or natural forces (storms, drought, etc.)...once rehabbed, Wildcare then releases the animal in a safe area. And of course, Heartland Rabbit Rescue. These three refugee centers operate within a 25 mile radius of Norman, Oklahoma (and I'm not mentioning the several rescues and sanctuaries for dogs and cats in the area), pretty amazing that there are so many committed and caring folks right around here.
Even if you don't operate a sanctuary or rescue, you can do your part to support the right of each living being to their own life by commencing to live as an ethical vegan. I would appreciate it and I guarantee you that the other animals will appreciate your choice.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Morality (or justice, ethics and fairness) by proxy...
Morality generally refers to notions about what constitutes 'good' or 'bad' behavior...in whatever way someone chooses to define slippery words like good or bad.
In general we evaluate our own actions according to our structure of morality, deciding whether something we do is a good thing or a bad thing. Now, how someone goes about determining to themselves what is 'good' or 'bad' is a complex and often murky phenomenon and is an area of interest all its own…but for now let us focus on the use of someone else acting as our ‘moral agent’. For the purposes of this writing, justice and/or ethics and/or fairness are words being used as 'good enough' synonyms for morality. Proxy is a word that means acting for another as an agent or substitute.
The title of this post is a statement about the activity of letting a substitute for one’s self (i.e., someone else) determine what is good or bad...in our name or on our behalf. They act as our ‘moral agent’ and their activity is, morally at least, the same as if we had behaved in that way. Another way of putting this is that in a culture/society configured the way ours is, we often prompt others to act as our agents and their definitions of morality (or justice, or fairness) are substituted for our own.
In a culture where people pretty much do all the things for themselves that they need for living, behaving in ways that are consonant with their own value structure is fairly straightforward. If you think something is wrong, don’t do it. But in a culture like ours, where most of the things we use for everyday living are made or obtained by someone else…things get complicated and out of our control very rapidly.
For instance, I firmly believe that all sentient beings have a right to their own life. No sentient being should be enslaved, exploited or murdered. I can implement those values somewhat (notice that I say ‘somewhat’) by avoiding any food or clothing or anything else made from animals.
Believing that those animals have a right to their own lives includes believing they have a right to live on this planet, to travel around where they want and to do what they want (pretty-much). I also use toilet paper (a quirk of mine). Toilet paper is made from trees, that means that trees are cut down, destroying living areas for those other animals…who then either are killed during the tree cutting, or die from lack of food and shelter or they may be able to move to a different area from where the trees were cut and survive there. But the fact remains that my use of toilet paper means, most likely, that some animals suffer and die.
By proxy, I am encouraging, facilitating, pay for…the destruction of animal habitat and thereby causing the death of animals. I am, via the use of toilet paper, encouraging human animals (likely with no regard for animal lives) to engage in behaviors that cause fear, pain and death to sentient beings. Think of the many components, minerals and materials used in the manufacture of an automobile, think of the energy used (not to mention the pollution caused by its operation), think of the land spoiled because of the chase after minerals, after oil, after coal…each of these activities destroys not only the human environment but the environment for all living things. Yet all of these activities are carried out by people acting on my behalf because I purchased these items.
I can think of numerous examples wherein my using or purchasing items means I am (by the paying of money) facilitating or encouraging behaviors that violate my morals, or sense of justice or ethics or values. I can with little effort or by accident, by proxy, encourage sweatshop labor practices, environmental destruction, environmental pollution, animal suffering, animal deaths, war, obscene executive salaries, racial or sexual discrimination, torture, ignorance and stupidity and ugliness and on and on and on.
It is, when you think about it, amazing and staggering how our culture has ended up putting us in the astonishing position where we each can (and regretfully, does) encourage and reward behaviors that we may actually abhor and reject. In fact, it seems to me, it is much more difficult and laborious to activate, by proxy, behaviors that do minimal damage or harm or maybe even do good.
Be that as it may, it is the case that we live in a setting where we are encouraged to abdicate power over whether we adhere to our rights and our wrongs. Buy this, shop there, live here, drive over yonder…each of these seemingly innocuous decisions and behaviors actually are fraught with questions of morality, of encouragings of some values over others, of harm or no harm, of suffering or pleasure, of life or death…for some being or other. But, and this is a very large and looming but, for the most part these decidings about behaving in accordance with our morals are hidden, or ignored, or ridiculed or lied about.
We are not encouraged to think about these things…in fact we are most often encouraged to not think, to not consider consequences and meanings, to have ‘fun’, to ‘enjoy’, to consume, to live for now and worry about what it all means later (later meaning never or when it is too late). If we want to maximize our ‘doing right’ (behaving in a way consistent with our values), directly or by proxy, then we have a major task because of these ways our culture operates.
In the book Endgame by Derrick Jensen, the author (p. 91) recounts a conversation with John Osborn a Seattle physician and environmental activist. Dr. Osborn pointed out that many environmentalists start out wanting to protect a piece of land and end up questioning the foundations of western civilization.
The cultural (including economic) ways we have inherited of looking at nature, at our fellow Earthlings, at our place in nature and our behavior toward ourselves and toward other living beings…I find most of them profoundly wrong and destructive...and one of the factors that make them so awful is how we are pressured and pushed and seduced into abdicating our own morality and turning over the power of deciding what is good or bad to strangers…and those strangers are almost always motivated primarily by profit…not by minimizing harm or helping the environment.
What’s the solution? I’m not sure it’s time for figuring out solutions yet, we need to do lots more thinking and seeing and understanding just how badly that stuff we call ‘western civilization’ has served the Earth and Earthlings...and by the seeing of the bad and what makes it bad...maybe there will be some clues as to how to remedy our culture and ourselves.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
While blundering around on the internet...
I ran across a reference by Jack Norris to a website I had glanced at before but never taken the time to actually read. Just goes to show ya how inadequate 'glancing' can be sometimes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jack Norris, he's a vegan nutritionist who works diligently to put out accurate information about nutrition and the vegan diet. He, along with Ginny Messina and the Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine are my favorite resources for nutrition and medical information.
The site Jack Norris referenced is called CarpeVegan and I poked around on the site and found a number of articles I got a major hoot out of....you might want to check them out. One article (that Mr. Norris referenced) is titled: The Carpe Credo: All Birthday Cake and Alcohol is Vegan. I'm not going to say I agree with everything these folks write...hell, I don't even agree with everything I write (sometimes) but I will say I agree with much of what is written on the site and moreover I find the tone and approach to issues and life similar to my own. Hey, what's not to like if it reminds me of myself, eh?
Life seems to consist (in large part...not totally) of a mishmash of horribly grim and terrible things (like tormenting, torturing and killing innocent animals) along with insanely absurd things...like putting Donald Rumsfeld in charge of anything more than a roll of toilet paper (much less a military force). No, more accurately, humans seem to operate in life by mishmashing grim, terrible things and absurd things.
The rest of nature doesn't seem to be quite that way but from what I can tell, if you are going to accurately perceive human behavior...you better be well prepared to be persistently immersed in horror and absurdity. Think of Nazi extermination camps along with goose step marching. Horror and absurdity. There is some bizarre connection there that would be interesting to figure out...but figured out or not...it exists all over the place if you look around.
It is therefore the truth that I am delighted when I run across some folks that seem to have apprehended this and are willing to highlight some of the absurdities we "crown of creation" beings perpetrate on ourselves and the rest of the planet. For instance they write in one article titled: "White Trash Vegan's Valhalla Party for the Ages".
The site Jack Norris referenced is called CarpeVegan and I poked around on the site and found a number of articles I got a major hoot out of....you might want to check them out. One article (that Mr. Norris referenced) is titled: The Carpe Credo: All Birthday Cake and Alcohol is Vegan. I'm not going to say I agree with everything these folks write...hell, I don't even agree with everything I write (sometimes) but I will say I agree with much of what is written on the site and moreover I find the tone and approach to issues and life similar to my own. Hey, what's not to like if it reminds me of myself, eh?
Life seems to consist (in large part...not totally) of a mishmash of horribly grim and terrible things (like tormenting, torturing and killing innocent animals) along with insanely absurd things...like putting Donald Rumsfeld in charge of anything more than a roll of toilet paper (much less a military force). No, more accurately, humans seem to operate in life by mishmashing grim, terrible things and absurd things.
The rest of nature doesn't seem to be quite that way but from what I can tell, if you are going to accurately perceive human behavior...you better be well prepared to be persistently immersed in horror and absurdity. Think of Nazi extermination camps along with goose step marching. Horror and absurdity. There is some bizarre connection there that would be interesting to figure out...but figured out or not...it exists all over the place if you look around.
It is therefore the truth that I am delighted when I run across some folks that seem to have apprehended this and are willing to highlight some of the absurdities we "crown of creation" beings perpetrate on ourselves and the rest of the planet. For instance they write in one article titled: "White Trash Vegan's Valhalla Party for the Ages".
We ain’t here for the health or to live to a 100. We ain’t here to feel superior to anyone else. We ain’t here to be some pretentious pricks who think our sense of culture is better than yours. We are on this planet to have a great time AND do the right thing along the way. Yeah, we like to do it up in excess sometimes. We love flashy people, intense music, fatty foods, dogs, drinking too much and laughing our asses off.If you take the time to read about the co-creators of the site you will discover that Jed Gillen and Joe Haptas have been around for awhile and have put some time and effort into living, promoting and supporting a vegan lifestyle. So give them a read and let me know what you think. Humor, like flavor preferences, is extremely individualistic (I have found) so their brand of humor may not ring your bells...but for me...I found a number of writings and thoughts on the site that made me smile a lot and even laugh out-loud once or twice. That's always a good thing...I hope you find some enjoyment there too.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Opal is about three years old...
That's the best 'guesstimate' based on her having been at Heartland Rabbit Rescue for about a year and the information furnished about her. She ended up at Heartland after being picked up by animal control folks in Edmond, Ok. They had been called because a bunny had been spotted running around in a neighborhood, they corralled her in a a backyard and took her to the Edmond animal facility and eventually she was accepted at Heartland. Opal is a lovely youngster, with long eyelashes and silky fur.
The Edmond folks noticed her teeth were very overgrown and took her for an exam where several extremely mal-placed teeth were removed. Her remaining teeth grow in crooked and have to be trimmed on a consistent basis, some of her veggies have to be shredded but outside of that she does just fine in coping with her mouth issue.
When she first arrived she was not particularly human friendly and would lunge and attempt to nip you if you tried to pick up her food or water bowl.
She will still do this on occasion, depending on her mood, but more often than not she is attention oriented and very happy to have affection and stroking and conversation directed her way.
I'm writing about her because of an incident that occurred this past week. We try to get the bunnies outside early in the morning for some fresh air and exercise...before the heat becomes oppressive and unbearable. Opal was out in an enclosure and I went in with her to groom her a bit since she was molting. The grooming is important because bunnies can't vomit and ingesting too much hair can be life threatening for them. I was stroking and ruffling her fur to get the loose hairs to come out and she was enjoying the attention. I was kneeling/squatting and this was becoming uncomfortable so I wrapped up the grooming session and stood up to prepare to move on to another bunny. Opal, with perfect timing and intent, threw her body across my foot and lay down on it. I'm fairly illiterate in bunny speak but I got the message loud and clear...she did not want me to stop and really really wanted some more attention.
It was an anguishing moment because I know full well all of the shelter buns get short-changed on their needs for attention and touching and being talked to. There aren't enough human animals or enough time to give them what they need and deserve...it is so painful to know this. I felt so bad for her, as well as impressed as hell that she had figured out how to make a clear and convincing statement about what she wanted...a statement that a human animal would have to be unconscious to not understand. Those bunnies are amazing folks, and Opal is as amazing as any of them.
I know that almost any shelter/sanctuary would be so appreciative of any assistance they could get from folks...and taking the time to pay some special attention to a lonely and emotionally needy bunny, dog, cat, bird, horse, cow, goat, pig, sheep...and on and on and on is one of the niftiest gifts that can be rendered. Grooming, petting, paying attention to, communing with...these are all needs that these animal folks have and providing those experiences not only is good for the particular animal...I guarantee it is good for the provider too.
If you can, take the time to connect with an animal rescue operation and ease into being a valuable and needed provider of emotional goodies for the innocent ones. Gifting this sort of emotional nourishment to other animals is a 'sustainable' behavior, because the act of giving results in receiving too. Sort of a perpetual motion emotional apparatus. Fun stuff.
And do, if you are not already living as one, please consider becoming an ethical vegan. It helps everyone, including the whole planet.
 |
| Opal |
When she first arrived she was not particularly human friendly and would lunge and attempt to nip you if you tried to pick up her food or water bowl.
 |
| Opal, the fierce. |
I'm writing about her because of an incident that occurred this past week. We try to get the bunnies outside early in the morning for some fresh air and exercise...before the heat becomes oppressive and unbearable. Opal was out in an enclosure and I went in with her to groom her a bit since she was molting. The grooming is important because bunnies can't vomit and ingesting too much hair can be life threatening for them. I was stroking and ruffling her fur to get the loose hairs to come out and she was enjoying the attention. I was kneeling/squatting and this was becoming uncomfortable so I wrapped up the grooming session and stood up to prepare to move on to another bunny. Opal, with perfect timing and intent, threw her body across my foot and lay down on it. I'm fairly illiterate in bunny speak but I got the message loud and clear...she did not want me to stop and really really wanted some more attention.
It was an anguishing moment because I know full well all of the shelter buns get short-changed on their needs for attention and touching and being talked to. There aren't enough human animals or enough time to give them what they need and deserve...it is so painful to know this. I felt so bad for her, as well as impressed as hell that she had figured out how to make a clear and convincing statement about what she wanted...a statement that a human animal would have to be unconscious to not understand. Those bunnies are amazing folks, and Opal is as amazing as any of them.
I know that almost any shelter/sanctuary would be so appreciative of any assistance they could get from folks...and taking the time to pay some special attention to a lonely and emotionally needy bunny, dog, cat, bird, horse, cow, goat, pig, sheep...and on and on and on is one of the niftiest gifts that can be rendered. Grooming, petting, paying attention to, communing with...these are all needs that these animal folks have and providing those experiences not only is good for the particular animal...I guarantee it is good for the provider too.
If you can, take the time to connect with an animal rescue operation and ease into being a valuable and needed provider of emotional goodies for the innocent ones. Gifting this sort of emotional nourishment to other animals is a 'sustainable' behavior, because the act of giving results in receiving too. Sort of a perpetual motion emotional apparatus. Fun stuff.
And do, if you are not already living as one, please consider becoming an ethical vegan. It helps everyone, including the whole planet.
Friday, July 8, 2011
She has two eyes...
four limbs, two ears, a nose, a mouth, a body, a covering of skin and one head. She can see, hear, taste, smell, detect heat and cold, feel the wind, feel pain, feel fear and joy. She breathes air, eats food, drinks water and urinates and defecates. She feels hunger, thirst, tiredness, sleepiness and anger. She sleeps each day and will often seek shelter when the weather is not to her liking. She may emit vocalizations in various situations and feeling states. She enjoys gentle caresses and dislikes painful or hurtful touches. She has a mother, a father and maybe brothers and sisters and maybe aunts, uncles and cousins.
Yet, depending on what human animals around her decide, she may be cared for, loved, beaten, skinned alive, forcefully impregnated or she may be ignored. She may be pampered, neglected, esteemed or denigrated. Her life may be such that she does pretty much as she wishes or she may be constrained in gentle or harsh ways. She may be free, partially free, imprisoned, enslaved and/or exploited. She may live to the fullness of her years with many pleasures and delights or her life may be full of terror, misery and ended in suffering and pain after only a fraction of her years are lived...all this through no fault or choice of her own. Some of what may be done to her might be illegal, much of what she experiences at the hands of human animals will be condoned by human law.
Who is she?
I started to stop writing with that question but I usually don't like things that 'hang' like that so I'll go ahead and point out the fact that all of that previously written could be applied to most every sentient being on Earth. Chicken, turtle, cow, human and on and on and on.
"Deoxyribonucleic acid — DNA — is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms (with the exception of RNA viruses)...The four bases found in DNA are adenine (abbreviated A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T)." (source: Wikipedia)
A critical phrase in the previous paragraph is "all known living organisms". You, me, crabgrass, cockroaches, George Washington...we all share the same four bases for our DNA...the only difference between any of us is the nature of the arrangement. It was an astonishing moment for me some years ago when I fully comprehended that the physical evidence confirms that all life on this planet is related...that we are all configured by the same stuff...those four bases.
Some of us are configured so similarly that a fairly detailed series of descriptors such as I've presented above doesn't markedly reduce the field of the different shapes, sizes or types of animals that could be being referenced.
The incredible arrogance inherent in human animals deciding that their 'configuration' is the "best" and that all other configurations should be subservient to human animals is mind-boggling and...if fully considered, rather frightening. There is an unhinged quality to such a self-serving judgment.
Sometimes I wonder if the "purpose" of humanity isn't to serve as a warning of how not to be...to all the other 'configurations' of life.
If you don't want to live like a bad example, then begin to live as an ethical vegan.
Yet, depending on what human animals around her decide, she may be cared for, loved, beaten, skinned alive, forcefully impregnated or she may be ignored. She may be pampered, neglected, esteemed or denigrated. Her life may be such that she does pretty much as she wishes or she may be constrained in gentle or harsh ways. She may be free, partially free, imprisoned, enslaved and/or exploited. She may live to the fullness of her years with many pleasures and delights or her life may be full of terror, misery and ended in suffering and pain after only a fraction of her years are lived...all this through no fault or choice of her own. Some of what may be done to her might be illegal, much of what she experiences at the hands of human animals will be condoned by human law.
Who is she?
I started to stop writing with that question but I usually don't like things that 'hang' like that so I'll go ahead and point out the fact that all of that previously written could be applied to most every sentient being on Earth. Chicken, turtle, cow, human and on and on and on.
"Deoxyribonucleic acid — DNA — is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms (with the exception of RNA viruses)...The four bases found in DNA are adenine (abbreviated A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T)." (source: Wikipedia)
A critical phrase in the previous paragraph is "all known living organisms". You, me, crabgrass, cockroaches, George Washington...we all share the same four bases for our DNA...the only difference between any of us is the nature of the arrangement. It was an astonishing moment for me some years ago when I fully comprehended that the physical evidence confirms that all life on this planet is related...that we are all configured by the same stuff...those four bases.
Some of us are configured so similarly that a fairly detailed series of descriptors such as I've presented above doesn't markedly reduce the field of the different shapes, sizes or types of animals that could be being referenced.
The incredible arrogance inherent in human animals deciding that their 'configuration' is the "best" and that all other configurations should be subservient to human animals is mind-boggling and...if fully considered, rather frightening. There is an unhinged quality to such a self-serving judgment.
Sometimes I wonder if the "purpose" of humanity isn't to serve as a warning of how not to be...to all the other 'configurations' of life.
If you don't want to live like a bad example, then begin to live as an ethical vegan.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A smart bunny deals with summer
by opting for the coolest area she can find. I mentioned Nessie Ray's favorite lounging spot...the air conditioning vent in the floor in her living room. These photos are used with her highness's gracious permission...
With this 2nd photo you can see a small bit of the vent.
Next time you hear the pejorative phrase "dumb bunny" you'll know you just heard someone say something ignorant.
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| She covers the whole vent ( Is that not a magnificent tail? ). |
 |
| Small portion of vent showing under her right hand. |
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The weather here is not pleasant...
except for a brief time in the morning (and not always even then). June is usually relatively bearable here in central Oklahoma, not as nice as April and May but still ok. Not this year, the heat arrived early and has dug in. July, August and part of September is scorching here usually...this year June can be added to that list. Quite remarkable.
As of June 30th in Oklahoma: (source)
Today marks the 29th consecutive day over 90. That is a record.
Today is forecast to be the 10th day above 100 in June. That is a record.
Today marks the 34th consecutive day above normal.
June 2011 set or tied single-day record high temperatures on the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 27th. Those record temperatures were 103, 104, 101, and 103 degrees, respectively.
Rainfall is multiple inches below normal and all the animals and plants are suffering. The bunnies out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue are being shortchanged on opportunities to get outside. Only a brief time in the morning is available before the heat becomes too oppressive for them. Nessie Rae, the resident bunny queen here, has staked out an air-conditioning vent in the living room floor and stretches out over it for much of the day.
In general, October is my favorite month both because of the temperature and because of the exquisite colors associated with the plants. Well, 90 something days and counting until then.
In the meantime, goodbye June, 2011...you were the hottest June in Oklahoma ever recorded by the human animals. It is likely that your record achievements won't stand for too long though.
As of June 30th in Oklahoma: (source)
Today marks the 29th consecutive day over 90. That is a record.
Today is forecast to be the 10th day above 100 in June. That is a record.
Today marks the 34th consecutive day above normal.
June 2011 set or tied single-day record high temperatures on the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 27th. Those record temperatures were 103, 104, 101, and 103 degrees, respectively.
Rainfall is multiple inches below normal and all the animals and plants are suffering. The bunnies out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue are being shortchanged on opportunities to get outside. Only a brief time in the morning is available before the heat becomes too oppressive for them. Nessie Rae, the resident bunny queen here, has staked out an air-conditioning vent in the living room floor and stretches out over it for much of the day.
In general, October is my favorite month both because of the temperature and because of the exquisite colors associated with the plants. Well, 90 something days and counting until then.
In the meantime, goodbye June, 2011...you were the hottest June in Oklahoma ever recorded by the human animals. It is likely that your record achievements won't stand for too long though.
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