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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cypherwulf | |
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Ramsey and I had a rewarding time last night participating in the Ringling Bros. protest. I feel like we changed a LOT of minds out there, which is a feeling I don't often get with protests. Since the Verizon Center is huge, all 70~ of us spread out around the building. Ramsey and I stationed ourselves at one of the streetcorners so we were the first protesters that a lot of people saw, which meant we fielded a lot of questions. Virtually everyone was very positive and supportive. And even better, there were many people that said "Do they really do that?!". That tells me we touched a lot of people and left them with something to think about. I had a few encounters that I wouldn't say were positive, but good for a laugh at least. In the first instance, an older gentleman saw my sign and walked across the street. In a very straightforward manner he said, "Let me ask you just one question, are you vegetarian?". I told him I'm vegan, which seemed to satisfy him because he nodded and walked back across the street :). The next encounter was with a police officer who had been giving me the eye for a minute before walking over. Completely straightfaced, he said, "You know, what they do to those elephants is NOTHING like what my parents did to me when I was a kid...". And I was starting to panic a bit, cause it's hardly unheard of for cops to beat or jail protesters and claim self defense. So I just kind of stared at him, and he stared at me...then he laughed, "I'm just messing with you, keep up the good work". Geez dude, nearly gave me a heart attack! I only got one person who was snarky. Ramsey and I joke about how she was the personification of "concerned mother". She walked past me, holding her toddler in her arms, and said "So if you make my little boy cry, does that mean you've won?" (our signs were not even that bad, it just showed a tied up baby elephant looking sad). If I thought she would have given me the time of day, I would have told her about the dozens of wonderful, compassionate children that approached me to tell me how they felt and to ask questions. They didn't want to be coddled, they wanted to be informed, just like any mature, intelligent person. While they were rightfully sad about what Ringling does to animals, none of them cried about it (not that crying about such injustice is a bad thing. I think it shows great compassion and love). But she was walking past me, obviously uninterested in an answer, so I did the only sensible thing I could have done and laughed at her. :) The strangest encounter was with an old man in a wheelchair that asked me where the entrance to the circus was. I just sort of stared at him blankly, trying to figure out how to handle this and wondering why the hell he would ask me such a question. I decided on being polite but not really telling him exactly, so I gave him a general "It's down that way" answer. He looked at me indignantly and said "You're advertising for the circus and you don't even know where it is?". I was pretty much dumbfounded by this entire encounter at this point. The guy must have been completely blind to think that my poster was an advertisement. What kind of ad for a circus shows a chained up baby elephant crying on some bare dirt while people with bullhooks stand around him. I told the guy I'm not advertising the circus, that I'm protesting it. Then he said something unintelligible and wheeled off. What the fuck? XD But besides those weird encounters, I think everyone left on a positive note. All the conversations were polite and engaging, and I enjoyed talking to every one of them. I guess not everything Peta arranges is necessarily a bad thing (considering it's such a big organization, not all of its branches are going to pull offensive stunts, or be sexist). Sometimes I can put aside my dislike of how upper management runs things and we can work together to accomplish something really big. Though they're still not getting my money :P Got my own meetup tomorrow. Expecting a decent turnout for leafletting. Also scheduling a special meetup next weekend for a film screening in Dupont Circle for Peaceable Kingdom. Should be fun :). Current Mood:  contemplative
Current Music: "The Shark's Own Private Fuck" - Sunny Day Real Estate
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badmagic | |
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I look at my life,
And it's a damn shame
But I know I've got no one else to blame.
Can't yell at God,
Can't rail at fate
For making me too smart too late.
Outrageous Fortune has no arrow or sling.
The Devil didn't make me do anything.
It's all my fault, and now I'm paying my dues.
I've got a case of the existential blues.
When you feel no one knows your name
You've got the existential blues again.
I'm feeling low,
Low as can be.
Got no higher power watching over me.
There's no evil plot
No divine plan
Just man doing unto man.
There's no mastermind, no conspiracy.
Everything happens stochastically.
Whenever I turn on the news
I get the existential blues.
When you feel no one knows your name
You've got the existential blues to blame.
I got tired of feeling
Like I'm all alone
So I call up my buddy on the telephone.
He said he didn't want
To hear me moan
"You know we've all got problems of our own.
I'm sorry you're not
Feeling so fine.
But your life is much better than mine.
You know you don't want to be in my shoes
'Cause I got the existential blues."
When you feel no one knows your name
The existential blues, what a shame.
A man told me
it ain't no sin
To be on the outside looking in.
But then, he said,
And there's no doubt
It's better inside, looking out.
And when you're in,
Then it feels so wrong.
Like you don't fit in, you don't belong.
I know it sounds strange but those are my views
You can't escape the existential blues.
When you feel no one knows your name
You've got the existential blues again.
You know I've got the ex-is-ten-shul blues.
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cypherwulf | |
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There's going to be a protest at the Verizon center tomorrow against Ringling Bros. circus. It's their opening night so we'll be there when people are filing in. While I generally don't see protests as being very useful compared to outreach programs, it's a good way to network and create visibility. I'm going to have to do a lot of research and studying tonight so I will be prepared to answer any questions people have. It saddens me greatly to think of these animals being carted into a city as if they were merchandise. DC is no place for tigers or elephants or zebras or any of the other animals they use (emphasis on the "use"). Such thoughtlessness, greed, arrogance...What massive entitlement complexes the people at Ringling must have to take animals away from their homes and families and make them do dumb tricks for amusement and profit. If I were religious, I'd thank god every day I was born human. Only the squirrels and some birds can coexist with any sort of a life among humans. The rest must deal with genocide, destruction of their homes, enslavement, torture, starvation, imprisonment, breaking up of families, the list goes on. But unlike when we visit these cruelties upon other humans, there will never be wars fought against injustice involving animals. Their suffering will go on. Unless we do something about it. Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they're only animals.
-Theodor Adorno
Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the Holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes? We won't be able to offer the same excuse for the second time, that we didn't know.
-Dr. Helmut Kaplan
We have been at war with the other creatures of this earth ever since the first human hunter set forth with spear into the primeval forest. Human imperialism has everywhere enslaved, oppressed, murdered, and mutilated the animal peoples. All around us lie the slave camps we have built for our fellow creatures, factory farms and vivisection laboratories, Dachaus and Buchenwalds for the conquered species. We slaughter animals for our food, force them to perform silly tricks for our delectation, gun them down and stick hooks in them in the name of sport. We have torn up the wild places where once they made their homes. Speciesism is more deeply entrenched within us even than sexism, and that is deep enough.
-Ron Lee Current Mood:  pensive
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