(no subject)
Okay kids! It’s almost Earth Day and in honor of such a good idea (gone horribly wrong and commercialized, mind you) I’m beginning to think about what I’m going to be doing activism-wise in the last months of spring.
To start with, Action for Animals has organized a day of leafletting (as I am sure many groups have) and I am participating by handing out AFAs wonderful Rape of Mother Earth flyers at a local college and then downtown as well if I have enough left. That's the only AR event going on here then, but much to my enjoyment there are tons of other actions taking place. Get ahold of a local AR/enviro/etc group in your area, they most likely have something planned and I'm betting could definitely use more help.
Unfortunately, it is probably too late to order materials from most places in time for April 22nd, but that doesn’t mean you can’t order some for all the days thereafter! And if you have access to a decent printer, you can print your own literature, nearly every group I've worked with has .pdf's of their literature available online. I can't recall any links off the top of my head but if anyone wants, let me know and I'll hunt them all down so you can get printing.
Another activity I am partaking in soon is Vegan Outreach’s "Adopt a College" campaign. I will hopefully be in charge of the leafleting at six colleges this summer, which is six more than I have been before! :) I know a lot of ARAs already hand out literature almost everywhere they go, so this may seem a bit obvious. But it’s basically a more organized version of what we’re already doing. VO keeps track of how much literature is ordered and what activists leaflet what schools and when, and the site includes the contact info of each activist. Click here for more info. I think it’s worth at least checking out, especially if you live in a conservative area like mine. For as I’ve learned time and time again, PETA is pretty much the devil reincarnate to people here and associating with them usually hurts the cause more than helps it. At least with Vegan Outreach, their name isn’t as easily recognizable and people are more prone to listen if they don’t see the PETA logo anywhere (sadly).
And for those of you who don’t already table/etc on a regular basis... what are you waiting for?! Get moving! Go go go! There are many, many, many organizations all over who will send you FREE literature/other materials if you so request it and if anyone ever has questions about literally anything Animal Rights Activism-related, don’t hesitate to email/IM me. (Or for any other issue I’m involved in for that matter). I think I spend more time helping other activists get going than I do anything else, so it’s doubtful I won’t be able to help you or find you someone who can. Education is key, but inaction is still a big problem with activists, some of us seem to have the knowledge but have yet to act on it very much. It doesn’t do a damned good for us to know of injustice if we aren’t helping enlighten others about it! (and of course that is a huge part of the greater goal: working to END the injustice).
Even if you could only participate in one event (tabling, leafleting, demos, etc, etc, etc) a week, it would make a dramatic difference. Hell, even one a month for that matter. Something is always better than nothing.
As I’m not sure who all reads this community’s entries anymore, I’ll end at that. My IM/email contact info is in my livejournal user info. And oh, I’m also good for phoning people and yelling at them to get off their bums and get active, so if you need I can provide that as well.
Take care and as always, be safe,
Mari
EDIT: By the way, another way to help if you can't always be as physically active as you'd like is by donating money. Sadly I'm a poor being so my monetary donations are few and far between, but for those of you who do have cash to spare, the Primate Freedom Project's Primate Freedom Tour 2005 still desperately needs donations. I cannot emphasize the desperately aspect of it enough. The 2005 tour is being organized by my friend Jerm and if you have any questions you can email him at jerm (at) primatefreedom (dot) org. Living in a capitalist society as we do, money holds a lot of power and can make a huge difference. So keep that in mind next time you're wondering what to buy with your spending money.
To start with, Action for Animals has organized a day of leafletting (as I am sure many groups have) and I am participating by handing out AFAs wonderful Rape of Mother Earth flyers at a local college and then downtown as well if I have enough left. That's the only AR event going on here then, but much to my enjoyment there are tons of other actions taking place. Get ahold of a local AR/enviro/etc group in your area, they most likely have something planned and I'm betting could definitely use more help.
Unfortunately, it is probably too late to order materials from most places in time for April 22nd, but that doesn’t mean you can’t order some for all the days thereafter! And if you have access to a decent printer, you can print your own literature, nearly every group I've worked with has .pdf's of their literature available online. I can't recall any links off the top of my head but if anyone wants, let me know and I'll hunt them all down so you can get printing.
Another activity I am partaking in soon is Vegan Outreach’s "Adopt a College" campaign. I will hopefully be in charge of the leafleting at six colleges this summer, which is six more than I have been before! :) I know a lot of ARAs already hand out literature almost everywhere they go, so this may seem a bit obvious. But it’s basically a more organized version of what we’re already doing. VO keeps track of how much literature is ordered and what activists leaflet what schools and when, and the site includes the contact info of each activist. Click here for more info. I think it’s worth at least checking out, especially if you live in a conservative area like mine. For as I’ve learned time and time again, PETA is pretty much the devil reincarnate to people here and associating with them usually hurts the cause more than helps it. At least with Vegan Outreach, their name isn’t as easily recognizable and people are more prone to listen if they don’t see the PETA logo anywhere (sadly).
And for those of you who don’t already table/etc on a regular basis... what are you waiting for?! Get moving! Go go go! There are many, many, many organizations all over who will send you FREE literature/other materials if you so request it and if anyone ever has questions about literally anything Animal Rights Activism-related, don’t hesitate to email/IM me. (Or for any other issue I’m involved in for that matter). I think I spend more time helping other activists get going than I do anything else, so it’s doubtful I won’t be able to help you or find you someone who can. Education is key, but inaction is still a big problem with activists, some of us seem to have the knowledge but have yet to act on it very much. It doesn’t do a damned good for us to know of injustice if we aren’t helping enlighten others about it! (and of course that is a huge part of the greater goal: working to END the injustice).
Even if you could only participate in one event (tabling, leafleting, demos, etc, etc, etc) a week, it would make a dramatic difference. Hell, even one a month for that matter. Something is always better than nothing.
As I’m not sure who all reads this community’s entries anymore, I’ll end at that. My IM/email contact info is in my livejournal user info. And oh, I’m also good for phoning people and yelling at them to get off their bums and get active, so if you need I can provide that as well.
Take care and as always, be safe,
Mari
EDIT: By the way, another way to help if you can't always be as physically active as you'd like is by donating money. Sadly I'm a poor being so my monetary donations are few and far between, but for those of you who do have cash to spare, the Primate Freedom Project's Primate Freedom Tour 2005 still desperately needs donations. I cannot emphasize the desperately aspect of it enough. The 2005 tour is being organized by my friend Jerm and if you have any questions you can email him at jerm (at) primatefreedom (dot) org. Living in a capitalist society as we do, money holds a lot of power and can make a huge difference. So keep that in mind next time you're wondering what to buy with your spending money.