teasing (laurie)

[Guest guest]

Laurie,

no toes have been squashed

I support PETA, but some of the activities I must take with a grain of salt.

While a national organization, its activites are still primarily grassroots

and individualized, so sometimes, people do things in the name of PETA that

I don't entirely agree with. ah well..with the good comes the bad. But as a

whole, I do find it to be a good organization, and though their tactics are

confrontational, it is a sad fact that it takes something like that to be

noticed and to get your message heard. No..no, let me rephrase that. We all

do our part, and no means of communication is truly more effective than

others. BUT, sometimes it takes a media event to get people's attention or

to make others aware that your organization exists. Is PETA loud and in your

face? Yes? Do they intentionally do things to grab attention, negative or

positive?

Yes. But, sometimes that needs to be done in order to introduce yourself,

and your beliefs, to the world. Does that mean that ideally that is the

proper way to conduct ourselves? No..at least not in my opinion. I would

love a culture in which all of us could bring our concerns, our worries, and

our frustrations to a forum in which we could conduct things in a highly

civilzed manner. But such is the imperfection of human life: we get angry,

we are not always civil, and sometimes we love to shout.

I don't want to make excuses for certain individuals' behavior. Setting

chincillas free in a public area is not something I support. First of all,

the safety of many little critters is at stake, as well as the safety of

people living in the community. I actually can't imagine who thought that

was a good idea. But I stand behind the general philosophy of the

organization, even though in the hands of mere mortals, it sometimes becomes

a parade of insanity and stupidity rather than a coming-together or

likeminded people working for a common goal. There will always be extremists

in the ranks, and there will always be those quietly doing their part, and

there will always be those nestled somewhere in between (more of those than

any other I would suspect). I feel that each and every one is

necessary...not only to bring diversity and fresh perspectives into an

organization, but also because opponents of your beliefs are opponents on

all levels. People that grow vehemently angry when PETA is mentioned may

very well be the people setting chinchillas free in our towns if the

situation was reversed and they found themselves animal activists.

Me... I give them my money, slap stickers here and there, buy cruelty free,

write my letters and stay vegan. That's me doing my part, but I may, some

day, be encouraged to wear a chicken suit and hand out cards at the local

Jewel

steph

 

 

 

 

 

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