The Truth Ain't Always Easy To Hear (or Say)

I believe in being a nice person, kind and generous to everyone, even under the most distressing of circumstances. Many, many writings of mine have been revised to have a kinder tone (lol – believe it or not!), and even revised again later…I do not try to be insulting or combative, but I absolutely, positively, cannot compromise on the truth. I find our current ‘acceptable’ methods so outrageous that speaking out against them is almost not even a choice – it is what MUST BE DONE.

Try as I will to be as nice as I can…sometimes the deep insult and shame I feel just by knowing the truth does leak into things I write or post. I cannot always soothe or boost egos, when often it is these very egos and their willful ignorance that is causing the issues we face!

The media is not going to tell you the truth. If you don’t know that by now than I am not sure I would ever be able to get through to you no matter what I say! Little bits and pieces come out here and there, but it took me several years to actually make a whole picture, to really begin to understand, and I am positive there is a lot I still don’t know. What I do know is we are blatantly controlled by corporate interests - who largely mediate what you see and read every day – and who deliver the brainwashing to keep you silent. We are cultured into capitalistic, systemic cruelty, abuse, and discrimination in almost every form, then every possible avenue of profiting from our destruction is exploited.

The ‘newest fad’ – supplements, drugs, diets – you don’t think you are being manipulated? Really? There have been MANY attempts at putting the truth on television. Did you see a bunch of ads for “Forks Over Knives” when it came out? How about “Food, Inc?” Or “The Bay?” Or the hundred or so other films and press releases that have come out attempting to rally for the planet, to protect and conserve, to stop the cruelty and oppression, and/or to bring awareness? Did you see all the ads? Nope. Probably not.

Did you know corporations threaten to pull their ads if [certain] other ads are run? That it is almost impossible to get ad space for the kinds of shows or movies that would benefit the beings of the Earth and Earth itself? That television stations and the media largely operate under fear of having a band of planet-destroying cruelty-rampant corporations pull their financing?

If any environmental or animal story gets mention, it is often slightly skewed or downplayed. If the media reported the truth, they’d be on the news every night telling how dire a situation we are in and how poorly our system works for the benefit of all.

They talk people into being against THEMSELVES, and voting against THEMSELVES. The system benefits a select few, and entangles you in some absolutely horrific crimes of humanity in which many willingly and blindly participate. Peace and nature and love and compassion is simply not profitable, and unfortunately most people are still sleeping - mere pawns on a chessboard.

I have mentioned before – industry pressured the media to change the term “Swine Flu” to “H1N1” so they could further diminish your chances of making critical and necessary connections.

Are you REALLY controlling YOURSELF? Or are you being controlled? Programmed? For any nonvegan, I simply do not understand why you would let them do it…why would you let them harm others so egregiously in your name and using your finances? Why would you just throw our planet away? Why would you be cruel when it is so easily avoided? No matter what your ‘beliefs’ are – don’t you believe in decency? In good? In responsibility? In compassion? I will never understand willful ignorance, apathy, or intentional harm, I simply cannot understand.

Albert Einstein: “Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.”

Vegan Future

Vegans do not be sad! I totally 'get it'. I completely understand. But you can change your perspective. Just in the way we changed how we viewed the brutality we were inflicting upon others - we can change the way we respond to the ‘knowing’.

Please remember MANY have struggled – slaves who fought to be free, women who fought to not be property, LGBT who fought to not be victims of hate crimes and against discrimination. Not all of the succeeded. Some died never seeing the change that DID come. But they ALL mattered. They ALL made an impact. They ALL brought evolution and deeper thinking to the human species. It wasn’t easy for them either. There were likely many days they could barely crawl out of bed and felt such darkness, afraid change would never come, afraid of a future darker than the PRESENT. But change DID come, and change WILL come. You are pioneers, and you are creating an [r]evolution of the mind and spirit.

The egotistical human will struggle harder accepting rights for non-humans. The egotistical human will take longer to accept the thought that they are NOT more important than any other. The egotistical human will fight hard to continue to dominate others and parasitically overtake our planet. But there is another human emerging…

…the kind and enlightened human. The decent and empathetic human. The evolved human, a human that is beginning to see things in a whole new light.

YOU should NOT be sad. Have your moments, cry if you must (I do sometimes), but then REMEMBER. Remember how awesome you are that you are so decent and kind. Remember you are saving lives. Remember that as hard as it is, you would NEVER want to go back to ‘before’.

Dear Animal Lovers:

Dear Animal Lovers:

If only we could say things the right way so you understood how fantastic being vegan is! We talk about it a lot because we LOVE being vegan, and because there are many lives we are trying to save.

So much suffering could be avoided if you only knew how much you could help them. They DO need you. If you only understood how much power you have to avoid causing suffering to these wonderful beings, and how much happiness you will feel (no matter how happy you are, being vegan will make you even happier!). If I could have one single second for you to feel how being vegan feels – you would NEVER go back.

I LOVE being vegan!

When I saw...

When I saw the videos of the people who live near CAFOs begging for help on YouTube…
(why should I care – I don’t have to live there)

When I saw the Pfisteria organisms and the fish kill...
(not my problem until there are no more fish)

When I saw the cruelty and the confinement of other sentient beings...
(who cares? Not my dog)

When I saw the manure lagoons and the new strains of microorganisms such as E.Coli 0157H7…
(phew! It wasn't my child that died because of unnatural farming methods, so I can just look the other way)

When I saw the other deadly organisms, and the antibiotic resistance…
(wasn't my mother who died from a curable disease because we have depleted our antibiotics on farm animals, so just I'll just go on with my life)

When I saw the India farmer suicides…
(wasn't my dad who killed himself, nothing to see here)

When I saw the BT cotton…
(my fields aren’t poison, and I have no children, so why would I care?)

When I saw the waste of grain…
(I am just so thankful I'm not the one starving to death or can't feed my family, so glad to be me)

When I saw the deforestation because people refuse to give up burgers, steak, bacon, chicken, milk, and cheese for the planet…
(I'll wait until that tsunami comes for me before I'll believe such lunacy as SCIENCE)

When I saw the dead zones in the Gulf, the Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes…
(who needs oxygen? It is over-rated)

When I saw the veal crates and what they do to those babies, just babies…
(torture is fine as long as I still have my cookies and milk, even if the milk is a possible health hazard - I want what I want - dammit!)...

When I saw it all?

I went back to eating my cheeseburger. Perspective is a wonderful thing.

To My Fellow Health Professionals

Fellow Health Professionals:

I am personally appalled at the lack of nutrition education provided to members of the medical field. What we are more commonly taught to recommend and reinforce to patients is indefensible in many ways. A never-ending stream of patients come to us, often people who possess diminishing or nonexistent quality of life, and many health professionals have little idea how to help them except prescribe medications and adhere to guidelines that harm or kill more frequently than cure or help. Additionally, we are all well aware we are in a health care crisis with virtually all disease rates ever-rising.

With consideration to the current mandated training for medical professionals on nutrition (effectively none), I feel very strongly that we owe it to our patients to make sure we are up-to-date on current guidelines, studies, and research for what constitutes healthy living. This extends beyond nutritional guidelines…some corn is no longer really corn, some ketchup is no longer really ketchup (GMOs and many other examples), the ever-failing antibiotic problem, the rise of the superbugs, and the many other serious issues that combine to form the current crisis. We owe it to our patient to advocate for them, and therefore to understand these problems that impact their health.

What do you recommend to a patient with Multiple Sclerosis? High blood pressure? Reflux? Cancer? High cholesterol? Diabetes? Arthritis? Erectile Dysfunction? Vascular disorders? A patient who wants to live healthy and prevent disease?

Patients who desire to live a healthy life, should be given the opportunity to do as such, and that is what we have pledged to do for them to the utmost of our ability. We owe them truth. Don’t be a victim of Big Pharma and lobbyists.

Check the facts and let’s end the healthcare crisis!!!

"When you fail to inform someone about the importance of lifestyle medicine, then you steal that person’s right to live free from sickness and medications.”
- John McDougall, MD

You Can't Talk to Those Who Refuse to Hear!

There is something really odd about animal rights conversations. If you have been ‘doing’ it long enough you come to realize one thing – many people feel uncomfortable and can actually become VERY angry even knowing they TALKING with a vegan!

I will always do what I can to help in every way I possibly can, but I can’t change the resolute unwillingness to discuss or even look at the subject matter long enough to have any productive discussion!

I’ve thought a lot about this, where my role is defined in all of this, and how I very much WANT to share information and have real conversation about the matters of the world, and the difficulty of actually accomplishing that.

There are VERY few ‘non-vegan’ people in my life who I’ve been able to discuss being vegan with. Most people just don’t ask and/or make assumptions. Others, even some close relationships, instantly belittle and degrade your ‘extremism’ rather than give thought to any facts or science or harm or cruelty they are participating in.

The bottom line is that it is upon each to take responsibility for oneself. Sadly, I cannot force anyone to care. I cannot force anyone to desire compassion and freedom from tyranny for all beings. I cannot force anyone to stop the massacre for sheer pleasure rather than any kind of NEED. For most it is still easier to ignore.

I did not shy away from the truth when I was finally brutally slapped with it. I think I would have ‘heard’ the message, no matter where or how I got the information, because I was WILLING to hear it.

The first time I was lucky enough to be told I was an animal abuser I got the shock of my life. I say lucky because I needed that insight. I thought I needed these products to live, and thought animals lived happy lives until someone snuck up behind them and killed them. (Now you say “Really?” and I respond “Kinda-sorta, as isn’t that is the vision we are given?”)

I am ashamed to say I hadn’t thought much at that time about circus elephants or captive marine animals, or zoos, or rodeos, etc.

Now I do everything I possibly can to help. I have created endless posts and sites and channels and pages and comments and posters and letters and essays over the past 10 or so years. I share what I can and I have tried every approach under the sun, but it is the people themselves who need to make the effort to understand what is going on, and it is the people themselves who are staunchly determined to NOT think, no matter what I say or post.

It is each individual’s responsibility. All stories I see are different. People have different reasons that something affected them. I can’t even begin to formulate what picture or video or person would be able to make people see the suffering or seek the truth.

So, I will continue to do what I do. Talk to anyone who is willing. Hurt for my animal friends. Sometimes write babbling statements in response to my thoughts or an email, etc. (!!!)

I try and save people from oppressing other beings that they might regret later. I wish I had changed sooner (like from birth).

The KNOWING part is up to the individual. I am responsible for me, and when I die I will know I did everything I could.

"Waking up to the animal holocaust is deeply painful. Not only are you confronted by the sheer size of it all, 10 billion land animals in the US, 58 billion globally each year, but when you share what you have learned with your friends and family members, who you deeply respect and love, they show indifference at best. You feel like you have come upon a genocide that everyone is trying to hide and ignore. And you can no longer participate. And you can no longer keep quiet. And then you are painted as militant, extreme, judgmental, et al. It is deeply painful on so many levels."
- Gary Smith

“The real struggle in being vegan doesn’t involve food. The hardest part about being vegan is coming face-to-face with the darker side of humanity and trying to remain hopeful. It’s trying to understand why otherwise good and caring people continue to participate in needless violence against animals – just for the sake of their own pleasure or convenience.”
– Jo Tyler

"But Animals Kill Other Animals"

Some humans have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of veganism. Of ALL the excuses we hear for perpetuating the mass slaughter and brutality towards the innocent, the one I have probably given the most thought to is the “but animals kill other animals” argument. Humans feel morally justified because it is “the circle of life.” I could talk about this one for days, there is so much that can be said!

In reality this is a flimsy excuse to justify bad behavior. We say “not to pass judgment” but we do, and MUST do, every single day. We judge serial killers, child abusers, and animal abusers. We ALL claim we are morally opposed to these issues. We judge who we will leave our children or pets with, who we want to work with, and we judge what we sense is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. In our claims to be a ‘higher’ species we assert compassion and morality and nonviolence as desirable and coveted. We assert killing and raping and harming is bad.

We LOVE our dogs and cats. We buy them food, toys, even clothing. We tout how much we “love” animals and “See? I LOVE animals – I have a dog!”

But then we harm, force, dominate, intimidate, abuse, and kill others…others who are just as thinking and feeling as our beloved dogs, cats, or even human children. We make no sense. Lions do not claim morals or thank another prior to ripping them apart. In fact, few humans could witness such an event and go on to partake in the use or consumption of the flesh and blood of such horror. I am grateful for that, as I would NEVER want to be someone who could kill an animal. I would never want to depersonalize another individual like that. I view all as I would my dog or cat – an individual life who I do not want harmed, I do not want to be in fear, and I would not want killed.

Would you stop a man from beating a dog on the street? Of course most of us would. But these same people - “animal lovers” - are complacent with the screams of the slaughterhouse? This is utterly irrational.

The comparisons are nonsensical when examined. When a wild animal eats for food it is purely survival. They do so driven by necessity. Lions and other predators do NOT keep animals they claim to 'love' as pets while they confine, enslave, abuse, and kill others. They do not pass judgment - they are driven by instinct. Humans are not instinctual killers – children are TAUGHT to kill. Additionally, predator species of animal (such as lions) do not destroy and pollute the planet with their food choices. They are not wasteful. They are neither blinded nor ignorant. They do not place poison in their food or contaminate everyone else’s food. They are not killing our Earth. They do not have sick, twisted practices for food sourcing that is driven for their greed or profit margin. They do not contribute to global famine with their diet. They do not consume excessive amounts of water for the mechanized production of LIFE as commodities or profit margins.

So, we base our *moral* “judgments” on tradition and habit rather than a true consideration of what is our “instinct” or even what our true morals would REALLY define as “right and/or wrong”?

FURTHERMORE, we DO NOT need meat & animal products to survive or for health, this is scientific fact, humans flourish on plant-based diets, so our killing is completely unnecessary and driven by bad habit and tradition instead of thoughtful action.

So when people say “But other animals kill”, it seems they are simply rationalizing irrational comparisons. If one pets their dog/cat yet supports and contributes to the abuse other species of animals - if they claim to "love animals" - but are not vegan? They have been trained - basically brainwashed - to enable these contradicting feelings to go on unquestioned.

Personally, I do not want to cause ANY being any suffering if I can avoid it…no more than if they were right here in my own home and part of my own family.

Vegans get the ‘what would you eat on a deserted island?’ (generally the same as zombie apocalypse-type questions) question a lot - but we ask nonvegans - if you lived somewhere with thousands of choices that did NOT cause suffering, then why would you?”

Great quote from Robert Grillo:
“We recognize the important moral distinction that true carnivores kill out of survival and we instead kill animals for reasons of pleasure and profit. But I wonder why so many think it is even plausible to make choices based on what other animals do. Do we fornicate in public like other animals do? No. Do we kill our newborn children based on the fact that certain animals have done so under certain circumstances? No. Yet when it is convenient for our argument, we claim that eating animals is natural and normal because some, not all, animals do the same. And we distort and misrepresent vegans by claiming that they seek to ‘veganize’ the entire animal kingdom. Regardless of what other animals do, if you are not vegan, you pay someone to harm animals in a way that would traumatize you to even witness, unnecessarily, when you have an abundance of animal-free options to choose from. By going vegan, you will not become perfect or ‘holier than thou’ or even cruelty-free. You’ll just have reduced an enormous amount of suffering to innocent beings who have done nothing to you just by making some simple dietary and lifestyle changes.”

Oh the Irony...

 

Talking with someone about when experimentation used to be performed on the disabled/mentally impaired:

“Some of the things we did were very barbaric.”

“YES! How awful that we would ever do that!”

“Well, they didn’t have the same ability to... express their feelings or stand up for themselves, and they were weaker and unable to properly defend themselves.”

 “That shouldn’t matter! They can feel pain and suffering, many of them even died/were killed! It was TOTALLY morally wrong!!!

“If you think about it a little, is the exact same as the animal victims you brutalize every day – animals don’t have the same ability to express their feelings or stand up for themselves, and they are weaker and unable to properly defend themselves; but they feel pain and suffering, and many die."

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

The victimizer will NEVER want to see the reality – that THEY are the perpetrator in this mass indecency. That THEY have made the same decisions that said Africans or Jewish people “weren’t human” or LGBT was “against God” or women were “too stupid and weak to be independent” or that the mentally challenged were a disposable commodity to run experimentation on.

The victims may be different, the discrimination and lack of thinking or feeling behind the actions are all the SAME.

End ALL discrimination. End ALL abuse and oppression of the sentient. WAKE UP.

[go VEGAN]

There is a Difference Between Veganism and Being Plant-Based!

Eating PLANT-BASED is a way of eating that prevents (and has been known to cure) cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and a whole host of other diseases. Animal proteins are known to contribute to and sometimes cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and a whole host of other diseases.
(It is also important to eat organic if one is plant-based, for several reasons, one of the most important of which is to minimize your intake of pesticides [and GMOs - until someone actually proves they are safe for consumption, as they have NOT yet been]).

Veganism is an ethical lifestyle that does not exploit or oppress or discriminate upon others based upon color, sex, nationality, sexuality, or SPECIES. We seek to end discrimination and oppression and abuse and enslavement and violence in totality. We recognize that the teachings most of us were raised upon were simply that – they were taught behaviors (more like bad habits) and were not how we chose to be. We tightly hugged our companion animals while we brutalized other sentient innocent souls, for no rational reason. We realized causing others to suffer when it was so often avoidable was just ethically WRONG and did not align with either our ethics nor the love we hold for all other Earthlings that share our planet (and the planet itself!).

There is a difference. Plant-based is generally for health, maybe environmental, maybe just taste. Veganism is a MORAL decision and is for one reason only – to end the discrimination and oppression and abuse of the innocent.

GO VEGAN.

Always Moving Forward in a Positive Way

We meticulously check labels and frequently read any educational subject we see. We have actually come to enjoy scrutinizing labels, after being initially horrified (many years ago now) to learn what/who we were eating/wearing/using. But, occasionally (very rarely) something slips by us or somehow our money goes for something that wantonly creates violence or harm and abuse to others…

…for one example, an organic company we bought from frequently had two similar items…we saw only one of them and checked it out…vegan and organic. However, the next store run, the wrong one was bought, opened, and a few were eaten by all of us. Very quickly, we realized they were different and grabbed the bag…DAMN! ...the bait-and-switch! These ‘treats’ contained gelatin and were not vegan.

So, which did I do?

1) Scream and holler
2) Sob uncontrollably
3) Berate myself for hours over our poor choices
4) Realize that no harm was intended or desired, dispose the remains, and go about my day, still a little pissed at the company for having ones with gelatin?

It happens…occasionally something sneaks by when we lose attention span for moment. We do the very best we can - we are METICULOUS overall - it is not hard or a hassle once you know what you're looking for - and we feel really good about living aligned with our ethics.

A meaningful life for me is doing the best I can to live by my ethics while understanding that I have limitations – at least until the world goes vegan!

(BTW - I chose to do #4! :) )

Moving onward.

Discrimination…still

Racism, sexism, homophobia, speciesism…the individuals affected by these issues may be different, but the reason they exist is the same – perception, fear, ignorance, misconception, and sometimes hatred of that which is not understood. Because of this, some are perceived as weaker, less intelligent, or of lesser value.

How many stories have you heard about the homophobic person being discriminatory until someone they know/love ‘comes out of the closet’? Anti-homosexual people often change when they can see these individuals ARE ‘like them’. This is the same for discrimination because of race and other forms of bias.

When we are able to transcend mistruths, tradition, and habit to grasp the obvious facts right before our eyes - that the other is thinking, feeling, caring, worthy, loving, deserving - only then do we end the discrimination.

The sad thing is we just keep repeating the mistake. In the beginning of this writing – “the individuals affected by these issues may be different” – no matter how far we come on race equality or sexual equality, we still live by harming and oppressing, living in fear, enslaving, discriminating, and sometimes hating. We still see others as weaker, less intelligent, or of lesser value. It is the same dangerous premise, and it is to our detriment that we cannot just see plain fact and evolve to end the cruelty of human.

Americans practice it by cherishing dogs and cats or loving the birds in their yard, but ruthlessly confining and slaughtering billions of farm animals yearly. Other countries worship cows, or won’t eat pork, and further still, some eat dogs and cats. It is all a form of discrimination.

It is so clear to me now I am frankly stunned I never saw it before. How much I held things against certain beings just for being told I should, or because I did not clearly understand the basis of ALL discrimination and oppression.

Humans are NOT SUPREME to anyone else, regardless of sex, race, or species. People have been led to believe falsehoods that harm us all, and we persistently perpetuate oppression, misunderstanding, cruelty, enslavement, and discrimination. The truth is we are BULLIES.

End discrimination to ALL beings.

Sri Aurobindo, poet and philosopher: "Life is life - whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage."

For No Particular Reason

Many people have grown up to believe that animal products are necessary for life and/or healthy for us. This is scientifically untrue! This life is all about advertising. People have been advertised into believing blatant lies. There are cultures in which cancer and heart disease (in combination kills more than any other disease or cause by far) basically do not exist… What key factor is ALWAYS different? Overwhelmingly these populations eat a vegetable-based diet, and little to no animal products.

The countries with some of the highest rates of osteoporosis also have the highest dairy intake. Why would this be if dairy intake really strengthened your bones? Hmmm… maybe it is simply not true, and maybe we have simply been the victims of false advertising.

It is coming. I see truth in the future, when it can no longer be denied. Some are speaking it, and many are beginning to listen. Facts are hard to bury forever. When doctors are required to take nutrition courses... When the lies begin to fall away... It happened with cigarettes and it will happen again. Advertisements and lies won’t last forever.

Once it starts it is hard to stop. Next thing you know you are all too familiar with Monsanto, or BT cotton, or the suicides of farmers in India, and WHY (and not just the simple answer of crop failure), or the deforestation of our beautiful rain forests, which are dying, and WHY (and again, not the simple answer of “cutting it down”), you learn about manure lagoons and floods, and about massive fish kill and the spills of very poisonous organisms into our food and water, about the hormones and chemicals in your food, and a demand for drug sales that makes someone else rich. You begin to feel empathy for the farmer whose children have to walk through fields of chemicals. When one chooses to understand what a “Round-up Ready” soybean is they will catch a small glimpse only of the true horror of modern agriculture.

No plant on Earth ‘poops’, so why do you think our plant foods got contaminated with a virulent strain of E.Coli? Why are the two most concerning flu viruses of late called Avian flu and Swine flu? Why are these resistant strains of disease developing? Why did they stop calling it Swine flu and pushed the term “H1N1” instead? Why? Why are our antibiotics failing? Why are advertisers busting their ass to show you their green farms, rolling pastures, and “happy cows”? Why are they trying to pass laws that it is illegal to film a factory farm? What is it you aren’t supposed to know? You have to know anyone trying that hard to sell you something is LYING.

In discussing diet and cruelty – inevitably someone mentions that plants are alive, too. I could again reference the list of previous problems that do not exist with plant farming, but that would be redundant, so I also offer the basic anatomy and physiology… to the best of our ability to determine, plants do not have pain receptors. If overly confined they will not grow, so plants are always given the proper food and sunshine/basic life needs that animals are deprived of. Plants do not appear to grieve when other plants or their offspring are kidnapped and/or have no measurable reaction to the killing of their babies.

Dairy cows have been known to moo for their babies for many days. Pigs, which have the intelligence often equivalent to dogs, are known to become clinically depressed in modern farming settings. Chickens have been witnessed cooing to their developing babies while in the egg, and any naturally raised bird will always try to defend her eggs – in her mind they are her children and not your meal! Down is pulled viciously from live birds and cause a great deal of pain. Mulesing mutilates sheep for our wool. Animals used for fur are often anally electrocuted or just skinned alive so their fur is not damaged for you to wear and are also kept in confinement, in any kind of weather. Pigs have been found frozen to the sides of trucks after transport as no comforts are provided no matter what the weather. Unbelievably unethical animal testing is still pervasive. Bullhooks and beatings and withholding food are used to train animals for the circus, marine parks, etc. Dolphins and whales are often kidnapped from tight loving family units. There is no industry that relates to live animals that does not have an aspect of cruelty, all you need do is look. The proof is everywhere but no one looks.

If you attempt to eat only organic plant products and you avoid GMOs, pesticides, you say loudly that you want practices in your food that respected our soil and planet to produce. And, the land and water usage for producing animal foods versus plant foods is grossly different, so the simple conservation argument is also valid.

There are people called fruitarians. They eat only what naturally falls off the plant; thereby (in theory) they kill nothing for their food and live as true ‘foragers’ of food. I suppose that is for those who have strong beliefs in killing plants, too. I’m not quite at that level but I don’t make fun of it and understand why.

I am thankful for the plants that gave their life for me, and surely some bugs, snakes and mice, too, with plant harvesting. In an earlier writing I made clear that I do not believe that these things absolve me in any way from death, and I know I own some products that I have little control over the ‘ingredients’ (such as my car or products necessary for my job), but still I feel compelled to avoid animal products any time I am able.

As said, I’m sure field mice have died tilling crops, and bugs, snakes, frogs, etc. If I could produce 100% of my own food I would. Until that day I continue to try and buy only from organic local farmers. People who don’t have to poison our soil or water, or bottom-trawl our oceans to produce my daily nourishment. People who minimize harm and minimize waste, and don’t ever practice torture or confinement.

Waste is abundant and pervasive. Egg-laying hens are only produced for females as egg-chickens and meat-chickens are two separate industries. Cows we eat are NOT used for leather products. That is a totally different industry, too. We have turned farming into a massive confinement operation that cruelly treats animals as machines and wastes HUGE amounts of Earth resources.

We have many options available that do not cause suffering or waste or destruction. Why would anyone choose to cause suffering when it can be so easily avoided?

GO VEGAN.

Vegan Secrets

Some things only vegans may know:

1) Many Vegans Get Hate Mail

I occasionally get hate mail. There is something so inherently challenging and worrisome about vegans that it seems many simply cannot tolerate. I think it is such a strange thing. As a vegan and yes, a tree-hugger, I find I can rarely say or post much of anything without having some (most?) feel offended or put-off. I have been de-friended or blocked multiple times so no one has to see the reality.

This is fine with me, though it does confuse me some. Having now been an activist a long time I am quite accustomed to it and remain undaunted in my quest, though I often feel bad for new or younger activists getting the taste of being the ‘different’ one, as it can be brutal.

It is so odd to me. Most people I know have children, grandchildren, etc. I do not understand where the benefit lies in the refusal to take a hard look at science and reality. People feel vegans are sentimental and extreme, when in fact their choices are based on facts and science of truth. We will most likely live long enough to see this truth finally hit the light of day, and the lies and media and propaganda finally fall away.

2) Vegans are Considered Terrorists.

Well, most of us are anyways. While I have no idea if I personally am a person of suspicion, I do know of many people I admire very much who were put on watch lists as possible terrorists. This, too, freaks me out. The movie, “Behind the Mask” tells some of the story there. Activists do not have to be affiliated with ALF to be a person of interest, these days you just have to be a vegan!

3) [Most] Vegans Don’t Hate Meat Eaters!

Frustration is often a fair term for how I feel in regards to people who eat animal products, not dislike or hate. I don’t know what to say to motivate people to change. I don’t know how to tell them without them turning away. I understand many people simply don’t know what is happening. Next thing you know they are scared to post recipes and the like (maybe fear of being judged? I don’t know), and would rather just avoid me altogether since it is easier.

I didn’t create this problem and I will not stop trying to fix it. Every day whether I am on Facebook, YouTube, Email, my professional or personal life, I am thinking about how to get you to care. To realize how important YOU are in your family’s longevity and survival, their ability to enjoy what we were fortunate enough to enjoy. In being kind to all beings. In preserving our planet’s resources.

When I first found out about all of these issues, it seemed SO SIMPLE to me…

“We just have to tell people what is happening,” I thought.

I was once POSITIVE you wouldn’t put up with this once you knew.

Instead the ‘real’ me is uncomfortable for many, or, even still, in some settings people feel compelled to challenge me at every turn. I would ENJOY true discussion and challenge, but I find that most people do not argue with any actual thought or science and have never checked one thing I have posted as rational, true, or sensible, leading not to discussion, but to pointless frustration!

One of my best friends in the whole world, who I had known for 40 years, found veganism particularly threatening. He would not stop bringing it up, incessantly challenging my patience and persistently trying (and failing) to put me down, finally looked me in the face and said point-blank (while petting my dog), “I guess I just have no moral compass for a pig.”

I don’t miss him.

Off to check my hate mail! (lol)

(Please don’t feel this is sad or feel bad for me, I certainly don’t. I am so grateful I woke up and I wouldn’t trade that for ANYTHING or ANYBODY in the whole world. I am THRILLED every day that I am vegan, and there are many people that ARE supportive. I LOVE being vegan.)

Thank you for reading

Poopy Food lol

“E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and all the other fancy scientific names used to describe food pathogens, all boil down to the same thing for the consumer - there’s animal excrement in your food.

Packaged meat now carries a warning label telling consumers to wash everything that’s even come into contact with meat. The reason you have to cook it so long is to make sure the animal excrement is safe... for you to eat.

 It’s no longer a question of whether there’s manure in your meat, it’s a question of how to deal with it. The meat industry’s answer is not to get rid of it, but to nuke the whole package with radiation. Now, all you have to worry about is getting used to the taste of a mouthful of dead bacteria from fried farm animal feces.”

- Mike Anderson, in the documentary ‘Eating’

Inner Peace?

 

I saw a television show once, filmed in what most would call a third-world country, and one of the women of the village, when asked about food shortages, said, “We would not be able to sleep at night if we knew a neighbor had not eaten, we share what little we have.”

Translated – they would not know ‘peace’ while others were suffering. 

I see a lot of posts daily from many people about *inner peace*. For myself, I am somewhat opposed to the idea of expressions of *inner peace* while living in such a society. I am deeply ashamed for humans and our actions, and while just about every person claims to care, claims to value education, claims to be enlightened, claims to be compassionate, I find these are often empty declarations that are not carried through by their actions.

Perhaps my definition of inner peace is not the same as some others. I am most at peace when I am saving a life, when I am eating a meal that avoided as much suffering and destruction as possible, when I am reading a letter from someone whose life I affected in some way, when I see animals freed to sanctuary, when I see the hungry being fed and the homeless being sheltered, when a (veggie) farmer wins a small victory against Big Ag, when someone changes their diet and goes off medicines and/or manages or cures their disease, when a rainforest tree is protected for another day, when someone plants a native berry-bearer for my beloved wildlife friends, when someone stops using Round-up/other pesticides and stops polluting our world, when someone goes vegan and then realizes how brainwashed they were the whole time, etc, etc, etc!

I will not find true peace until all I love have peace. I will never be silent while others suffer. I will not feel content while we torture, kill, and destroy. For me it is impossible to truly be at peace while almost everyone and everything I love is suffering and dying. I find my peace only within the fight – at least, until this fight is won! Expressions of *inner peace* strike me expression of privilege, of ignorance to the suffering...of being one of the *lucky ones*.

I am happy, actually quite joyous most of the time…but no, I am not at peace…not until we all know peace will any of us truly understand what it is to be peaceful people.

Confusing World

Dear Nonvegans:

By now you probably know about factory farms…

You also probably have an idea that no matter the size of the farm animals are killed for food, often while sick, frightened, abused, and/or mutilated, and ALWAYS against their will and before their natural years (usually in the years we would commonly refer to as ‘babies’ or ‘toddlers’).

You probably are starting to get some information (truth) that we have been lied to (and are still being lied to), and that eating animal products is actually not healthy for you or your family. Hopefully you understand that while people may be living longer, rarely are they free of chronic diseases, and all disease rates are skyrocketing, with the patients getting younger and younger.

You may even have come to realize captivity is cruel (Blackfish, etc.).

You probably know there is an environmental impact of eating animals, or at least have some indication that we greatly harm the Earth and all species with our irrational choices.

You may even know about the tremendous misuse of land, water, and chemicals to raise animals for food, the diseases, the antibiotics and resistance being created, the loss of biodiversity, the death and filth and horror…

…yet some are still able to ignore it all for frivolous nonsensical pursuits and habits.

I am fine with being viewed as a bit crazy, or even obsessed…as long as I am NOT viewed as being part of such indecency!

I don’t know what it means that people can choose to be so cruel and willingly ignorant all the while truly believing they are kind, prudent, and refined. There is such disconnect from people’s words to their actions. Confusing world.

Every Life Matters

"Many years ago, I adopted a hamster from a law school classmate. The hamster became ill one night, and I called an emergency veterinary service. The veterinarian said that the minimum amount for an emergency visit was $50 and asked me why I would want to spend that amount when I could get a 'new' hamster from any pet shop for about $3. I took the hamster to the veterinarian anyway, but that event was one of the first times my consciousness was raised about the status of animals as economic commodities."
- Gary L. Francione

 

Do you value life?
Are you opposed to cruelty?
If you answered "Yes" then you already believe in being vegan.

My Pledge:

I will avoid offering my financial support in any activity that results in cruelty to humans, cruelty to animals, or planetary destruction.

I pledge to always take responsibility for my daily choices, and for shaping a more compassionate future.

I will try to know the truth at all times, but even in unclear times I will do what I feel is right, no matter how hard it is.

I will always choose to live a non-violent, compassionate, cruelty-free, Earth-friendly lifestyle.

I will never step on other people or other Earthlings to make my life easier or better.

I will not knowingly harm other beings under any circumstances.

I will happily share so we can both eat.

I will never learn the meaning of impossible.

I will arise every day with a renewed energy to help others.

There is no aspect of my own life that I will not own.

I will not be wasteful or ungrateful.

I will respect all life.


BE KIND. BE VEGAN.

I Love My Friends!

To my wonderful friends:

I love my vegan friends, even the ones I have never met. There is no other group en masse that I can instantly understand as far as the kind of person they are and the values they hold. I know that being vegan isn’t always easy in our society (not for the reasons people might think), but it is critically important we always keep things in the proper perspective.

We can look back to people like Plutarch, Socrates, Einstein, Pythagoras, da Vinci, Thoreau…they predicted things would change, and I believe they ARE changing. Every day more options for vegans, every day the tide is turning. We likely have a long ways to go, and surely some tumultuous times, but people are beginning to evolve.

There is a passage in Reiki – a line of the passage is, “Just for today I will let go of worry". It makes a great point. It is imperative we recognize what we cannot immediately change, and let some of that go…”just for today”. Recognize how important you are, how much you HAVE already made a difference (YOU HAVE).

You are NOT alone…we are many. You are a pioneer of an awesomely wonderful message…it is not your fault if people are not ready to hear it!

I feel empowered and grateful. I am soooooo happy I didn’t go through most of my life before I ‘saw,’ or that I might have never ‘seen,’ and never even known what awful things I was doing or the impact I was having! As former non-vegans (most of us) we were ignorant supporters of horror, destruction, and oppression. I find such tremendous comfort in the fact that I am no longer that person.

What ‘could have been’ – I could still be killing and harming other Earthlings, abusing them, destroying our ecosystems and putting rotting flesh and secretions in my body. I sometimes get frustrated, angry, and sad…absolutely I do…but then I realize that I am feeling that way because I CARE and I am informed, and that is AWESOME.

The fact that vegans have already been so brave to question indoctrinated ideas is admirable, and I applaud every single one of you. We cannot avoid feeling sad sometimes for the mindless violence and heavy losses - it is what makes us who we are. Feeling sad or frustrated at times is what makes YOU decent and kind, and that is exactly the same thing that makes you wonderful and important. YOU MATTER, and I love you all!

“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
- Victor Hugo

Veganism Can...Save the World?!?!?

If anyone asks me, “What about devastating products such as Palm Oil?”
My answer (especially if the person asking is non-vegan) is, “The world should go vegan.”
So, the obvious question…”But Palm Oil isn’t made from animals…?”

Not, it is not…but it is made under great cruelty and environmental destruction, which would not be vegan values. Most vegans make exceptional efforts to avoid products suc...h as Palm Oil because our ethics do not tolerate animal cruelty or ‘ownership’ over life, and vegans would not support the destruction of the primary habitat(s) for these wonderful Earthlings, human or animal.

People can compare veganism to extremism, religion, cults, whatever…but the truth is vegan values are clear and unflinching, not fluid and/or a tad insane, discriminatory, or based in irrationality as the aforementioned ‘groups’ often ARE.

We would not allow huge habitats to disappear overnight for greed and selfishness. We would not allow society to dominate, destroy, and kill everything. But, in a vegan society, there would be no need to ‘not allow’ it – there would be no need to have laws to prevent or control these things, because they simply would not be the ‘norm’ or thought acceptable.

It would be difficult to find a vegan murderer, a vegan rapist, a vegan racist, etc…because those are not vegan values. What other class of people could you meet and KNOW that statistically, every single one of them is compassionate, loves other Earthlings, wants to do good for the Earth while enjoying the privilege of being here, and are totally convinced (and correctly so) that we COULD create a non-violent society that benefits ALL?

Violence is our societal ‘norm’ – veganism changes that, as it changes the perspectives on the value of all life and living beings.

Environmental devastation – utter, EXTREME environmental devastation - is our societal norm, and veganism changes that, because it enables people to understand the effect they have upon the entire world. Most vegans deeply understand our food and the systems and policies that impact our entire world, and we would NOT be eradicating an entire species for one easily avoidable or unsustainable ingredient.

Sickness and disease is our societal norm – veganism changes that, as it is well-documented that vegans overall live the longest and are the most free of chronic life-threatening diseases.

Killing and cruelty is our societal norm, along with claims of ‘loving’ others while we harm them tremendously – veganism changes that, because we CAN stop, because we CAN be kind. We don’t have to be violent to anyone, in the overwhelming majority of situations. We CAN stop taking lives and ‘using’ others for purposes that no longer make any rational sense for our species.

It COULD be super-easy to change the entire world. Long ago I KNOW I have said it too…before it clicked…”I could NEVER be vegan/vegetarian.” I thought it was restrictive, hard to do, bad for my health. I was so wrong, on every level one can be wrong. I thought I ‘loved’ everyone, I thought I was an ‘environmentalist,’ I thought I was taking care of myself…I was wrong.

It isn’t about ‘listening to someone’ or ‘taking my advice’ or even maintaining the brainwashing we have all endured. All it takes is a few brain cells and the desire to be good, to DO good, and becoming informed. It doesn’t take much research for decent, kind people to arrive at THEIR OWN conclusion. BUT, I warn you – if you really do have those brain cells, and you REALLY do care about the world and all beings on it, you will find there is one glaring unavoidable option…GO VEGAN. Or else you’d then just have to admit you don’t care - about any of us, or even about your own family and their future.

It is an awesome way to live…it doesn’t take long…you feel it…you KNOW it – the world is a better place when vegan, especially meeting all the amazing vegans from all over the world who are fighting for a clean, safe, lush, green planet where equality and love make the decisions, not greed and selfishness. I love my fellow vegans tremendously…I know what they stand for, I know what they care about, and I know that they believe in all the good things this wonderful life has to offer.

Ethics. Equality. Compassion. Non-violence. Love. Be informed. GO VEGAN.