Have you seen this?
http://www.earthlings.com/earthlings/video-full.php
Its beautiful, and painful at the same time....and worth the watch.
Hope this finds you well my friend.
Nikki
Seeking real love
Posted By Harry on July 6, 2011
Are you as tired as I am of hearing the words ‘I love my animals’ emanating from the lips of those that regularly abuse, mutilate or murder animals. Like harmers (‘farmers’ of animals of any sort – thank you John Sakars). Puppy mill owners. Race-horse owners. The ‘in touch’ woman in the next valley who, despite having a well-paying job, buys some steers every year to fatten them up for later slaughter. “But don’t worry,” she tries in vain to placate me. “I give them all Reiki before they’re loaded onto the truck.” !!! Or the owner of the animal transport company that transports sheep and cattle out of Tasmania across treacherous Bass Strait by the tens of thousands. The man who proclaimed on ABC radio that he “loves his animals just like everyone else.” I’m really tired of it. And while I try always to keep a gentle tone on a gentle place, I still have his words and the images of Tommy mixing uncomfortably inside my head. Like murky oil and crystal clear mountain stream water. They will not mix. They cannot mix. Ever. Yep, I’m battling to travel gently here.I’m tired of hearing such crap and I’m pissed off. At the daily abuse. The daily mutilation. The daily murder. And the self-deceiving lies. So please Mr P, Ms E, use the ends of your grubby, blood-stained sleeves to wipe your lips free of the bullshit that’s dribbling from them. Watch below the video of Tommy, read the definitions of love (none of them include your practice of it) and stop lying to yourself. Who knows, it may lead to you one day having an honest face return your stare into the mirror.
(Apologies to those who watched this when I posted it a few weeks back – Tommy does, incredibly sadly, illustrate the vicious type of love that Ms E and Mr P feel for his kind.)
Tommy once lived in Australia. He was fed by someone like you Ms E. Perhaps he was one of yours. Do you recognise him? Or has his fear distorted his features – beautiful features that reflect the gentle nature of him and his kind – to such an extent that you could not possibly recognise him? Tommy was then transported to Indonesia by someone like you Mr P. By someone who “loves his animals”. Just like you do. By someone who cares deeply for his animals. Just like you do. And by someone who doesn’t give a toss what ills and evils befall them as long as the money – dripping warm, bright red blood from Tommy’s torturously severed carotid arteries – is in the tight clutch of his ‘loving’ hands. Yes Mr P, by someone just like you.
Watch the video. Don’t turn away. Let it finish. And then take yourself off to the closest mirror and try and tell yourself how much you love Tommy and his mates. Hard to bullshit now, isn’t it?
To love …
To have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (Dictionary.com)
To have a great affection for a person or thing (Collins English dictionary)
Feel deep affection or sexual love for (Oxford online)
And as a noun …
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.(1 Cor. 13:4–7, NIV)
No mention of murder. No mention of torture. But a lot about affection. Kindness. Trust and protection.
Please, PLEASE, for Love’s sake, stop proclaiming love for the innocent lives you care so little for. Much better still, truly love those innocent lives instead.
Nothing to add, Harry. You’ve said it all.
Except this: AMEN.
Thanks CQ. I so wish AMEN did signify the end of Society’s acceptance of the torture and abuse of our fellow beings. While not a religious man myself, one of the books that has resonated so strongly with me is Mathew Scully’s Dominion; his argument is simple: if God did indeed grant humans dominion over all other creatures do we not owe it to God to show mercy to those we have dominion over?
My thoughts are following two of the most gentle and kind people I know – If what happened to Tommy inflamed you both as it did… What is there left for a cynic like me but to rage insanely?
I realize the core issues of the Australian cattle (and all the nonhumans in the world) is that their deaths are without cause or reason to begin with. But the brutal hacking of their bodies, even after the torture of delivery – is just impossible to defend. Of course unless money comes to play – And then all the “humane” rules of “love” drown out the screams heard on the butcher’s floor. Green-backs make excellent blindfolds.
But Harry, this double speak motivated by greed is universal… The “producers”, “fatteners” and “finishers” spew the same justifications here in the U.S. Such good hearts they all have in the “tender care” of their eviscerated victims. It’s is loathsome beyond words!
It can turn the most hopeful soul into a misanthrope. On these days of late – I answer that call.
Well, Bea, I’ll try to help you hang up on that call.
Just when we think there’s no hope for the human race, along comes a video to lift our spirits. The sight that did it for me this week is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBYPlcSD490
After wiping away tears of joy and gratitude, I scoured the ‘net ’til I found the background story: http://3brasingtonsandvan.blogspot.com/2011/02/whale-tales-part-i-ballena-valentina.html
Granted, it’s not about cows, though you could call whales mammoth sea cows!
As Australians and Americans and everyone else know, these gentle giants of the ocean have endured their share of torture through the centuries. They’re still being harpooned today, with high-tech weaponry, in the name of “scientific research.”
Yet a single encounter between three beautiful men with a pocketknife and one helpless whale has caused hearts the world over to soar and sing.
These, Bea, are the true tales (whales’ tails!) we can cling to when we’re swimming in the depths of despair. Like the breeching, spinning, luxuriating-in-life Valentina, we can rise up and rebel against the lies that bind us to the belief that anyone, in their true selfhood, is ever enslaved to money or wedded to barbaric meat-and-milk diets.
Take heart, dear Bea. Courage to face the foe comes from your heart — votre coeur, en Francais! One of my favorite writers has a heartfelt message for us all: “Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to proclaim the right” (Mary Baker Eddy).
We are heeding that call to courage on behalf of cows and sea cows, all of who live eternally in our hearts.
Go Harry! These schmucks ‘love’ animals the way a rapist ‘loves’ her/his victims or a pedophile ‘loves’ his/her victims.
VE, thank you for the encouragement … although I think it was just a case of Bea’s ‘insane raging’ and as such should probably not be encouraged! I try to be ‘bigger’ and indeed sat with this post twirling around my head for almost 3 weeks – with the video of Tommy on constant replay as a backdrop – but after what I thought would act as a cooling off period I felt like I still wanted to burst with rage. The keyboard got it …
Bea we can rage insanely together. As has been written in so many posts lately raging together helps us remove that unfortunate adverb
CQ – it’s 4.30 in the morning and returning to sleep is not happening so rather than continuing to toss and turn I thought I’d see what was blogging. I must have known you had posted that video and story here – thank you. More than anything else it is what young Gaelan said that makes my heart drop the rage. It is today’s children that, if not blindfolded with Society’s disconnect, will make this world the gentle place it should be.
I’m so glad you found comfort in the early morning hours from your tossing and turning by sharing in the joy of Valentina’s freedom.
For those readers who might not know who young Gaelan is, I’ll quote from the second link in my above post, in which the writer is talking about the curious sight of the whale tail-lobbing endlessly: “This part of the show was most curious to me, and I’m not sure exactly why she was doing it. I can only take her actions to be ones of joy and freedom. I think little Gaelan described it best when he said, ‘I know what she’s doing! She’s showing us how happy she is to be free!’”
I do believe that if dear Tommy and his buddies had been released from that medieval dungeon in Indonesia instead of executed, they would have taken to running in circles in giddy delight, showing how over-the-top happy they were “to be free.” As it is, those of us who believe in eternal life of all beings take comfort in imagining the steers frolicking like little calves in the green fields of the Great Beyond.
But whatever our spiritual beliefs, we Vs at least know what “love” for animals is, and what it is not. We live that love daily, and are continually amazed when they show us how they love us back.
Thanks CQ for expanding on Valentina and Gaelan’s insight into why she was frolicking so. It’s such a feel good story and video I hope that now everyone who’s seen your links here have followed them.
I too believe that Tommy is now frolicking with his pals ‘in the green fields of the Great Beyond.’ VeganElder wrote a great post on the ‘Rainbow Bridge’, and the ‘Rainbow Bridge rescuer’, some time ago (http://veganelder.blogspot.com/2011/05/rainbow-bridge.html); it paints the picture of Tommy and his pals beautifully. And whoever else is frolicking with them up there, they (for want of a neutral pronoun) are doing so with smiles and laughter rather than the anguished tears of love they must have shed as they watched Tommy’s departure from here.
Wow, I loved reading VE’s blog and both RB stories, the latter being new to me and to most others, I see.
Yes, Harry, Tommy and his pals have surely by now had the privilege of escorting an animal rescuer across the bridge!
The eloquence with which VE expresses himself is breathtaking — but then, this is true of your writing and Bea’s and Have Gone Vegan’s and all the other vegan bloggers with whom I’m not yet as well acquainted. The thoughts and feelings of vegans naturally bubble over with sights and sounds and sentiments and stories about our animal friends. The mere mention of a loved one, like your Plato or Bea’s Midas or Christina’s Oscar, acts like a fountain: it continuously quenches the thirst of writers and readers alike.
Instead of writing a reply, Harry, please take a few extra minutes to dote on your Gentle family — with a pat and a hug from me!
CQ, thank you so much for linking to that video! I just watched it, and it was both heartwarming and uplifting to say the least. I too (like most vegans I imagine) struggle with anger and rage at the injustice we inflict daily on other living beings, and sometimes forget that maybe one of our most important tasks as vegan bloggers is to demonstrate what love (a word so easily used and misused!) actually looks like. And you’re right that Harry, Bea and veganelder are all awesome writers, so I feel honoured that you would include me in their company. Thank you!
I do believe that the hands-on “reiki” is infact being confused with the human beings propensity to rub their hands together when they’re doing something that will profit themselves.
There is no “reiki”, just the leering grin and the rubbing of hands over the bodies of commodified slaves (Real living beings) who will soon be converted into little pieces of paper with numbers on them. (Dead trees and false economy)
Nice post. An apt demonstration of the typical, self-satisfied joy that “normal” human beings experience with regards to the suffer that they wantonly inflict upon the innocent and defenceless.