Education as activism

Education as activism. Leafletting, writing letters to the editor, discussing vegan and animal rights issues with our coworkers...these are all aimed at educating our audience. But what about educating ourselves?

I was lazy about it, myself. Vegetarian for years without reading a single thing on vegetarianism. I didn't even have a cookbook for most of that time. It took only a vague reference to cruelties in the egg and dairy industry for me to go vegan, finally. And still I read nothing on the issues. Being vegan was enough, wasn't it?

A few years later I agreed to participate in a fur protest. "We have to do more," I thought to myself after my first protest, "simply eating vegan food and avoiding exploitation in my purchases isn't enough. It isn't just about our personal consumption. It is bigger than that." And so I became more involved in activism, participating in weekly fur protests and other periodic demos, starting a (short lived) brunch revolution. Yet I read nothing.

I watched Earthlings and it changed me, a bit. I didn't really understand the cruelty of the dairy industry before that. Knowing it is wrong, and seeing the horror of it are two different things, I found. You know on a much deeper level just how wrong it is after watching it. And that is just one example of the education Earthlings provided. I was motivated to do more after that, though I had no solid direction in mind. And still I didn't think to continue my education.

However I was also involved in an online community, VeganFreaks, and listened to their podcasts every week. It was obvious how much reading Bob and Jenna had done, as well as many people on the forums. I started listening to other podcasts as well, such as animal voices, and there again it was clear how much more others knew about various issues than I did myself. I went to AR06 and absorbed as much information as I could, knowing it was barely scratching the surface. I knew there was a welfare versus abolition debate within the movement, but I didn't really understand why people argued about it. I knew I was against vivisection, but was uncomfortable talking about it because I didn't know much about it. I certainly was not prepared for the debate that is sure to result from an anti-vivisection stance, namely the presupposed need to choose between non-humans and humans. Finally I realized what I should have known all along - I need to get off my ass and start educating myself. How can I be effective if I don't fully know the issues I'm trying to talk to people about?

So I started reading. I have a lot of catching up to do. In the few months since I started the process, I have managed to read only a handful of books, but already I can feel the effects. These are important resources, these books, this information. And we need to make use of them.

My have read list:
Terrorists or Freedom Fighters
Sacred Cows or Golden Geece
The Dreaded Comparison

Currently reading:
Rain Without Thunder
Capers In The Churchyard

And in the ever growing pile of books waiting to be read:
Igniting A Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth
Eternal Treblinka
Empty Cages
Rattling The Cage
Specious Science
Speciesm

There are so many other books out there that I should read as well. "Slaughterhouse" is one that comes to mind, but I'm not sure I can read it - I've read a few quotes from it, and they haunt me. Other suggestions are welcome, though even more useful would be an extra few hours every day so I could make some progress.

Many AR titles can be found at your local library, or could be ordered through them. (Getting your library to carry more AR books is a form of mini-activism all on its own.) If you are interested in purchasing the books, I have found AK Press, Lantern Books, and Friends of Animals to be great sources. Always try to order from the publisher if you can.

There are many excellent videos out there as well, well worth seeing. I've only seen Earthlings, myself. I find videos very difficult to watch, and I think their educational focus is a bit different as well. Just as words can't adequately describe the horror of animal exploitation (though I think Slaughterhouse probably does a disturbingly good job), videos can't fully explore the arguments for animal rights.

We need to educate ourselves on animal rights if we are to be as effective as we can be. It is a big job, but an incredibly important one. I didn't realize just how important it was until I started on this path. These videos and books, these thoughts and arguments, are our tools. 'Every tool is a weapon if we hold it right' (ani difranco), and so we need to arm ourselves with the knowledge, the critical analysis, and even the Bizarro type humor. Self-education is so important for us, for the movement, and thus for the animals, that it becomes a type of activism itself. And now no one has an excuse for not being an activist! Read, watch, and learn.

Perspectives: a cat, a Barbie, and humanity

An (almost) anonymous donor recently sent me an odd gift, which sat awkwardly in my living room. A Barbie. I mean, really! Barbie! I didn't know what to do with it, so there it sat.

Until one day my cat suddenly realized that an alien form had entered her domain. Curious, she jumped up next to it for some investigation. The lack of response probably pissed her off, and realizing that she was bigger than it, and it was possible prey (my interpretation, granted), she bitch-slapped that poor innocent Barbie.

Barbie flew through the air and fell the equivalent of about 2 stories, so she should have been okay. But she landed funny, rolled a bit, and was clearly not doing well. Tempest, not content with the destruction she'd wreaked so far, jumped down to check out Barbie's status.



And watching her sniff around her molded plastic prey who looked somewhat human, I had an odd moment where I realized that though Tempest loves me, she is a carnivore. If it weren't for the size discrepency in my favor, I have no doubt she'd love me, but more in the sense of loving her next meal. Not the one I put in the bowl, but me, in her belly.

She's a cat. That's what they do. At least that is what they do when they have prey (other than the doomed Barbie) instead of food in their dish.

Humans might be busy destroying the earth and all of the resident species at the moment, but seems like a stroke of luck (good luck for humans, the worst possible for any other species) that humans survived at all. We're weak. We're slow. We are handicapped by our dull senses of smell, sight, and hearing. WTF?

Die In: A Farmed Animal Demo

A couple weeks ago I participated in a Die In, organised by FARM and held across the street from the US Department of Agriculture in DC. The Washington Monument on one side, and all these government buildings on another. You just can't feel more in the middle of governmental happenings than that, especially not when one of those giant green helicopters flies right over you.



This is not really a good feeling. We were a peaceful group, with the proper permits, holding signs, ringing a bell, and wearing black, yet our government will consider that terrorism with the new flavor of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. (Here is an excellent analysis of the AETA.)


Disturbing doesn't even cover it.

But the Die In. This was for World Farm Animals Day. I'd never been to one before, for any cause, and had no real idea what to expect. A nice nap in the sun was my thought, to be honest. And it really was the easiest demo I've ever participated in.

We got there a few minutes before it started, picked up our t-shirts (yes, I had to get a youth medium, the smallest size they had there) and milled around talking to people while waiting for it to start.


There were a bunch of people holding signs in a semi-circle, and then the rest of us layed down on the ground (mostly shady, to my great disappointment) and tried to look "dead, not asleep", as requested by Dawn of FARM.


We were giggly at first, or at least I was, and it was hard to not feel peaceful and prone to smiling. But Dawn talked about the animals in terms of numbers. In terms of how many we represented, the 50 or so of us who showed up. 1 million animals each, killed for the profit and pleasure of humans.

Every time the bell rang, every 30 seconds for 27 minutes, was symbolic of another 10,000 animals killed in those 30 seconds. 10,000 animals in 30 seconds. That really is the rate that animals are killed in this country.

It was not hard to be somber when considering these numbers. As I watched the clouds drifting across the sky, they didn't look like bunnies or snowmen, they looked like connective tissue under the microscope. They looked like processed and rendered bits of formerly sentient beings.


At the end, right before we descended upon the treats provided by Java Green and Sticky Fingers Bakery, Dawn talked about how difficult it can be to hold still for 30 minutes, that though it is not actually a long time, it can seem like a long time when you are so restricted. Yet laying on the soft grass with a gentle breeze, hearing the birds chirping and not smelling anything in particular, breathing freely, not moving, yet not constricted...compare this to life inside a gestation crate or a battery cage. Life isn't long for them, but every second must be agony.

Andy Rooney, of all people, recently said,

I often pass a farm with cows grazing in the field and I think to myself how terrible it is that human beings grow other animals just to kill them and eat them.

Isn't it, though? The good news is that human beings don't have to exploit animals at all. That we do is horrifying. That we have no need to use them, for medicine, health, entertainment, or transportation, is something everyone should be thinking about.