The above video is from VeganGaymer - Vegan since late 2013 and a real dynamo in cranking out vegan advocacy videos and Health & Ethics blog posts! Hooray for one more cool guy on our side of social justice issues! ;)
There's lots of dates surrounding the eventual and official Mother's Day in 1914. Different groups worked on making this happen for decades before it did. But I'd like to look not at the first Mother's Day... But the First Mother instead.
I wonder sometime what it must have been like eons ago when each specific birth was critical to man's survival. A time when we were pushing our numbers just to diversify the genetic pool. A time when there were so few humans that each woman who bore another human was revered. Indeed... A time when all life-bringers were honored. Nurturing was a cherished gift.
What must it have been like for a First Mother who's numbers had now sufficiently expanded that the miracles of birth and life were commonized? What did she think when life itself was commodified? When breath became capital?
I see a First Mother who spoke loudly in protest of killing the creatures in the forests... A First Mother who pleaded with others in the tribe that trees and plants would sustain them. A First Mother who wept when the great aurochs were made unfree and held captive for the purposes of man. A First Mother who's dutiful gathering of sustenance was halted to tend to cattle instead... What did this First Mother think when she stole the milk from the goat or cow?
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| Cave painting of an aurochs bull in Lascaux, France |
There's been some miserable news lately - Not that it's unusual in our "superior" world that permits the use of "lesser" others as a means to our ends. So privileged we are. :/
I have on occasion challenged people who thought this way by arguing: If we encountered a race of beings who were much more able than us... And they wanted to control, confine, manipulate and utilize our bodies - Wouldn't we scream bloody murder at the injustice of it?!?
We would - Wouldn't we.
The video above comes from Vegan Smythe, "He won't eat anyone with feet". If you're looking for the lighter side of what ails you - Check him out.
In the meantime considering man's super specialness and all:
'I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.' ~Gandhi
And I can't argue with that one bit.
Remember all the great tunes from therockcookiebottom?
Well here's their newest song: The Truth About Dairy Cows
LYRICS:
I used to think if I didn't eat meat
that I was doing my part
I couldn't give up cheese and dairy
and I didn't see why I should start
After all cows always give milk
to be enjoyed by me and you
I never stopped to question
whether or not that's true
Dairy cows are kept pregnant
just about their entire lives
artificially inseminated
Mooing, lonely wives
giving birth every year, baby
calves just taken away
And that's how you get your cheese
each and every day
cows cows
they're just mothers without their children
cows cows
they are crying out to find them
and it all happens over and over again
the dairy cows children
are separated out
females share their mama's fate
they too will be dairy cows
pumped full of hormones
starting at the age of 1
they normally live to 25
but 5 years of this and they're done
cows cows
they're just mothers without their children
cows cows
they are crying out to find them
and it all happens over and over again
but what about her sons
they got no milk to give
so in the eyes of this system
they got no right to live
They are just a thing left over
Wasted life into a meal
When they end up on a dinner plate
'Cause someone ordered veal
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| Photo by Jo Anne McArthur |
