elizabeth evatt - first female judge of an australian high court and first chief justice of the family court of australia - stated many years ago that "we are not by constitution a christian country" - that statement has stayed with me for many years and often helped reinforce my beliefs - 'smash the church, smash the state' was an imperative of the womyn's movement in the 70s and often helped sustain me... the separation of church and state - it is an absolute necessity in a free world...
although with the amount of christian 'celebrations' we adhere to you would never know we were a multicultural, multi-belief population, a non-christian country... you'd never know more than a third of the population doesn't believe in any religion at all - but then, you have to wonder how many ordinary people within the percentage of those considered christian only identify with religion at certain times - christmas, easter - perhaps it's just easier for them to go through the motions - after all, let's face it, no child is born religious - it's purely an indoctrinated, learned behaviour from parents!!!!! what can i say - stop fucking brainwashing your kids with a mysoginistic patriarchal religious fantasy...
i'm surprised at the number of people that have said to me recently they're not christian, they just celebrate christmas because they always have... here's something novel - let's change it - let's still have a holiday, but at some other time of the year for something more worthwhile... perhaps international womyns day, or any one of the struggles that have been fought by ordinary people - maybe a time special to our indigenous population, or new years day for new beginnings... maybe a children's day seeing so many people say "it's just for the kids anyway"... perhaps we could all just choose a time that means something significant to us - now that would truly be political and religious equality...
for some of us the last week has been a time to hide away - i certainly find it hard to listen to all of the talk of murdered non-human animals being basted and trussed and stuffed for human consumption - all i can think of is the horror of their lives and the grotesqueness of their deaths for this over-indulgent time of gluttony... huh, and this the so-called christian time of compassion - but for who? definitely not the animals - nor most humans from what's happening in the world today!!!!
i gained some respect for joaquin phoenix after listening to his narration, which encouraged me to read something about him - i learned he'd been a vegan since he was 3 - now that doesn't really say much but for the fact he's now 36 and still vegan!!! he won an humanitarian award for his social justice work including his contribution to this documentary... thank fuck, all is not lost with this generation - there is hope in the world yet!!!
do you consider yourself a compassionate person? then why not view 'earthlings' online... it's only right that you watch it - after all, if you eat or wear animals then you are complicit in the horror that is their life because you 'benefit' by them, so you owe them that much at least - to see what brutality is inflicted on them for you... to see what savagery humans are capable of - perhaps if you see, the world might change rather than stay stuck in this rut...
roll on new year - and hopefully a new, compassionate world where people take a stand against speciesism, rather than go along with 'tradition' - after all, we are all earthlings...
I too have watched "Earthlings" and wept.
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