Opal died...

and she got less from the world than she deserved. She was a sweet and charming bunny who was beautiful and excellent. She lived at Heartland because they cared about her when no one else did. She deserved so much more than the world gave her and I was lucky to have gotten to know her.

Opal...RIP May 15, 2013

 Make no mistake...she was loved and she will be missed. Fiercely.

Maybe the hardest part of doing rescue is when the loved ones go away and you can't help but think how much more they deserved than we humans allowed them to have. She couldn't live free because we humans made it such that she couldn't have survived...we made her dependent on us and then almost all turned away from her and denied our responsibility. She had a spirit and a heart big enough to fill anyone up...and none wanted her except Heartland.

And she was one of the lucky ones. What I like best about Heartland is that all the  bunnies are cared for, they are all loved, they are all special. And they are all, always and forever, at home there.

I don't like this year 2013. I don't like it at all. Recently way too many have gone away. Zoe, Bella, Pippin, Poe, Ariel, Kiera, Benson and on and on. It hurts...it hurts a lot. Their lives are short, their needs are small and they quickly fill up your heart and then leave you devastated when they die. The work isn't the hardest part...it's the having to say goodbye to so many so often. Goodbye Opal.

Do your part to not do harm...go vegan. Do your part to give a home to those who need it...support your local rescue and/or sanctuary.

  

Earth Day 2013

One of the nice things about being vegan is knowing that you are doing more than most people do (those who aren't vegan) to minimize damage to our beautiful home.

In addition to minimizing harm to our fellow Earthlings, living vegan minimizes harm to mother Earth...and to ourselves. A triple whammy! Seriously...one of the most useful things someone can do to reduce their damage to the earth is to go vegan.

So...if you're living vegan...thank you. If you aren't and you really want to help the Earth...then get going.

 

Take the pledge, go vegan and be a real contributor to protecting the Earth because she is our home...and she is most excellently beautiful!

Atonement...

and forgiveness and redemption and such like. The first and last words seem to be very similar in meaning...making up for a bad behavior but forgiveness seems to be sort of the opposite. In other words if you are forgiven you are redeemed and there is no more push or ooch toward reparations or putting right the results of a wrong.

Thoughts about this sort of stuff persist with me, if we become vegan and are living in ways that don't do nearly as much harm to other Earthlings (as we used to do)...are we then forgiven for all the harm we've previously done? Or does our previous harm ask for us to not only refrain from current or future acts of damage but also for some repairing or making up for what we did. Maybe even some repairing or making up for what others do.

I wrote a little bit about this in a previous post. One of the folks that commented (Patty) was kind enough to point out that this repairing notion is expressed by Jewish culture as Tikkun Olam: "...means "repairing the world" (or "healing the world") which suggests humanity's shared responsibility to heal, repair and transform the world."

I can't return to life those beings I caused to die. None of us can (at least I haven't run across anyone like that). So I'm already in a position of having caused irreversible harm. Some doings can't be undone. I can not do them anymore...but I can't make it be as if it never happened. I owe. I owe those I've harmed and I can't really repay them...they are gone. They lived, they suffered and they died because of me and my actions and my ways of living.

Bea wrote about an instance of this sort of thing recently. It was a courageous post and it resonated strongly with me in several ways, partially because I've spent so much time around a number of Heartland Rabbit Rescue residents in the last few years so writings about bunny fur people always piques my interest. And partially because I don't know if I am brave enough to look too hard or too specifically at all the instances in my life where I hurt others because of my own foolishness or ignorance or callousness. I'm not certain I could bear doing that.

I'm still wallowing around with all this, so I don't really have any hard and fast place to stand or to be about it. I just feel that it is not enough for me live as vegan as I can. I have much to atone for, I even feel an obligation to atone for those who aren't vegan and who continue to harm. Which contributes to my low-level (usually) feeling of dismay when faced with a participant in the ongoing "breaking of the world" harmer....a non-vegan. And I don't mean that in any meddling or interfering way...I just wish others would quit hurting the Earthlings that aren't human. (Of course I don't want them to harm humans either...but that's a very different thing to me than the other....it's sort of like the difference between punching yourself in the nose versus punching somebody else in the nose).

I wish they would stop because hurting or harming others sucks and I wish they would stop because that's just that much more repairing that needs to be done.

There's another component to this that remains fuzzy and unclear to me and that is the damage we do to ourselves when we harm others. How much repairing does that call for? What kind of harm do we do to ourselves? I've been re-reading Black Like Me and some other works by John Howard Griffin recently and one of the things he struggled with was what we were doing to ourselves when we participated in and supported racism and the oppressions associated with it. What are we doing to ourselves when we support speciesism and the oppressions and harms associated with that?

I have lots more questions than I do answers, lots more un-understandings than I do understandings. That's obvious. I've found it useful to read Mr. Griffin's work and to read Ms. Hobson's works but so much more remains to comprehend and to ponder.

In the meantime...volunteering at Heartland, living vegan, helping out at Hands Helping Paws, sometime helping at Wildcare,  placing Vegan Outreach pamphlets at the library, donating money to different groups...these are some of my tiny efforts at repair. There's so much to try to make up for...so much. But...lots and lots of humans are trying to do some repairing and that's worth a smile and some good feelings.

Some posts elsewhere...

I try to stay up with writings from other folks, mostly those who are ethical vegan in outlook. This recent Easter period resulted in a couple of very powerful pieces that I thought I might steer you to in case you hadn't discovered them for yourself.

The first is from "Once upon a Vegan" and, for me, is one of the sadder writings that I've ever read....it's also courageous and evocative.

The second is from "So I'm Thinking of Going Vegan" and here the author is dealing with anger...and doing so very eloquently.

Lots of other great writing and stimulating goes on all the time with other blogs but you already know that. These two posts, however, really stuck with me and I wanted to share.

If you want to share, then do so by living vegan, if you don't already. If you do....then thank you from all Earthlings...if you don't...well...it's never too late to start.

VEGetariAN

I recently was talking with a woman who was telling me what a great person her daughter was because she just "loved animals". The daughter had recently rescued a cat who had then given birth to four babies and the woman was really impressed that her daughter was taking care of all of them. That is commendable and I'm glad for the cat and her babies. The woman gave several of the examples of her daughter "loving animals" and I couldn't resist asking if the daughter was vegan.

The blank look on her face and the extended silence finally clued me in to realizing that she had never heard the word before.

I would bet that she isn't that great of an exception...maybe she's even in the majority. Maybe one of the easier bits of consciousness raising any of us could do is to, inoffensively and unobtrusively, find out if folks we meet and/or know are aware of the word VEGAN and what it means...and once we discover ignorance then we can do some information sharing.

The title of this post presents a visual of the origin of the word. Some British vegetarians, way back in 1944, founded The Vegan Society and coined the word VEGetariAN by taking the first 3 letters and the last 2 letters from the term vegetarian. Donald Watson is the name most often associated with this founding and he is a fine human for all vegans to reference as our founder but do remember he didn't do it alone. Their first newsletter indicated there were at least 25 members who shared his concern about the exploitation of animals and who wanted to avoid any and all foods or 'products' or behaviors that contributed to this exploitation. Here's an excerpt from that initial newsletter:

Having followed a diet free from all animal food for periods varying from a few weeks in some cases, to many years in others, we believe our ideas and experiences are sufficiently mature to be recorded. The unquestionable cruelty associated with the production of dairy produce has made it clear that lacto-vegetarianism is but a half-way house between flesh-eating and a truly humane, civilised diet, and we think, therefore, that during our life on earth we should try to evolve sufficiently to make the 'full journey'.

We can see quite plainly that our present civilisation is built on the exploitation of animals, just as past civilisations were built on the exploitation of slaves, and we believe the spiritual destiny of man is such that in time he will view with abhorrence the idea that men once fed on the products of animals' bodies. Even though the scientific evidence may be lacking, we shrewdly suspect that the great impediment to man's moral development may be that he is a parasite of lower forms of animal life.

If you aren't familiar with these founders and what their original goals were, I urge you to read about them...and...if you are like me...read about them more than once. I find I discover something new or realize some facet that I previously missed each time I return to their writings. Here's a link to an interview with Mr. Watson that was conducted when he was 92 years old. He was a very admirable being and that's a heartening thing. More good information can be found in the Wikipedia article on Veganism.

Sometimes I forget that one of the goals of veganism, aside from the profoundly important one of reducing and/or eliminating the unnecessary suffering and death inflicted on living beings by us human animals is to elevate the consciousness and "moral development" of all. It really is quite a step, if you think about it, to move to a position of respecting all living beings and of opting out of the stance of "owner" or "master" of other living beings.

Not only do the other animals benefit from veganism...we human animals do too by not falling into the power-trip trap of thinking we are better than other beings. We can recognize the inherent repulsiveness and destructiveness of the superior/inferior or the "better than" position when we encounter it being played out human to human...that destructiveness also applies when we apply it across species too. That sort of interaction damages and diminishes and victimizes all who are involved in it, not just the identified victim (although they suffer the most).

So...maybe you don't need booklets and gory pictures and signs and such to do some consciousness raising...maybe all you need to do is to increase someone's vocabulary...and, of course, to live as a good member of the community of living beings...by being vegan.

All the important things about living a life are simple.

That thought occurred to me the other day and as I turned it over in my mind I couldn't find any exceptions to it. Not that there aren't things that are complicated but as far as I can see they don't have anything to do with living life.

Having shelter and being protected from weather, having food, being safe, having those we care about near us, playing, enjoying the Earth, exploring....just living.

I was thinking this stuff while taking care of the bunnies out at Heartland Rabbit Rescue. The rabbits know what's important...they focus on those things.

I poked around on the internet to see who else had realized this...it is virtually impossible to think of something that someone else hasn't already thought and I ran across this quote:

 Life is not complex.  We are complex.  Life is simple,
and the simple thing is the right thing.
- Oscar Wilde

I checked a bit further and couldn't find anyplace else that had this quote so I'm not quite certain that it is accurately attributed to Mr. Wilde. Be that as it may...it's a good quote.

It sort of negates one of the things about ourselves (we human animals) we tend to tout often...how "intelligent" we are. Intelligence is actually sort of irrelevant unless it assists in making the living of life better...unless it assists in the simple things. Hmmm... 

Being vegan, not harming others...that's a fairly simple thing, isn't it?

It hasn't been said well enough...

I recently re-watched a 1947 movie that is one of my favorites. It's called Gentleman's Agreement with Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire. I like to see it again every year or so because I notice and learn something new or different each time. This time was no exception. The dialogue in the movie is, on occasion, profound. For example:

Professor Fred Lieberman: Millions of people nowadays are religious only in the vaguest sense. I've often wondered why the Jews among them still go on calling themselves Jews. Do you know, Mr. Green?
Phil Green: No, but I'd like to.
Professor Fred Lieberman: Because the world still makes it an advantage not to be one. Thus it becomes a matter of pride to go on calling ourselves Jews.

When I heard this exchange this time it struck me how identical this is to the premise that human beings are not animal beings and that it is a definite advantage to not be considered an animal...therefore...to me at least...it is a matter of, not pride, but acknowledgement of injustice (and accuracy) to consider myself an animal.

This time the exchange that struck me most powerfully was:

Kathy Lacey: You think I'm an anti-Semite.
Phil Green: No, I don't. But I've come to see lots of nice people who hate it and deplore it and protest their own innocence, then help it along and wonder why it grows. People who would never beat up a Jew. People who think anti-Semitism is far away in some dark place with low-class morons. That's the biggest discovery I've made. The good people. The nice people.

It is staggering how well this exchange epitomizes much of what drives the ongoing destruction of our fellow Earthlings. It is the "good people", the "nice people" who do not see themselves as agents of cruelty, of oppression, of murderousness who support and perpetuate the enslavement and the imprisonment and the death and suffering of billions of Earthlings.

It is truly all the same....speciesism, racism, anti-semitism, sexism, and on and on. The prejudice, the oppression, the ugliness of superiority/inferiority, the murder of billions because they are "different". The viewpoint that drives each of these despicable behaviors and mindsets is the same and what allows this to flourish is, in the end, the "good people"....the "nice people".

The movie is based on a novel by Laura Z. Hobson. When I read more about her, I realized that I wished I had had a chance to sit down and have a long long conversation with her. She was apparently a remarkable human. "Through her novels, she popularized issues of
anti-Semitism, unwed motherhood and gay rights. She succeeded as a
single mother and as a professional."  I wonder whether she would have been able to see through the cultural veils and understand the justice and necessity of ethical veganism. I bet she would have in time.

Now, not long before I re-watched Gentleman's Agreement, I had re-watched Schindler's List. That's another movie that I re-see because it helps ground me. Then, this morning I went to Bea Elliot's excellent blog Once Upon A Vegan and found a post delineating the activity of a fellow named Nicholas Winton who helped save over 600 Jewish children from the Nazi holocaust by arranging transport to England for them. Bea was making the point that living as an ethical vegan is equivalent to being a conscientious objector to cruelty. Exactly so.

She was writing about someone who not only lived as a conscientious objector to the war and to violence but who also went further and in addition to opting out of participation but also helped save hundreds of victims of human driven oppression and suffering and death. The same is true of Oscar Schindler...he did not participate in the violence and he also saved many human victims.

The struggle against speciesism is the same as the struggle against racism,  is the same as the struggle against anti-semitism, is the same as the struggle against sexism...and against each and every stance that renders one side "superior" and the other side "inferior". Against each stance that condones oppression and enslavement and violence against those adjudged to be "inferior". It is exactly the same struggle...only the characters involved may change from place to place and time to time. The victims and oppressors may change identities but the "dance" remains the same. And this struggle has plagued our species (and as a result we plague ourselves and all the other species) apparently forever. 

We seem to be so prone to fall into this horrid trap of oppressor/victim. It seems to be sadly seductive to us...since we do it again and again.

Well. I'll tell you what. Morally...if you admire folks like Mr. Winson and Mr. Schindler...you can behave just like they did. First, you opt out of the violence...the dance of death by living as an ethical vegan. That's the first step. Next...you support in each and every way you can...your local animal sanctuaries and rescues. That's exactly what they did...first they caused no harm...that's the conscientious objector, ethical vegan stance...second they facilitated the rescue of victims from harm...that's the supporting by volunteering and donating to your local animal sanctuaries and rescues.

Look around, investigate the places that save animals in your community. If they promote ethical veganism...great...if they don't...help them grow into such a stance while you assist them with their rescue activities. Otherwise they are just perpetuating the superior/inferior dance that creates the need for sanctuaries and rescue facilities. The very phenomenon that created the need for humans like Mr. Winton and Mr. Schindler.

Unless and until most of us are able to get through this struggle to see beyond superior/inferior then we'll just have to keep doing the same thing over and over and harming over and over and rescuing over and over. Spinning around and around in the same spot really is a poor way to try to get somewhere....unless you're just trying to get dizzy.

The main character in Gentleman's Agreement is a writer who is taking on an assignment to write about antisemitism and he really doesn't want to. He has this exchange with his mother:

Mrs. Green: You think there's enough anti-Semitism in life already without people reading about it?
Phil Green: No, but this story is doomed before I start. What can I say about anti-Semitism that hasn't been said before?
Mrs. Green: Maybe it hasn't been said well enough. If it had, you wouldn't have had to explain it to Tommy right now.

Maybe ethical veganism hasn't been said well enough. Maybe it will have to be said again and again until it is said well enough that no one has to explain it, that we all understand and live it.

I ran across this quote

and I was struck by how similar the sentiment being expressed by Dr. Sagan was to something that happened to me years ago while still in graduate school.

In my program each student selected one of the faculty members to be their major professor...this was the person who oversees their journey through academia that culminates with the granting of the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Everyone had their own theories about which professor to select and mine was that I wanted someone who seemed to combine academic prowess along with some...for want of a better word...wisdom. So I chose mine.

After awhile in any prolonged period of work and study in the department you get to know the professors fairly well. One of the drawbacks to becoming familiar with anyone or several anyones or even becoming knowledgeable about topics is that you begin to see the flaws or drawbacks in addition to the positives or the strengths.

I was as full of myself and as self-righteous as any semi-educated young male human and began to be put-off by my dawning awareness that some of the professors were not all graced with benign intent and dripping with accurate knowledge and scintillating insights and profound vision (such expectations coming from my own flawed notions).

I went to my major Professor with my distress and he heard me out and even agreed with some of my observations and grumpings. I said something goofy alluding to how disillusioned I was with academia in general and psychology in particular. That was when he evinced a bit of fire and let me know that while it was true that there are a number of goobers and flawed folks in the field...he assured me that on a statical basis I would be likely to encounter many more instances of serious ignorance and blindness, especially about what made humans tick, in any area outside of psychology.  He said if I really wanted to see profound examples of reasons for disillusion and dismay, I ought to go hang around, for instance, some business type folks.

He pointed out that science as a profession offered no guarantee that foolishness wouldn't exist and maybe even persist but no other organized human endeavor had a self-correcting mechanism built into it quite like the one in science...the notion that one should and must change their position and/or viewpoint when presented with arguments and facts that dictated doing so.

I was able to hear him, partially because I trusted him, and had lived long enough to suspicion that he was correct. And the years since have borne out his accuracy. I spent many years in the field of the "helping professions". I met many people, some wise and insightful, some not so much. But I would be willing to bet that if you threw together 100 human animals who were thoroughly trained in science and a scientific approach to the world and knowledge and matched them up with 100 from politics or business or religion (or many other approaches) you would come away probably wanting to hang out with more of the science folks than you would with the other folks. At least I probably would...especially if they weren't seriously ignorant about human emotions and psychology (which, by the way, is similar to the emotions and psychology of all animals). (my apologies to all the wise ones and the perceptive ones and the caring ones who can and do exist is other academic areas...I know you're there...and my apologies to all the wise one and caring ones and perceptive ones who don't have anything to do with any academic area...I know you are there too. I'm just writing about this one small thing right now and while it might sound like I'm ignoring and/or dismissing you...I'm really not.)

I was whisked back to graduate school when I saw that graphic showing the quote attributed to Carl Sagan and I was reminded of how grateful I was, and am, that I had the opportunity to hang around with and learn from that now long dead Professor. I miss him a lot.

What does this have to do with veganism? Well, it sort of looks like nothing at all...but actually I think it has quite a bit to do with it. "...scientists are human and change is sometimes painful." That is a truth. We human animals often have difficulty with change, not always, but often. For those of us not lucky enough to have grown up with an ethical vegan approach to the world around us...to get to that position we had to change. We had to change our viewpoint, we had to change our behavior...and that can be difficult and even painful. But...making a change when new information is encountered is exactly what a good scientist must do....even in the face of resistance from those around us...even in the face of resistance from the culture or from society.

I've admired a fellow named Ignaz Semmelweis for years and years, ever since I ran across information about him while I was in graduate school. Few people have ever heard of his name yet he should be very very well known. He was an obstetrician in Vienna in the mid 1800s and figured out that the reason the death rate during childbirth was so high was because the physicians weren't washing their hands before assisting in the labor process. He was ridiculed and ostracized by his colleagues. Here's a part of the wikipedia entry about him:

 Semmelweis was outraged by the indifference of the medical profession and began writing open and increasingly angry letters to prominent European obstetricians, at times denouncing them as irresponsible murderers. His contemporaries, including his wife, believed he was losing his mind, and in 1865 he was committed to an asylum. In an ironic twist of fate, he died there of septicaemia only 14 days later, possibly as the result of being severely beaten by guards. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease, offering a theoretical explanation for Semmelweis's findings. He is considered a pioneer of antiseptic procedures.

Many who have become enlightened enough and courageous enough to transition to ethical veganism can identify with Dr. Semmelweis. I can only thank you for your stance and remind you that you are saving lives and you are reducing suffering and that you are not alone and that we human animals have a long history of avoiding truths that are right in front of us.



 

We have issues...

By we I mean we human animals who live in the United States. Most of us are aware that on December 14th of 2012 a 20 year old white male named Adam Lanza entered an elementary school in Newtown Connecticut and murdered 20 children and 6 adults. We who live here in this country are sadly familiar with the news of a mass killing by, usually, a "deranged white guy" wielding a "semi-automatic firearm" of some sort or another. By the way, from the time of the Newton shooting up until yesterday (about a month and a half), we Americans have managed to kill another 1,619 of ourselves with guns (murder, suicide, accidental).

Like most other human animals who live in the U.S., I've been hearing about such instances of mass violence against groups of humans for years. According to this source there have been 62 such violent happenings since 1982...that's about one such killing spree every 6 months.

Consider this: Here's a table showing all American deaths in all the wars we've been involved in, including the first one noted....the Revolutionary war. (source)

Revolutionary War	4,435
War of 1812	2,260
Mexican War	13,283
Civil War (Union and Confederate, estimated)	525,000
Spanish-American War	2,446
World War I	116,516
World War II	405,399
Korean War	36,574
Vietnam War	58,220
Persian Gulf War	383
Afghanistan War	2,175
Iraq War	4,486
Total	1,171,177

Now one of the first things I noticed about this table was the absence of any reference at all to the number of "Americans" killed in what was actually our first "war"...the one where the arriving Europeans killed the people living here first...the Native Americans. This table implies there never was a war against Native Americans...or maybe it presents a greater truth...so few of the invading Europeans were killed that they weren't worth noting.

Context that number of dead in the preceding table...1,171,177 killed in all wars since about 1776, a span of approximately 236 years,  with the data in this figure which covers only 44 years.

 Total deaths caused by firearms in the United States (excluding war deaths, source):
 

1968 to 1980	377,000
1981 to 1998	620,525
1999 to 2010	364,483
2011	32,163
Total	1,384,171

Since 1968, since the year in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered with a gun (about 44 years ago), we "Americans" have managed to kill more of ourselves with guns than we have had killed in all the wars we've ever fought. When I stumbled across that information I was stunned. Just absolutely stunned. But the topper for me was the following graphic (source):

Like many, I've read about the belief by some that somehow civilians owning guns would keep the "government" from turning tyrannical and oppressing "the people". As the above figures show, for every firearm (handgun, rifle or shotgun) owned by the U.S. military or police, civilians own 79 firearms (handguns, rifles or shotguns). I'm sorry but that's simply sick. Those numbers don't reflect a concern with freedom or with rights...those numbers reflect a societal illness.

For a number of years I've been uneasy with anyone who seems to like guns. I grew up in rural Oklahoma, guns were all around and "normal". I spent some years in the military where I carried a gun every day I was on duty. Even there, even in the military, I was mildly uneasy around people carrying guns (including myself). I guess my take on guns and those who like guns is very well summarized by this graphic I saw on facebook.

Now I don't know the source of this assertion nor am I certain the issues involved are simply esteem issues. But I have absolutely no doubt that a significant number of the people in this country have issues...and guns aren't going to fix them, in fact, guns are going to make the consequences of those issues even worse than they are already.

I'm not unaware of the fact that some people do fear for their safety and it may be that their fears have some justification...If you're fearful...get a good taser or some other non-lethal device to protect yourself. You won't ever read about a "mass tasering" or a "mass pepper-spraying" where there were lots of dead. If you're determined to have a gun at least, at the very least, only have non-lethal ammunition in your gun and your home.

Bottom line, we've killed more of ourselves with guns in the last 44 years than have been killed in all the wars we've ever fought. Civilians own 80 guns for every 1 gun owned by the police or the government. Just how much more do we need to know to understand that we have serious problems with violence and with guns? We seem to be delusional and irrational about all of this...or at least many of us are. Why are we listening to people who are working out personal issues...especially when they seem to be working them out by acquiring devices designed to cause death? The whole thing is appalling and repulsive and alarming.

My posts are primarily directed toward our behavior toward our fellow animals, toward whom we are horribly violent and harmful. Well...we're also pretty violent toward ourselves, at least in this country and all of these things are connected. Certainly violence and killing is violence and killing...no matter who are the dead. The notion of thinking it is a good thing to have devices around that are designed to cause death is a notion that concerns me. Period.

Living as an ethical vegan means not harming other living beings. Wanting to have lots of devices designed to kill living beings...well...that seems to be the opposite of ethical veganism.

Babies...

I admit to finding the babies of my fellow Earthlings mind-bogglingly attractive.
(thanks to all the photographers...all photos were obtained from the internet or sanctuaries)

Here are some examples of why.

The wonderful being to the left is a baby wombat. The cutie above is a baby African grey parrot. All are just exquisite.

And no, the last photo isn't of a baby...just a picture of a wonderful face. Our planet has so many different beautiful babies and beings. Unless you are living as an ethical vegan...you are not doing all you can to not harm them. They deserve their lives as much as you deserve yours...live vegan and help to do your part in allowing them that which you ask for yourself.

Happy, Happy...

Vegan New Year to All!

And again:

And again:

And also, thank you from the little ones...like this baby below...thank you for caring about all other living beings. Earth and life belong to them too. Living vegan is the only meaningful way to respect that truth. Enjoy your New Year!

(thanks to all the creators of the images...all were found on the internet)

Merry Merry...

For all y'all...

Now and always is the season to be vegan...that way we can have year round holidays. Enjoy!

And:

To all beings...and especially to you who take the time to read and maybe even comment. Thank you!

Hooray for Winter Solstice...2012...

The December solstice will occur at 11:12am Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 21, 2012. For us living here in the central Oklahoma area that is 5:12am. If you want to know the time in your area for this event you can check here.

Image from timeanddate.com

December Solstice is the event which marks the start of increasing length in hours of sunlight for us in the northern hemisphere (conversely, December Solstice marks the start of shorter daylight hours in the southern hemisphere). While this is our shortest day of the year (hours of sunlight), this is the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. You might not realize that the December Solstice occurs on different days in different years: "December 20 and December 23 solstices occur less frequently than December 21 or December 22 solstices in the Gregorian calendar. The last December 23 solstice occurred in 1903 and will not occur again until the year 2303. A December 20 solstice has occurred very rarely, with the next one occurring in the year 2080." (source) The reason for this variance?

As with the June solstice, the December solstice’s varying dates are mainly due to the calendar system. The Gregorian calendar, which is used in most western countries, has 365 days in a common year and 366 days in a leap year. However, the tropical year, which is the length of time the sun takes to return to the same position in the seasons cycle (as seen from Earth), is different to the calendar year. The tropical year is approximately 365.242199 days but varies from year to year because of the influence of other planets. The exact orbital and daily rotational motion of the Earth, such as the “wobble” in the Earth's axis (precession), also contributes to the changing solstice dates. (source)

In other words...the timing for natural cycles is a bit fuzzy.

Human animals in the northern hemisphere have marked this event with celebrations and festivals for thousands of years. The light is returning, with this return spring will eventually occur...new growth in plants...new babies born to many of our wild relatives. All in all, pretty good reasons for celebration.

Greetings and best wishes to you and yours on this holiday season. Please make this a peaceful and caring celebration time by living as an ethical vegan.

These images are available from VeganPeace and you can visit there if you would like to send electronic vegan holiday greetings.

Pictures of Grasshopper, Rose, Rudy and Danny taken by Wanda Embar, Vegan Peace at Farm Sanctuary.

 Be well, be kind and enjoy! Consider visiting a local animal shelter or rescue and giving some of your time and attention to the beings there. They will appreciate it (and so will you). Thank you and happy Holidays!

Driving by the dead.

It's about 12 and 1/2 miles from my house to Heartland Rabbit Rescue. I go south out of Norman on I-35 for a couple of miles, across the South Canadian River then I turn west and travel about 5 more miles. Then I turn south on another highway and go south and west until I'm there. Once I'm there I visit Cutie.

Cutie.

She is shown out on the grounds where she will aggravate other bunnies if she gets a chance or she might undertake a digging project and move much more dirt than seems possible as she digs herself a tunnel.

Cutie again.

I'll also visit Albert too. He often is given the chance to

Albert.

run free and he will galoomp all over the warren grounds busying himself with whatever comes to his mind and/or attention. If he spots a human and he is of a mind to...and he is usually of a mind to. He will run really hard and fast toward that human and come to a screeching stop right at their feet and wait. He wants a head rub. If he gets what he wants...he'll take as much as he wants at that time and then he'll take off again.

Cutie and Albert are safe. They are cared for. They are appreciated and marveled over.

While driving to the rescue, after I turn to the southwest, over on the north side of the road there is a group/herd of bison.

Bison

This group certainly contains mothers and their babies, whether there are any grown guy bison in the group is not known to me.

Baby and mom.

These beings aren't safe. They aren't cared for beyond what is needed to be done to make sure they live long enough to be profitable to kill.

They are beautiful. Their ancestors were here long before any human animals. This part of North America was and is their ancestral home. Now they don't run free. Now they have tags in their ears. Now they are living but they are dead.

Seeing them every day I make the trip...seeing them on the way there and seeing them on the way back is painful and sad-making. It's quite a depressing juxtaposition. I'm traveling to a place where some beings are made safe but to get there I have to travel by the walking dead. They are beautiful beings, magnificent even...but that counts for nothing...they are dead. They are used to benefit a human or humans. Their lives, their cares, their desires, their pains, their fears, their joys big or small...all count for nothing except as might contribute to profit for some human animal.

There are other sorts of beings I drive by...cows...you may do so too. Most of us often pass by areas where the living dead are kept. If you don't do anything else...next time you see a cow or a sheep or a buffalo or anyone else that is one of the living dead...at least suffer a twinge and send them an apology of some kind. For the buffalo at least...we're not only killing them...we stole their homes too.

I'm always happy to see Cutie and Albert and each and every other bunny at the rescue and Midnite and Judy and Molly. But...every trip there and every trip back carries a load of sadness and helplessness. No matter how many are safe at the rescue...many more are dying or are the future dead.

Doing your part to end this culture of death and exploitation will necessitate living as a vegan...please don't put it off any longer. That buffalo baby doesn't deserve what is going to be done to him...and it is all absolutely unnecessary....and wrong.

The relativity of wrong.

"...when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

This quote is taken from an essay written by Isaac Asimov. When I was ten or eleven I discovered science fiction...the genre has remained a staple of my reading habits ever since. There are few authors in the field that are the equal of the late Isaac Asimov...partially because he was a bright and insightful individual.

I was struck by how relevant and applicable this thought is to the notion that all sentient beings have the right to live their own lives however they want. This may not be perfectly true...but if you think it is as untrue as believing that no living beings except human ones have such a right...."your view is wronger than both of them put together".

Truth, rightness, goodness, accuracy...all these terms refer to something that is, in the end, fuzzy. But if you think the notions of animal rights are just as inaccurate or fuzzy or as wrong as the way human animals now behave toward our fellow living beings. You're wronger than all "of them put together".