Activism? Or is it the T word?

 

You know all those horrible but eye-opening videos you’ve seen about animal treatment in factory farms? Well it appears that those videos actually lead to “economic hardship” for the enterprises they expose. Hmm, go figure. When Mercy For Animals shows the way Sparboro Farms abuses chicks and chickens, guess what happens? Major purchasers pull their support, regular people hear all about it on Facebook, celebrities begin to speak out, and pretty soon you’ve got a lot less people eating Sparboro eggs.

But instead of hailing Mercy For Animals for doing their regulatory duty for them, the government has suggested that MFA’s undercover videotaping may actually qualify the animal rights organization as terrorists.  At least an FBI document acquired through the FOIA sure suggests that. It was written by an FBI agent and states that actions such as undercover videotaping violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act which was supposed to defend against property damage like burning down buildings or freeing entire groups of laboratory animals. One of the accused said, ““It is…sobering to realize the supposedly terroristic activities in question are merely exposing the horrific cruelty of factory farms, educating the public about what goes on behind those closed doors, and openly rescuing a few animals from one of those farms as an act of civil disobedience.”

Indeed, this threat of terrorism charges for undercover videotaping is disturbing to me for two reasons. First, because when an injustice is being done, I feel it is sometimes the duty of the people to speak up against it…namely, when the powers that be will not. If I were to ever see injustice at my workplace, you bet I would try to capture that on tape for evidence. These animals live in disgusting, debilitating conditions; they are injured, neglected and denied any semblance of natural animal behaviors. Then they are often slaughtered in ways that defy regulations not to mention moral decency. When someone delivers evidence of this so that legal and social intervention can happen, while at the same time doing no harm to people or property, I can’t fathom calling them a terrorism. It is standing up for what is right. If we trusted politicians and regulatory agencies to raise their voice for what is good and decent (and thank goodness for those that do!) then we wouldn’t have to be peering through the crack in the wall to see what is really happening behind closed doors.

Secondly, these charges are nothing to take lightly considering the recent, mind-blowing passage of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 under which the President can indefinitely detain American citizens without trial. I see the privacy rights of American citizens decreased, while the threat of arrest for demanding more transparency from government and corporations increased, and this is frightening. This is not my area of expertise, but a pattern of chipping away at privacy sure seems obvious when you look at the facts. More and more it seems like the message is: We can watch you, but don’t you dare watch us.

I personally have had my life drastically changed by the kinds of videos put out by Mercy For Animals and PETA. I want to know what I’m eating, supporting, buying into, falling for. In fact, I believe this is my right. My abilities for compassion and for standing up against what I think is wrong have been greatly bolstered by watching atrocities shown in these clips. It’s hard and heartbreaking to find out what is really inside our grocery or shopping bags sometimes but we all have the opportunity to educate ourselves and then change our selections. I wouldn’t want to live in a place where that transformation couldn’t take place.

What do you think about these videos? What do you think about the National Defense Authorization Act and the war on terror? These are interesting times. Let’s talk.

Brother’s Keeper

Excuse a brief diversion from animal rights for a moment. Let’s zoom out to the larger question of compassion at large…….

I work in Hollywood. Today there was a man walking down the street 2 blocks from my office building. He pulled out his gun and began shooting into the air. He shouted, “Kill me!” Then he began shooting at passing cars. This was at a major thoroughfare in downtown Hollywood…Sunset and Vine. The police were called and the man was killed in the street.

Everyone outside was abuzz. Police were everywhere and the area was blockaded all day. But besides the “what if’s” that we all talk about in these situations, there are other great concerns that this incident brought to my mind.  You see, yes, I’m horrified that someone would do this. But I’m also horrified about this human crying out and demanding to be killed. Tell me, what leads to that?? Is it just me, or is that horrifying? When I hear about this kind of thing, part of my compassion goes to the offender himself as well as to the offended. Some might say a person who can draw a gun and shoot at strangers doesn’t deserve compassion. Who gets to decide, then, where the flow of compassion stops? I certainly don’t want that responsibility! I would rather heed the compassion that I feel inside my gut and follow it where it takes me.

In this case, it took me to wondering about our society. Wondering how people can go from uncorrupted and guiltless babies to men and women wailing for their own demise through voice and vice. I fear that if we see our middle class disappear anymore than it already has, we will be bracing ourselves against more “kill me” shooters, senior robbers, identity thieves, safe surrenders of babies, on and on and on. In other words, more individual and group desperation leading to more poverty-related acts including crimes. What is it called? The strain theory? More socioeconomic strain –> more anger –> more crime.

If I truly believe that I am connected to every Other, then I am intertwined not only with Gandhi, with Martin Luther King, and the heroes of 911, but also with the men who killed them. I am intertwined not only with the man who robs a bank to feed his starving family but the man who robs a bank to feed his heroine addiction. I’ve heard of a man who lives in Colorado, named Ed. He is debilitated, maybe homeless. He is probably repulsive to most and very likely lonesome. He’s a genius though. He used to work as a physicist. If I am happy to consider myself connected to the Ed of the past—the educated scientist—am I equally happy to be connected to the Ed of today? Are you?

I remember in 2004 I was living in Chicago and heard of a young woman who attempted to kill herself. She was driving on Dempster and accelerated through traffic, crashing into other cars. She lived, but others were injured…possibly killed, I can’t remember anymore. I felt such compassion for this girl thinking of the desperation she must have felt. Others thought her evil. I understand why they say that, but I cringed to hear it. Each of us has the potential to fall into such desperation that we have no twig on which to clasp our groping hand.  No one expects to be there when they are beginning out in this world. How many of the 45 million Americans living in poverty planned to be there? Were I to be in that place of desperation I would hope that someone would be there to take hold of my wrist.

Where has the compassion gone in our politics? In our budget? In our worldview? How did one man end up so tormented, lost, desperate and/or angry that he asked to be killed in the middle of the street on December 9th?

I will keep stirring up that compassion in myself even when it seems misplaced to others.  I have a feeling this world is going to need it one day.

Alma Mater, Mission Accomplished!

One of today’s report from PETA is about their campaign to ask University of Michigan to end it’s needless use of cats in medical training. The school has just announced they are putting an end to the practice! I’m posting this because it is times like this that I am encouraged to continue with each little step I take. I was one of thousands who signed this petition and when I can actually see a result like this, I instantly feel joined to every other person who voiced their opinion. Have you visited our Signed, Sealed, Delivered page yet? Get your name on something and see what happens!!

Here is the article from PETA…..

Victory! U-M Ends Cruel Cat Labs!

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

After more than a year of campaigning by PETA and supporters—and a day after the release of a shockingPETA exposé—the University of Michigan (U-M) announced that it has ended the use of cats in its Survival Flight intubation training laboratory.

More than 100,000 people—including Michigan natives Iggy Pop and Lily Tomlin—called on U-M to replace crude and cruel live-animal laboratories with more humane and effective human simulators, which are already used for other U-M courses. The U-M student group Michigan Animal Rights Society led demonstrations in support of the effort, the student assembly passed a resolution urging the school to end the laboratories, and the student newspaper editorial board came out in favor of replacing animals with simulators. PETA supporters even jammed university circuit boards with phone calls to protest the Survival Flight animal laboratories.

U-M says that it still plans to harm and kill pigs to teach other skills in the Survival Flight training course, and PETA will continue to push the school to replace all animal use with simulators that are already available on campus.

Of course, this victory would not have been possible without the help of our supporters.

Afoot and Lighthearted

We have found ourselves gathering photos of our feet. It wasn’t our plan, but a welcome wonder since it now leads us toward memories of places we have visited and the people (or empty spaces) that surrounded us. Looking back, we were able to find other similar photos and we share them all with you here.

Our feet ground us to a time and place, our footsteps mark the wanderings on.

Christmastime, 2012

~~~M Wave~~~, our newest author!

I want to introduce myself. I will be celebrating my 90^th birthday in January, 2012 and I find it exciting to share some of the things that were/are of interest and importance to me. As you might surmise, many interests are intertwined with memories as well.

I have never felt the need to make a huge splash in the world, and I like the concept of being a wave interacting with all the other waves making up the ocean of life. However, there is a great need now for actions that may result in such splashes in order to accomplish the changes greatly needed in various aspects of today’s world.

I was born on a working farm in central Illinois and left the farm after my marriage to my college sweetheart for us both to begin our careers in teaching, then on to having children. My husband became a principal for children, kindergarten through 8^th grade; In a different school, I taught 7^th, 8^th and 9^th graders the subject of mathematics. Both my husband and I felt our home and our own children must be our first consideration, but were fortunate to achieve our goals in our careers. Our marriage outlasted our teaching days and our days of rearing children and we celebrated our 68^th year of marriage before his death.

It is interesting that I now find myself back in the city nearest the farmland of my birth. The memories of my childhood on the farm and the relationship with all the people and the animals of my youth are back so strongly. My husband also grew up on a farm and has written a few articles about his farm life which I shall probably use in my writings as well. His love for children and animals was so evident. After his retirement, Bob volunteered to help second graders improve their reading skills; read stories weekly to some pre-schoolers and, after not having the chance to do much of the teaching in his school as principal, did substitute teaching in the town of our retirement. He was in his early 60′s agewise, quite ancient to a small child, and during one of his substitute teaching assignments in the second grade, we learned a phrase that we used often to handle particularly rough moments in our lives. Bob was holding only one sheet of paper as he was speaking and there was a bit of a tremor. A little girl, with her childhood concern, asked “Mr. Frame, why is your hand shaking?” Before Bob could reply, a little boy popped up with “Wal, he’s a gettin’ old!” Although we often chuckled over that comment, it was straight to the point and of such value that, when we happened to forget something important, we just quoted “Wal, I’m a gettin’ old!” A good sense if humor is so vitally important to help anyone slow the aging process whatever his present age.

The aging process has become one of my newer interests and it is actually somewhat fascinating. The greatest help in coping with the process is, as I inferred above, maintaining a good sense of humor, and especially the ability to laugh at yourself. The aging process gives innumerable occasions for such times. Perhaps I shall review a few of them in later writings.

Petition: No to Rove

The Federal Elections Commission is accepting public comment on Karl Rove’s request for Super Pacs to be able to coordinate directly with presidential candidates. In the wake of the Occupy Movement, this request

seems crazy.

Haven’t the people been clear that we do not want uber-wealthy  entities riddled with corporate interests deciding this election nor public policy??

Sign here to tell the FEC to put true democratic priorities first and to reject Rove’s request.

 

The Resilient Gardener

We’re excited to introduce ~~~R Wave~~~, our contributing book reviewer!

If you’re looking for good reads on subjects such as sustainable farming, self-reliant living, and the future of agriculture, then you’ll want to follow ~~~R Wave~~~. 

There are many excellent gardening books available today, from general books on organic, sustainable methods to books devoted to one or two species of produce.  I will review several of these books in the future.  One such book stands out, however, for its emphasis on what the author calls “resilience.”  Carol Deppe, the author of The Resilient Gardener;   Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times , (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010) is a microbiologist and geneticist as well as a successful gardener and plant breeder.  (She has authored another phenomenal book on plant breeding called Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties; The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving.  I will review that book at a later time.)  For Deppe, “resilient” gardening is a style of gardening that employs methods and species that can supply the staples that will provide the nutrients for health and sustenance even when times are hard and resources scarce.  She is not an alarmist and avoids dire predictions about the future.  The book does, however, include a discussion of global warming and climate change and of how humans coped with the Little Ice Age in Europe which began in 1315 and ended around 1850.

Deppe’s advice for the resilient gardener is to raise five essential staple “crops”  to supply all the essential protein and carbohydrates for a healthy, complete diet year round.  Those crops are potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs.  Additional essential vitamins and minerals can be provided by traditional vegetables such as tomatoes and greens.  The book is written for both the beginning and experienced gardener and contains detailed and practical advice on every aspect of growing a resilient garden.  It includes advice on various plant varieties, recipes for those with gluten and dairy intolerance, and root cellaring and dehydrating for long term storage.

Many of us are concerned about the future.  The sheer number of the challenges that face us, including peak oil, climate change, species extinction, economic collapse, infrastructure failure, and even nuclear war, have the potential to overwhelm and immobilize us.  The survival of our species is by no means assured.  Fortunately, millions of people throughout the world are fashioning visions of lifestyles and social structures that might see us through these crises.  Two key concepts shared by most of these visions are sustainability and localization.  It is tragically obvious that the centralization and monopolization of our industrial and financial sectors are decimating the planet and its inhabitants.  In particular, big agriculture is clearly unsustainable, with its near total reliance on fossil-based fertilizers and pesticides, colossal machinery running on increasingly expensive diesel fuel, horrific animal concentration camps, and tremendously long supply chains.  It seems clear to millions now that local, sustainable agriculture is the only viable alternative to the industrial agriculture model.  We have learned an enormous amount about gardening, farming, and animal husbandry since our grandparents and great-grandparents farmed this country.  We can now take the best of our traditions and supplement them with modern techniques and materials.   Carol Deppe’s vision, eloquently presented in her book, provides a way that we can all become more self-sufficient by producing our own locally grown food using sustainable methods.  Her approach may be more than merely interesting and appealing; it may be essential.