shades of sadness...

i got a phone call from my mother last friday and on answering was told "something terrible has happened..." many scenarios raced through my mind in a few short seconds, but none involved the suicide of my 'cousin' that took place the evening before that they had just been notified of...

my first thoughts were 'how?', 'why?' - numbing disbelief was what i felt - surely i'd heard wrong - but then shock moved aside and reality kicked in, and it didn't matter the 'how' or 'why' but that he was dead - his life journey had ended, and my major concern became how 'aunty eileen' was coping - the death of a child is not something a parent expects to have to deal with... eileen and her kids, although not blood relatives, have been part of my family all of my life, eileen being my mother's best friend of over 80 years and a nurturer, confidant and friend to me for all of my 57 years...

identification had to be made and the coronial inquest was over quickly on saturday morning - there was little to be analysed, it was a 'cut and dried' suicide with a letter left for the family...  adrian was the youngest of all of the 'kids', only 48 years old, but sadly his life had taken a path he felt he could no longer walk along...

we all came together to deal with our sadness while sorting out the 'practicalities' of death, and to celebrate the lovely, funny, but lonely young man that was adrian... that's what 'my family' does, accepts and then continues on with the necessities of life, albeit with a shift to accommodate the void left, the heavy hearts, but that weight lessened by shared memories, laughter and tears (although the funeral is still to come, so there will be many more shared moments).... some need someone or something to blame initially, but that soon dissipates... oh how sadness comes in many shades...

being into astronomy as he was, what more can i say but fly high and shine brightly mate, you will always be in our hearts...

“but it’s just not natural…”

if i had a dollar for every time i've heard or read that about veganism…

having had that said to me yet again just the other day i thought it fortuitous that i had recently watched a presentation by social psychologist and professor of psychology and sociology melanie joy, author of ‘why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows : an introduction to carnism’ because her wonderfully articulate words were fresh in my mind...

“what we call natural is simply the dominant culture’s interpretation of history - it refers not to human history, but to carnistic history - it references not our fruit eating ancestors, but their flesh eating descendents… we only look as far back in history as we need to justify current carnistic practices…”

in her article "shattering the meat myth : humans are natural vegetarians" author kathy freston states

"I noticed the frequently stated notion that eating meat was an essential step in human evolution. While this notion may comfort the meat industry, it's simply not true, scientifically. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus at Cornell University and author of The China Study, explains that in fact, we only recently (historically speaking) began eating meat, and that the inclusion of meat in our diet came well after we became who we are today..."

alas, this fallacious argument is being 'redefined' by some to entrench carnism as the norm in the guise of "humane meat"...

“The new wave of pro-meat arguments is in part an attempt to defend the weakened meat-eating establishment against the very real threat posed by an increasingly powerful vegan movement. “Happy meat,” locavorism, and “paleo dieting” are signs of society’s willingness to examine the ethics of eating meat, eggs, and dairy, and they reflect people’s genuine concern for animals (and the environment and health). But they also reflect the resistance of the dominant, meat-eating culture to truly embracing a vegan ethic. The new pro-meat arguments are part of a carnistic backlash against the growing popularity of veganism, and vegans and non-vegans alike must understand and appreciate them in order to move toward a more humane and just society.” ... melanie joy (from understanding neocarnism)

graphic from "the blood shed from humane slaughter - was your food treated unkindly" on one of my favourite blogs - provoked... by the way we use animals

as an ethical vegan, totally eliminating any use and every abuse of our earthling kin is what’s important to me… so this notion of ‘humane meat’ is definitely something i find unbelievabe, let alone unbelievably frightening - a threat to real change in this world...

acccording to howard lyman, ex cattle rancher, now vegan, author and animal advocate

"My life experience has given me a better understanding of what is happening, and what a mistake it is to believe there is anything called "humane" slaughter. Animals have families and feelings, and to think that kindness before killing them is an answer is totally wrong. Humans have no need for animal products. And when we consume animal products, we're not just killing the animals. In the long run, we're killing the planet, and ourselves.

I'm sure that it will take many years before the majority of humans learn as I have that actions, and not words, are the true proof of our understanding of the term humane. Living my life as I do now, as a total vegan, gives me great joy in knowing that no animal has to die for me to live."

do you believe the myth? want more information? why not check out humanemyth.org - "deconstructing the myth of humane animal agriculture" - there are some 'well worth the read' articles...

and of course here's melanie joy's presentation - see if she gives you something to think about...

as plain as the nose on your face...

walking past the fiction shelves in the back room at work the other day - they’re the shelves holding the new novels waiting to be catalogued - a very stunning, yet simple cover called out to me… i opened up ‘the secrets of mary bowser’ by lois leveen and was drawn into it immediately – i reserved it and couldn’t wait to read mary’s story…

this is an historical novel based on the life of mary bowser, a womon born into slavery and owned by a wealthy merchant john van lew... on his death his daughter elizabeth, an abolitionist, freed all of his slaves and sponsored mary’s education at the quaker school for negroes in philadelphia – a ‘free’ but ‘segregated’ community where mary learns valuable insights and questions much (including the notion of freedom!)...

after graduating she gave up her ‘freedom’ to return to richmond, virginia as part of an underground network transporting 'runaway' slaves to freedom... having a photographic memory, her ability to retain everything she reads, sees and hears, and relay information word for word, soon saw her take her place as an integral player in the union spy network... with underground assistance mary was 'installed' as a house slave in the confederate white house of jefferson davis – the perfect place to glean the movements and plans of the enemy and feed them back to the union…

very little information remains of mary’s exploits... according to the women in history website “After the war, the federal government destroyed the records of Southern spy activities, to protect their lives -- including Mary … In 1995, the U.S. government honored Mary Elizabeth Bowser for her efforts by inducting her in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. During the ceremony, her contribution was described thus:

Ms. Bowser certainly succeeded in a highly dangerous mission to the great benefit of the Union effort. She was one of the highest placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War. ... [Her information] greatly enhanced the Union's conduct of the war. ... Jefferson Davis never discovered the leak in his household staff, although he knew the Union somehow kept discovering Confederate plans."

while reading this book i couldn’t help but think about our modern day slaves – i saw the parallels to those society uses and abuses because of their physical difference – the perception that they are less than – that they are sub-human…

according to the website on nonhuman slavery in an article “The Dreaded Comparison: Martin Rowe on Marjorie Spiegel’s Groundbreaking Book” ...

“the ideologies of slavery that kept these human beings as property continue to be used with non-human animals today…

This comparison—between the conditions of slaves and the conditions of animals in factory farms, as victims of the hunt, and in laboratories—may not seem particularly surprising. After all, as Spiegel documents, slaves in the antebellum United States were considered literally sub-human….

Of course, this type of thinking does not only extend to slaves or African Americans. It extends to Jews, who were rounded up by the Nazis into cattle-cars and sent to the camps because they were considered less-than-human viral infections in the Aryan body politic. It extends to women who have been thought of as bitches, foxy ladies, vixens, bats, old cows, and less-than-male (i.e. fully human) for centuries. But, and this is Spiegel’s dreaded kicker, this comparison extends to non-human animals—who continue to be beaten, abused, tortured, confined, hunted, and made the play and work thing of those in power."

 can you see the parallels???

can you really not see the parallels?

there are so many others enslaved - from the fur factories, to the feed lots, the slaughterhouses, the puppy farms, the bile farms, the circuses, the 'bestiality brothels', the vivisectors torture chambers - there's such a long list that makes up the current slave trade in sentient beings... i won't add any more graphics though - i will leave it to your minds eye, your conscience, because surely now you can see them? surely now you can understand the parallels of this modern day slavery??? surely it's as plain as the nose on your face?

one of my favourite bloggers, vegan feminist agitator, has recently written a wonderfully articulate post - the next emancipation - after seeing the film 'lincoln' (recounting his efforts in 1865 to get the 13th amendment passed which would abolish slavery) - where she states "I do think that there are parallels, though, with slavery: the concepts of ownership, of sovereignty, of emphasizing the powerful majority’s “right” to the entitlements they want to preserve versus the right of those not so endowed to simply live their own lives. In short, the chilling mentality of exceptionalism..." it's a post well worth reading...

"We can see quite plainly that our present civilization is built on the exploitation of animals, just as past civilizations were built on the exploitation of slaves." ... donald watson

break the silence...

the united nations declaration on the elimination of violence against womyn states “the term violence against women means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”.

according to the australian government statistics “One in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. Almost one in five have experienced sexual violence. It is time for that to change.”  

it’s time for our brothers to stand up and say no more – to shout enough is enough – violence against our mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, friends is not acceptable… it’s time to show outrage… it’s time to say ‘that violence deserves punishment’ – it’s time to stop turning a blind eye…

it’s time to stand up and say you are not a believer in men’s domination of womyn, you are not a believer in men’s right to control, brutalize, violate, ridicule or belittle womyn… 

on this white ribbon day you can take a stand by something as simple as acknowledging out loud - in the workplace, at home, in the pub, anywhere, everywhere - that ‘that comment isn’t acceptable’, ‘that joke isn’t funny’, ‘that view is misogynistic’, ‘that behaviour is intolerable’…

it’s time to break the silence that allows violence to continue and flourish... it's time to swear the oath...

the personal is political...

it's been a while since i've heard that 'rallying cry'... it was something we womyn's liberationists used to chant 'way back' in the 70s, so it was quite wonderful to read it in the 'here and now' as the title of vegan feminist agitator's latest blog post "The Personal is Political: Veganism is a Feminist Act"!!! there are some things you read that just resonate, and this is one of those posts, so while i'm procrastinating over writing a new post myself, this one is definitely worth the share (along with her 'rosie the riveter' graphic!)...

"I was born a feminist. I’m not sure where it came from – perhaps my dynamo of a grandmother, confident to the core – but growing up, I never thought that I was anything but a complete equal to everyone else. I was a natural feminist and when I learned that there was a real need for it - that there were those who believed in arbitrary, illogical and repressive hierarchies - the fire within me to correct injustices found its fuel source. When I saw kids throw rocks at squirrels, heard people make bigoted remarks, witnessed others being treated unfairly, my hands would involuntarily ball up into tight little fists. Even if I wanted to keep quiet, to not attract the ire of that bully down the block who threw rocks at the squirrels or the loudmouth at the bar years later, I physically couldn’t do it. It’d be like asking a volcano to please not explode. My feminism and my passion for equality and fairness were always fully interwoven and integrated."  

here i believe though is the time to send you on over to Marla's blog to read her post in its entirety...