Dumb PETA Tricks - and a Reunion
Friday morning I went downtown; I’d heard there was going to be some sort of Occupy Dallas event. Turns out my information was a little off. It was PETA making a Valentine’s Day-themed pitch for veganism. They had a young couple, in their skivvies, making out in a bed on the corner of Main and Akard in front of a banner proclaiming: “Vegans Make Better Lovers.”
I had to admire the young lovers - the temperature was in the mid-forties, with a stiff breeze - just as I admire vegans for their determination in the face of the hassles involved in procuring their nourishment, as well as the incredulity (sometimes ridicule) they get from the rest of us. A vegan “Starter Kit” was handed out but I confess I didn’t hang on to it long: a little too set in my omnivorous ways. I turned to leave, and almost walked into…Julia.
My Marxist-humanist-feminist, the one I’d met two or three months ago at the Occupy Dallas camp the day before the cops broke it up and whom I then lost track of seemingly forever, standing right in front of me. Arm in arm with a guy who turned out to be her husband. Of course.
By way of introduction she told “Richard” I was “the guy I told you about.” (Hmm. I wondered what she told him. I knew I hadn’t said anything out of line - she was the one who teased me with that line about not being a fanatic about marriage. Could she have picked up on my innermost thoughts, desires? What were hers?) There really wasn’t much happening bedside, so to speak, so I mentioned I had passed a Starbuck’s very near where I parked my car.
We talked about food and health. They said they were “vegetarians ninety-percent of the time.” I said I thought it possible to eat meat and be healthy. I told them about a recipe for vegetarian chili that I made once - wasn’t bad but I prefer the real thing. (I was hoping Julia would ask for my phone number to get the recipe but she didn’t bite.) They seemed to agree when I said that where PETA loses me is its “moral” opposition to the putting of animals to any kind of use by humans, whether slaughtering them for food or clothing or holding them in captivity. I seem to recall a comparison of animals in zoos and circuses with human slaves!
Given that the very concept of human rights is barely three hundred years old - and honored more in the breach than the observance - the notion that animals have rights is ludicrous. Besides a lot of animals are predators. If they can do it, so can we! Richard chuckled at that, as he rose to go to the restroom. Alone with Julia, I told her about this blog and that I had posted something about our meeting. I told her to read it before telling her husband about it.
She smiled, sort of, one eyebrow arched slightly. I noticed that she had pale blue eyes. Then Richard was back, and I was saying something about my car and a parking meter. I got up. She said, “Richard, do you have your phone handy?” He did. “Give us your number - we’ll call you about some things that are coming up, okay?”
Sure.
BTW, PETA can be very funny. Check this out:
http://www.bwvaktboom.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nir4BnNIFmg&feature=player_embedded
I had to admire the young lovers - the temperature was in the mid-forties, with a stiff breeze - just as I admire vegans for their determination in the face of the hassles involved in procuring their nourishment, as well as the incredulity (sometimes ridicule) they get from the rest of us. A vegan “Starter Kit” was handed out but I confess I didn’t hang on to it long: a little too set in my omnivorous ways. I turned to leave, and almost walked into…Julia.
My Marxist-humanist-feminist, the one I’d met two or three months ago at the Occupy Dallas camp the day before the cops broke it up and whom I then lost track of seemingly forever, standing right in front of me. Arm in arm with a guy who turned out to be her husband. Of course.
By way of introduction she told “Richard” I was “the guy I told you about.” (Hmm. I wondered what she told him. I knew I hadn’t said anything out of line - she was the one who teased me with that line about not being a fanatic about marriage. Could she have picked up on my innermost thoughts, desires? What were hers?) There really wasn’t much happening bedside, so to speak, so I mentioned I had passed a Starbuck’s very near where I parked my car.
We talked about food and health. They said they were “vegetarians ninety-percent of the time.” I said I thought it possible to eat meat and be healthy. I told them about a recipe for vegetarian chili that I made once - wasn’t bad but I prefer the real thing. (I was hoping Julia would ask for my phone number to get the recipe but she didn’t bite.) They seemed to agree when I said that where PETA loses me is its “moral” opposition to the putting of animals to any kind of use by humans, whether slaughtering them for food or clothing or holding them in captivity. I seem to recall a comparison of animals in zoos and circuses with human slaves!
Given that the very concept of human rights is barely three hundred years old - and honored more in the breach than the observance - the notion that animals have rights is ludicrous. Besides a lot of animals are predators. If they can do it, so can we! Richard chuckled at that, as he rose to go to the restroom. Alone with Julia, I told her about this blog and that I had posted something about our meeting. I told her to read it before telling her husband about it.
She smiled, sort of, one eyebrow arched slightly. I noticed that she had pale blue eyes. Then Richard was back, and I was saying something about my car and a parking meter. I got up. She said, “Richard, do you have your phone handy?” He did. “Give us your number - we’ll call you about some things that are coming up, okay?”
Sure.
BTW, PETA can be very funny. Check this out:
http://www.bwvaktboom.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nir4BnNIFmg&feature=player_embedded