Anarchist:Chilli Pie-in-the-Face made Vegans look bad; gave L. Keith publicity

[Guest guest]

Dear Bay Area Vegetarian List,

 

Douglass has put it all so eloquently, I feel that I am just echoing his sentiments, but I am shocked that any vegans would support the chilli-pie-in-the-face, no matter what Lierre Kieth's position might be. How could there be any question that this act was violence? Sorry, Irvin Collins, but for Douglass or any vegan to comment that attacking someone with chilli-peppers in their eyes and ears via in a pie-in-the-face is an act of violence is hardly a misuse of words or "punitive!" Douglass was just stating the indisputably obvious. I am all for debates of morality, but on what planet is the moral acceptability of throwing chilli peppers into the eyes and ears of your opponent a moral question ?

 

I'm a vegan (6 years this summer; vegetarian for life before that) and an animal rights activist (5 years on the streets every month for humane changes at KFC and a multitude of other animal rights causes), but I'm horrified on how stupid and childish and vindictive that incident made vegans look and the wide publicity that it drew. Ordinarily, the Anarchist Book Fair would get no publicity whatsoever; the vegans inadvertently gave Lierre Keith a national audience and made the vegans look like jerks. There is no ultimate "animals will be saved" from this act; if anything, it gave Lierre Kieth sympathy. What a backfire.

 

As vegans, we can do plenty of good for animals by (i) living a plant-based lifestyle; (ii) working through education of the public, (iii) civil demonstrations in the face of cruelty, (iv) animal rescues and (v) working to establish animal-protecting legislation. Keep your chilli pies at home; for that matter, even your cream pies; they're not on my list of ways to respect and save animals and change the world!

 

Sincerely, Bonnie Knight, San Francisco