Another killing machine graduates

Where is the outrage? Where is the genuine care? We are talking about bottling our outrage - not me! I find it very disturbing that schools hide veganism from children and promote false dairy industry advertisements. School administrators have proven they do not care to change - even when children's lives are at stake.

Welfare only teaches young people that killing is acceptable as long as we do it nicely. We have seen the videos and know factory farming could give a shit about cows or ethical treatment. Even if we spend our lives fighting for welfare laws, in the end, the meat and dairy industries will do what they want. It is already against the law to drag cows around with forklifts, yet they do it anyway. Laws are a waste of time. Attitudes change the times, and then laws follow. Trying to change the law first rarely works. Attitudes change laws.

I am sick of what is going on and can't go along with, "We're not ready yet". We will never be ready. Vegans need to start getting uppity like people did in the sixties. No revolution was ever comfortable.

It is as if we willingly adopt meat-eaters' attitudes that say their choice is a personal one and children are too young to chose wisely. This is exactly why we need to speak up for the voiceless, as those in charge have chosen poorly for our children. Do you remember, the 143 million pound Hallmark Westland Beef Recall? People need to focus more on the real issues, not on larger cages - it is about priorities. Welfare misses the mark.

If you lived during slavery, would you spend your life fighting for abolition or would you spend your life fighting for better living conditions for slaves? Which strategy do you think the slave-owners would hope you would choose? Today's animal rights activist--who has devoted their life toward welfare issues--transplanted in time would confirm slavery is acceptable as long as it is done a certain way and would further explain, "Take your time changing, I understand you are not ready".

More people need to stand up and say the confinement, torture, drugging, and murder of innocent creatures is unacceptable and needs to stop now. Furthermore, stop feeding that crap to children. This attitude with an AR strategy that focuses on children would bring real change.

Unfortunately, meat-eating is on the rise and we are losing ground everyday by ignoring the children. A meat-eater is born every ten seconds in the USA. How many meat-eaters have you converted in the last 10 seconds? How many in the last 10 days? In the past 10 months? Meanwhile, a meat-eater is born every 10 seconds in the USA. We are losing. Welfare is no help. The chicken in the cage will still get its throat slit after being tortured, confined, and drugged whether in a 15" cage or a 14" cage. Welfare issues are just delay tactics that distract otherwise productive activists, which pleases the bad man to no end.

Elie Wiesel wrote, "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented".

We each have only one life to give, so we should choose the highest ground even if we never get there in our lifetime, at least we will know we fought for the ultimate goal--an ideal that helped achieve liberation that much sooner--for if no one rallies for these ideals, they will never be heard or acted on.

Earth can't wait for welfare changes to heal the damage done. Damage that might already be too far past the tipping point.

Where are our priorites?

Shhhhh, ... don't tell the children

"We believe that in a time when there's so much violence, especially in schools, that teachers who show kindness and compassion for all life should be commended," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of the Chicago-based Mercy for Animals advocacy group, which lobbies against factory farms. "It's appropriate for students to learn about the horrendous cruelty that animals endure on factory farms, and about the benefits of a healthy diet."

"We believe there would be no controversy if Mr. Warwak was talking about, let's say, the Michael Vick case and the cruelty of dog fighting," Runkle said. "I think his case shows there's a disconnect of what's considered cruel for animals considered pets versus those meant for human consumption."

“I found it troubling and problematic that while Warwak was educating his students about the food that they eat and its effects on their health, the principal's main concern was not about the well-being of his students but that there would be a backlash against the school's lunch program” Aaron Finke

"In this case, the school was pushing commercial milk advertising on kids," said Bruce Friedrich, vice president of outreach efforts for PETA. "The school was stamping its vote of support on a product that promotes cruelty to animals and harms children."

“Fox River Grove Middle School is standing education on its head when it cracks down on instructors who teach our kids about kindness and good health,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “Mr. Warwak is exposing the meat industry’s dirty secrets, and his students have every right to know the truth behind their food choices.”

"It’s a sad day when a teacher is punished for telling students the truth: that by going vegetarian they will dramatically improve their health while saving animals from cruelty so extreme it would warrant felony-level cruelty charges in the state of Illinois if the victims were dogs and cats, rather than chickens, pigs, and cows. In a time of growing violence in schools, a teacher who is bringing a message of compassion should be applauded, not punished. Students in every school should have teachers like Mr. Warwak to tell them that the “chicken nuggets” they consume in the cafeteria were once living, breathing animals who were crammed into filthy sheds and pumped full of drugs before having their throats slit while still conscious." Bruce Friedrich, Vice President PETA

http://inslide.com/

Gravely serious matters at hand

There is nothing healthy about ingesting meat and dairy products. Meat-eating is a dangerous activity. Margaret Mead wrote, “One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it”. Farmers are really grown-up boys getting away with murder.

These bad men are immature selfish little boys who have acquired the power to prevent reason from taking away their toys. These animal farmers are just fake "artists" using Mother Nature to create their wares as they can't create anything themselves.

The meat and dairy industries are in schools preying on unsuspecting minds, bodies, and futures just like they did to our parents and us. And when schools feed drugged, confined, tortured, and murdered cloned creatures and their bodily fluids to unsuspecting children, I have to stand up and object.

"We are living beyond our means. As a people we have developed a life-style that is draining the earth of its priceless and irreplaceable resources without regard for the future of our children and people all around the world" Margaret Mead

Life’s ultimate lesson

"Give a child a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a child to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

As a former fishing guide for almost 30 years and a teacher for over 10 years, I feel qualified to elaborate about children, teaching, and fishing. A quiet morning of fishing with junior and the subsequent fish fry bury skeletons deeper in our stomachs than one's subconscious might imagine.

Feeding impressionable children fish, or any meat, only teaches these unsuspecting and trusting minds that animals are inconsequential and ours to use in any way. Adopting an apathetic attitude toward animal life only opens the door to an inconsequential attitude toward human life. Of course we try to teach children that human life is more precious than animal life; but still, they grow up as disrespectful, self-serving adults who pick and choose what and who to respect as they wish.

Teaching carries a great responsibility and should inspire, motivate, and teach children how to decipher falsehoods. Schools and teachers promote murder and participate in major societal lies. Our children are indoctrinated into a violent society just as we were.

Murderous fishermen know a child’s eating and killing habits are cemented in their youth, just as they grew up fishing with Dad. Who else knows about the connections between children, murder, and the future? The meat and dairy industries and their commercial advertisers know very well. Hitler knew the importance of youth. Children really are our future. McDonald’s and Burger King know how important children are to their company’s long-term survival.

For many years, I would buy my students McDonalds and people said I was a nice man for doing so. Big problems arose when I bought fruits and vegetables for my students. I was told I can’t bring in food for the children. I was treated as an evil person.

Absurd to think when I was teaching art, I would often assign art projects incorporating fishing. I remember even doing a barbeque steak art project. I always incorporated my experiences/interests in my art projects. No one ever complained, quite the opposite in fact as I received much praise for my creative projects. Tenure is meaningless when a teacher swims against the current with ideas that can cripple lunch sales and develop a sense of mistrust of the school, ultimately leading to change. My job was threatened when I incorporated kindness, compassion, trustworthiness, respect, and responsibility in my lessons. I was warned to stop, but didn’t. I was fired.

Some things are more important than money - like honesty and teaching children life’s ultimate lesson.

“Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar” Bradley Millar

Vegan Art Teacher Draws New Round Of Controversy

Art Teacher Hands Out Books To Former Students

By Judyth Piazza

A Fox River Grove art teacher who was fired last year for telling his students about veganism, is still causing controversy.

Last month, Dave Warwak contacted some of his former students over the Internet and asked them to meet him at a Fox River Grove restaurant. He passed out 20 copies of his self-published book, "A Peep Show for Children Only".

According to published reports, at least one parent complained to police, upset that a picture of an unidentified group of students in the book included her daughter. Police investigated the incident and confiscated six books, but no charges were filed in the case.

Warwak was fired from his job at Fox River Grove Middle School last September. He was initially suspended with pay after he offered copies of the book "The Food Revolution" to some of his students. He was reprimanded for giving out literature that was not authorized by the Illinois Board of Education and the school board later voted 7-0 to fire him. District officials said during his dismissal hearing that he was teaching veganism instead of art.

But Warwak said he was trying to teach humane education and get kids to have compassion for animals. According to transcripts from his dismissal hearing, he refused to teach unless all posters promoting drinking milk were removed from the school, and he also refused to stop speaking to the students about his beliefs.

"I want these kids to care," Warwak said. "So I create lessons that teach kids to care, and I incorporate these things into art."

Warwak's 487-page book is available for purchase on the Internet. It contains transcripts of Warwak's dealings with the school board over his firing, some of his art, and correspondence with some of his former students.

"People use the word lifestyle to describe veganism, but it's more of a philosophy," Warwak told NBC5 Next. "I think when you don't eat animal products and you don't use them in any way in your life, that's what you strive for. It's very hard in today's world."

Warwak said he began to tell his 5th through 8th grades students about the health benefits of a plant-based diet because he wanted to show them the other side of eating meat. He had about 80 students in his classes during the 2006-2007 school year.

"If you go to school and you learn about vegetarianism, veganism, and meat-eating and make your own choice isn't that better than having people do it for you? That is what school is supposed to be," Warwak said.

Warwak has appealed the school board's decision to fire him. Fox River Grove principal Tim Mahaffy said he was told by the Illinois Board of Education hearing officer not to comment about the case.

"We are waiting for a decision from the hearing officer," Mahaffey said via telephone.

According to an article in the Northwest Herald, the parent who complained about her daughter's appearance in Warwak's book could file civil charges.

But Warwak remains undaunted. He says throughout history, people with radical ideas have suffered a worse fate then he has.

"They didn't put me to death -- they fired me," Warwak said.



judythpiazza@newsblaze.com
http://newsblaze.com/story/20080623191055tsop.nb/topstory.html

Playing death games with children's brains

Deciding for children is not a game to be played by those (the meat and dairy industries, our government and schools) with selfish money hungry desires.

Let's not forget the 143 million pounds of "beef" recalled for fears of Mad Cow. Most of that "beef" was eaten by unsuspecting children in schools before the recall was announced. CJD (the human variant of Mad Cow) takes years to incubate in young children's brains. Are you willing to play games of chance with children's lives?

Children deserve to know they can live an extra 10-15 years on a vegan diet. Hiding lifesaving information from children is criminal.

http://hsus.feedroom.com/?fr_story=346bfda2cbbf061e88fa57cbef243b30d049b3b7

I heard those in control claim they know better than children and have decided for them with no regard for their health.

Schools have chosen to feed children meat and dairy so they can make money from the lunch program and the children. Their choice has nothing to do with good health. Their choice has everything to do with making money--our tax-payer money.

All meat and dairy products should be eliminated from the school lunch completely. No child should be exposed to the diseases which are commonly prevented, consistently improved, and sometimes cured by a vegan diet including but not limited too: Strokes, Heart disease, Osteoporosis, Kidney Stones, Colon cancer, Prostate cancer, Pancreatic cancer, Ovarian cancer, Cervical cancer, Stomach cancer, Endometrial cancer, Breast cancer, Hypoglycemia, Diabetes, Kidney disease, Peptic ulcers, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Hiatal hernias, Diverticulosis, Obesity, Gallstones, Hypertension, Asthma, Salmonellosis, Trichinosis, Irritable colon syndrome, and CJD (human variant of Mad Cow).

Today is the last day to Vote for Obama to address the issue of Vegan School lunches. Voting only takes a second. Please visit: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/vegan_school_lunch_options

"Bad men are just immature selfish little boys who have acquired the power to prevent reason from taking away their toys" Warwak

Hawaii leads the way for vegan school lunches!

Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard's resolution requesting the State Dept. of Education to develop menu plans that include vegetarian and vegan meals passed. It is a first step forward to introducing the citizens of Hawaii to ethical, healthy, and more environmentally sound food choices.

THE SENATE S.C.R. NO. 84 TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008 S.D. 1 STATE OF HAWAII SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND THE HAWAII PUBLIC SCHOOL FOOD SERVICE TO DEVELOP NUTRITIONALLY-SOUND PUBLIC SCHOOL MENU PLANS THAT INCLUDE VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN MEALS.

WHEREAS, all students should be assured nutritionally-balanced diets to assure they become healthy adults who do not suffer from the effects of obesity and malnutrition from not eating healthy food; and

WHEREAS, fruits and vegetables promote good health because they contain fiber and essential nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, are low in fat and calories, contain phytochemicals that may provide additional protection to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, and contain no cholesterol; and

WHEREAS, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, and National Institutes of Health recommend that diets should include a balance of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; and

WHEREAS, students who identify themselves as vegetarian or vegan, i.e. they do not consume or use any animal products, or come from vegetarian or vegan families desire access to vegetarian and vegan meals in the public schools; and

WHEREAS, some public schools are able to provide vegetarian and vegan meals; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Education and the Hawaii public school food service are requested to consider nutritionally-sound public school menu plans that give students the option of vegetarian and vegan public school meals; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to conduct training and workshops for cafeteria managers and workers to increase awareness of the benefits of and options for providing vegetarian and vegan meals that are nutritious and balanced to students in public schools; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to post on its website a list of schools that have vegetarian and vegan menu options; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2009 on action it has undertaken pursuant to this measure; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education.

Get them while they are young and they are yours forever

Normally intelligent fine people never question much of anything under the trance of meat and dairy and that--especially when coupled with the idea--whatever the status quo is, must be normal and right. Conformity and denial allows otherwise good people to eat meat and drink milk unimpeded as no locust in a swarm feels individually responsible for the ravaged crops left in its wake.

People should be outraged at what the meat and dairy industries have done to our parents, us, and now our children in schools--the very places our children trust more than anything to deliver truth and to model how to behave and survive in the world.

We have been bought and sold long ago and now they are coming after our children.

Sad to think, most parents are ignorant and apathetic as they have adopted schools’ "they are only kids" attitude that further explains "we can’t change, this is how we were raised".

We have choices. We can go with the status quo and do to our children what the meat and dairy industries have done to our parents and us; or, we can avoid the nonsense and tell children the truth about meat and dairy today. Silence is complicity.

Our tax money pays schools to promote milk

Schools sell out our children for money. Not only does the government pay schools 24 cents for each lunch they sell--made with dirt cheap surplus supplied at a very reduced rate--they also receive 18 cents for each milk carton they sell in addition to the grant money they receive for participating in the School Lunch Program. This is of course all in addition to the money they collect from children.

Corrupt money-hungry principals do everything they can to get this money in the schools' budgets--only to later, divert these funds to areas other than food--as it secures their inflated salaries. Change? NO WAY!

In simpler terms, the huge profits schools make from lunch sales and grant money do not get put back into the lunch program. And then schools have the nerve to complain--without ever trying--that healthy lunches are too costly. I guess, in their eyes, the children are not worth the possible risk of losing a little money.

As an example, last year Fox River Grove School District 3, in Illinois (a small district with about 500 students) made $80,000 in lunch sales of garbage not fit for human consumption and then received $31,000 in a grant--our tax-payer money--just for participating in our government's efforts to bail-out factory farming at our children's expense.

Schools resist change especially if it means losing a steady income of our tax money, even when a few simple changes will help children live longer healthier lives, in a better world.

Background
Special Milk Program for Children—
Pursuant to section 3 of the Child
Nutrition Act of 1966, (42 U.S.C. 1772),
the Department announces the rate of
reimbursement for a half-pint of milk
served to non-needy children in a
school or institution that participates in
the Special Milk Program for Children.
This rate is adjusted annually to reflect
changes in the Producer Price Index for
Fluid Milk Products, published by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics of the
Department of Labor.

For the period July 1, 2008 through
June 30, 2009, the rate of reimbursement
for a half-pint of milk served to a nonneedy
child in a school or institution
which participates in the Special Milk
Program is 18.25 cents. This reflects an
increase of 7.42 percent in the Producer
Price Index for Fluid Milk Products
from May 2007 to May 2008 (from a
level of 185.9 in May 2007 as previously
published in the Federal Register to
199.7 in May 2008).

As a reminder, schools or institutions
with pricing programs that elect to serve
milk free to eligible children continue to
receive the average cost of a half-pint of
milk (the total cost of all milk purchased
during the claim period divided by the
total number of purchased half-pints)
for each half-pint served to an eligible
child.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/naps/NAPs08-09.pdf

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barack "Where's the Change?" Obama delivers the same

By Linn Cohen-Cole

Obama is planning an organic garden at the White House but it is clearly only for a false show given his choice of Tom Vilsack to run the USDA.

Vilsack, according to The Organic Consumer's Association, was named Governor of the Year by Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the biggest pro-genetic engineering lobby in existence. Why? Not for nothing. Because he'd championed local transgenic R&D corporations like Trans Ova, which clones cows. Vilsack was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership. Vilsack speaks for biotech. He is Monsanto's boy.

* When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy cows.

* Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address.

"Vilsack lobbied hard to get seed pre-emption bills into state legislative bodies, beginning in 2005. These bills seek to control the use of seeds on the state level, and thus deny local communities (and small farmers, and even backyard farmers) the power to establish their own regulations for protection from genetically engineered seeds. If seed pre-emption bills become law, citizens will not be able to regulate where genetically engineered crops are grown, the creation of GE buffer zones, or the banning of pharmaceutical crops, among other things. The use of seeds becomes entirely regulated by government, and opens the door to human and plant exposure to every adverse effect of genetically engineered crops. --And simultaneously ruins biodiversity, because once transgenic seeds prevail, there's no going back. Seed pre-emption bills have been introduced in sixteen states, and the battle is ongoing. But Vilsack has been one of the chief architects of looming biodiversity disaster, and there's no reason to believe he'd halt his love affair with genetic engineering and Big Ag just because he's working for Obama."

* Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this YouTube animation about Vilsack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmoc4Qgcm4s The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.

*Vilsack is an ardent support of corn and soy based biofuels, which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.

Obama has picked not only someone who is ENTIRELY and ACTIVELY and AWARD-WINNINGLY OPPOSED to organic farming but someone who is fundamentally undemocratic in the service of destroying organic farming and establishing an economic anti-trust monopoly.

So, Obama, it seems only right that YOUR garden should be filled with ONLY genetically engineered crops, including all the pesticides that go along and the industrial chemical crops and the drug crops your biotech masters are seeking. Why should you eat well when the rest of us can't and the person you chose for the USDA is making sure there are laws in place to ensure that?

Eat what we have to, Obama. You served it up to us.

Ooops, I forgot you don't care what you eat--why would you care about what we eat?

“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny” Thomas Jefferson

Anti-abortionist asks, "Why care about animals?"

How does a vegan answer the anti-abortionist that demands to know why we waste time on trying to save animals instead of fetuses?

Everything we do to animals comes back to us in some form. People are animals too.

Showing compassion towards fetuses means being honest with them when they grow up. Honest talk about things like their health, namely the diseases which are commonly prevented, consistently improved, and sometimes cured by a vegan diet including but not limited too: Strokes, Heart disease, Osteoporosis, Kidney Stones, Colon cancer, Prostate cancer, Pancreatic cancer, Ovarian cancer, Cervical cancer, Stomach cancer, Endometrial cancer, Breast cancer, Hypoglycemia, Diabetes, Kidney disease, Peptic ulcers, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Hiatal hernias, Diverticulosis, Obesity, Gallstones, Hypertension, Asthma, Salmonellosis, Trichinosis, Irritable colon syndrome, and CJD (human variant of Mad Cow).

It is shortsighted to save fetuses just to ignore them when they grow up.

Caring about animals strikes at the root causes of most of our problems.

Vegans care about all life, not just human life. Respectful people do not pick or choose what or whom to respect. Vegans respect all animals--including grown-up anti-abortionist fetuses and grown-up pro-choice fetuses and the children and the world we plan on leaving them.

Government bails out factory farming,

... then pawns the crap (literally) off on those with no choice - our nation's children.

It will be interesting to follow the recalls on this program with costs far more than the 42 million dollars of our tax-payer money they plan on wasting. I remember very well the 143 million pound Mad Cow beef that was recalled too late as most children already ate it before they ever knew what hit them. CJD (Human variant of Mad Cow Disease) takes years to show up. Eating animals of any kind presents a whole host of diseases. Stop using our tax-payer money to bail out factory farming. Start showing respect for children.

USDA buys 60 million pounds of chicken for school lunches

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Agriculture Department said on Tuesday it bought about 60.451 million pounds of chicken products for about $42.2 million for school lunch and other nutrition assistance programs.

The purchase program was announced last month to help the chicken industry, which has been hit hard by high feed and fuel costs amid slowing demand from cost-conscious consumers.

Close to 30 million pounds of chicken -- almost half the total -- was bought from Pilgrim's Pride Corp (PGPDQ.PK), the USDA said.

Pilgrim's Pride, the top U.S. chicken producer, filed for voluntary bankruptcy earlier this month because of the difficult economic conditions.

The USDA also bought 16.787 million pounds from Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N), the No. 2 producer.

Nine of 13 companies that submitted proposals to the program were successful, the USDA said.

Shipping costs to delivery destinations will be added to the price when the products are delivered between Jan. 1 and March 31, the USDA said.

A report with details about the purchase was not immediately available on the USDA's web site.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN2354984020081223

http://whattoeatbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/usda-ers-report-on-school-lunch-program.pdf

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateA&navID=CommodityPurchasing&leftNav=CommodityPurchasing&page=PYCPHomePage&acct=pcmdtyprocr

Please visit these two links to leave your say with Barack Obama
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/vegan_school_lunch_options
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/nationwide_humane_education

America's Fast Food Messiah Is Disgusting

By Dave Warwak

Hereditary ignorance is a silent falsehood that is now our reality. “Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.” [1] It is this idea that makes me yell from my rooftop, “Factory Farming, Vegan, and Humane Education!” No one seems to be listening. At this point, I have no choice, but to shock people visually, for, we really do believe what we see. Believing and understanding are different concepts. Do not be offended at what we may not fully understand. Fearful ignorance stunts our growth, and ultimately kills us before our prime, never realizing, we all have potential for greatness. “Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.” [2] Here, for our viewing pleasure, we find a picture of Ronald McDonald giving his life for our dining pleasure. How sad, American Society has replaced the beautiful message of Jesus Christ, who said, "I require mercy, not sacrifice".

"Thou shalt not kill" is a universal law that transcends all religions and all life in the universe. This universal law has been replaced, with cold materialism. A basic law that has been hidden from our parents, and theirs. People with weak values blindly adopt the values of society, with no regard for right or wrong. Hereditary ignorance, although unintentionally malicious, strips our children of their freedom to grow and reach their full potential. Once we lose this sacred love of life, we become hardened and cold to love and life. This disconnectedness leaves us empty. Our emptiness is then satisfied with warm comfort food, just as the chicken soup mom fed us when we were sick, satisfied us. This feeling of fullness takes on paramount importance in our lives, for we become entranced with meat and dairy and have not much else to live for. "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live." [3] We come into this world pure, and we unknowingly, and with the utmost best of intentions, drag each other down from there. This idea is passed on, generation to generation.

And so it goes, safety in numbers, those who were indoctrinated into our violent society are hardened, apathetic, and feel no need to change for “great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.” [4] This lack of individual responsibility claims, “This is how we are raised”. In the great words of Voltaire, “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” Moving in concert with society’s pace and direction is akin to a tortoise willingly and pathetically spiraling downwards into a lifeless coffin.

Please think of our children, who are the transmission of society. Why would anyone want our children to die sooner and live a life full of illness and confusion? Certainly not to have them grow up and do the same to our grandchildren, who will then say, “This is how I was raised”. Real respect in the future begins with respecting everything, right here, right now. The adults of our world prefer to perpetuate this apathetic excuse by feeding our children animal flesh disguised as our savior. Where have our values gone?

America is spiraling out of control, thanks to corporations who care more for profit, and know very well, children are the transmission of society. “We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”[5]

Adults have outgrown the bright colorful graphics, catchy melodic jingles, happy meals, and Ronald McDonald. Our children are attracted to these things just as you were. Ronald McDonald is not our savior; however, he is pure evil. Think hard before loading the kids in the station wagon. Do you really want to go there? Do you want to give more money to the machine? Deep down in your bones, ask yourself truthfully, do you really want your children to be like you?

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew” Abraham Lincoln

1] Henri Frederic Amiel
2] Benjamin Franklin
3] Socrates
4] Virginia Woolf
5] Martin Luther King, Jr.

http://www.all-creatures.org/tytt/art-americasfast.html

Be the change you want to see in the world

By Arthur Poletti

Dear President Elect Barack Obama:

Being the President will not be easy. Sometimes, with God's guidance you may need to go against the status quo and take a stand against overwhelming odds. No matter what the majority of the people in the world may think or say.

I am sure you will agree that God is the supreme symbol of compassion, kindness, life, and love for all creatures with a soul which clearly proves why God wants all animal factory farms and slaughterhouses to close!

President Elect Obama, your action of becoming the first vegetarian or vegan President in the history of the United States would send a glorious message throughout the world like a "lightning bolt of compassion from heaven."

You and maybe even former Vice President of The United States Al Gore and Oprah Winfrey could make a simultaneous announcement that none of you will ever eat the flesh of Gods creatures again.

Imagine the immediate and long range positive results these incredible announcements would create throughout the world for the benefit of all animals, all humans, the earth, and the earth's atmosphere.

Thank you for your important consideration and most urgently needed action. Please seriously consider the wisdom of the following famous quotation.

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” Albert Einstein

Arthur Poletti is the author of God Does Not Eat Meat

Please visit change.org and vote to help get this message on Barack Obama's desk.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/you_must_be_the_change_you_want_to_see_in_the_world

Murdered: Jesus, the vegan animal rights activist

Akers wrote, "In ancient times the temple in Jerusalem was not like a modern synagogue or church — it was the place where the Jews brought animal sacrifices, and thus resembled a butcher shop or slaughterhouse more than a modern place of worship." The priests in the temple were able to keep much of the meat from the sacrificed animals and thus benefitted economically from this practice. For the Ebionites, this was a religious sanction to kill animals, which had no place in their religion. Jesus says (Matthew 9:13 and 12:7), "I require mercy, not sacrifice," a saying which the Homilies and Recognitions cite as well. The Ebionite gospel quoted Jesus as saying, "I have come to abolish the sacrifices, and if you cease not from sacrificing, my wrath will not cease from you" (Panarion 30.16.5).

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables, exchanging money. So he made a whip of cords and drove all from the Temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:13-16 NIV)

The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew,Mark,and Luke) as well as the Gospel of John, record this event. It is the only time that Jesus is reported to have committed an aggressive act. And it was the slaughter of animals, in the name of God, that led to this uncharacteristic action.

Most Christians know about this incident which is euphemistically called "the cleansing of the Temple." But few realize that it is the pivotal event of Holy Week. It set in motion the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus because in trying to end the slaughter of animals, he was attacking the economic foundation of Jerusalem. The Holy City had become the center of sacrificial religion 600 years earlier when the Temple there had been declared the only legitimate place for sacrifice.

The entire city and all its inhabitants were dependant upon the Temple for their survival. Laborers, artisans, craftsmen and farmers were as committed to the maintenance of the sacrificial cult as were the priests, Levites, and others directly involved in its daily activities. In modern terms, ancient Jerusalem would be classified as a tourist-dependent city.

There were always many pilgrims in the Holy City and three times a year, during the major religious observances of Judaism, the many became a multitude. And never more so than during Passover. Because such great crowds would be gathered in Jerusalem, it was the perfect time for Jesus to carry out his assault on the sacrificial system. Not only would there be many witnesses to what he did, thousands more would hear about it as the story of what took place was passed around among the pilgrims lodged in and around the city.

Mark's Gospel makes it clear that the attack on the sacrificial system was a planned event, not an impulsive act. After describing the triumphal entry into the Holy city when the crowds called "Hosanna," his gospel reports that "Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the Temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went on to Bethany with the twelve." (Emphasis added)

The action Jesus planned was to be a very public spectacle. But by the time he had gotten past the cheering crowds who thronged the entry road to Jerusalem, most people had returned to their homes or to the overcrowded inns that housed them during the Passover season. So he went on to Bethany, where he would spend the night at the home of Lazarus.

But before Jesus left the city for the night, when he "looked around at everything," he would have seen the animals who were jammed into the Temple enclosure. The next day was the 10th of Nisan, the traditional day that the male head-of-the-household picked out the animal who would be killedemdash in honor of its Creator.

The victim was chosen according to a strict protocol: the number of people eating together dictated the size of the animal they could eat. But the animal purchased on the 10th of Nisan would not be killed until the 14themdash the eve of Passover. Because each man killed his own animal at this season, the number of sacrificers and the number of their victims was so great that the purchase and the killing could not be carried out on the same day.

From ancient records, scholars have reconstructed the events that took place on the day of sacrifice. The killing began at three p.m. and by sundown about 18,000 animals would be dead. Because the Temple could not accommodate all the "worshipers" at the same time, the victims had to be killed in three shifts.

Approximately 6,000 people comprised each shift and since the sacrifice was a yearling, the men usually carried the lambs on their shoulders. Once in the place of slaughter, they lined up in long rows next to a row of priests. The shofar would sound and the men would wrest the lambs to the ground, slitting their throats. As they bled to death, the priests standing next to them would catch the blood in large buckets. When these were full they would be passed up the line to those who stood by the altar. They would throw the blood against the side of the altar. The empty buckets would be recycled and refilled with the blood of more lambs.

Although it was set up efficiently, neither the human nor the nonhuman creatures who were part of the slaughter process always behaved efficiently. Sometimes the knife was not sharp enough, or the lamb struggled too hard, and although the blood had started to flow from its throat, a frantic yearling had to be wrestled into submission before a better cut could be made.

Of course the slaughtered animals lost all control of their bladders and kidneys. The smells, the frenzy of the dying creatures, and the endless buckets of blood thrown on the altar in the name of God, make it obvious that this ritual of terror and violence was the worship of an idol. This god-of-the-slaughter was created by human beings in their own, fallen image.

Because this slaughter of the innocent was idolatrous worship, Isaiah and the other Latter Prophets had called for the end of sacrificial religion. But they had not taken action against the Temple cult. Now, hundreds of years later, Jesus Christ, who began his ministry claiming to be the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy (Luke 4:16-20) took direct action against that system.

The final result was that the Romans crucified Jesus. Pilate, the Roman governor, would hardly have crucified someone just because of a Jewish theological dispute. But if someone were causing a riot or disturbance in the temple precincts, this demanded Roman action. It is much more plausible that Jesus objected to the practice of animal sacrifice itself, and that his disruption of the temple business during the volatile Passover week was the immediate and most important cause of his death. It was this act, and its interpretation as a threat to public order, that led immediately to Jesus’ crucifixion.

more from Akers and Tuttle -
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Change for who?

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" Mahatma Gandhi

Will Obama show responsibility to children, animals, and the planet?

It is a crime against humanity to decide that children shall stumble and die early deaths so that those in control may eat and work as they wish.

As long as public schools serve children milk and chopped-up animals for lunch, students will disrespect life. School shootings are a testament how well children learn respect, responsibility, and love from those they trust to care for them.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/vegan_school_lunch_options

"In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people." Ruth Harrison

"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity" Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sacred concepts maligned

By Dr. T. Colin Campbell PhD.

Certain ideas, in my mind, are sacred. One of these is honesty. Another is freedom of speech, at least here in the United States. And a third is the right to a good education, especially for young people.

I do not claim to know all the details surrounding Dave Warwak's dismissal from his school post in northern Illinois. But I do not need to know everything because these three sacred concepts were being maligned. When I initially heard of his case and after checking the story on the Internet and talking with him on the phone, I could not have cared less how complete my information was. Here was a tenured teacher informing children, through his art curriculum, of some ideas that they were entitled to think about. Being an educator for decades myself and being the father of five grown children and the grandfather of five teenage grandchildren, I know something about the importance of education.

I learned of nothing in these early conversations with Dave and in my Internet search that could possibly change my initial impressions. Whatever I did not know, I may never know, but I did know that I was witnessing the elements of an unacceptable injustice. It was not something that was merely curious.

I personally felt offended, not only for Dave but also for his students and, in a larger sense, for the American public who are too often entrapped in ignorance. How dare a school administrator and a school board take the extraordinary action—tantamount to a near-crime in my book—of dismissing a tenured teacher for sharing with his students his thoughts on the origins of violence and his related thoughts on the association of certain foods with poor health? Isn't a teacher's sharing of new ideas what education is all about? If I had any further reservations about the veracity of this story, they were largely dispelled by Dave's willingness, indeed courage, to openly challenge his dismissal. Any unmentioned baggage could be exposed in such a setting.

With this information in mind, I quickly caught a flight to Chicago's O'Hare airport then drove north for an hour to testify in his hearing before a hearing officer, the school superintendent and the attorneys for the school board. I was not disappointed. I was asked to give under oath my views on the truthfulness of the posters on dairy that were displayed in the school building and that touted the alleged health benefits of milk for children.

I have spent a half century doing experimental research with many students and other colleagues on diet and health, mostly at Cornell University, and along the way I spent about 20 years as a member or advisor to expert panels, helping to develop national food and health policy. More recently, I published with my son, Tom, a national best selling book, The China Study. Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health, which documents much of my career and the evidence that brought me to my present views.

I was asked my opinions on the reliability of the poster information which Dave had challenged and which drew the ire of the school authorities that led to his dismissal. As far as I could tell from these hearings, I agreed with Dave's assessments. Studies now show an impressive relationship of dairy consumption with prostate cancer, teenage acne, breast cancer, high blood cholesterol and its companion lesions that lead to heart disease, and a significant number of allergies, some of which are quite serious. In my own laboratory, we extensively studied in laboratory experiments the ability of cow's milk protein, when fed in excess of protein recommendations (almost all Americans consume protein in excess), to promote cancer growth.

I know that these findings, for many people, are difficult to comprehend and to accept but they are published in top-flight and peer-reviewed science journals. These findings also were initially difficult for me to accept as well, given my personal background of growing up on a dairy farm milking cows, then entering my research career with a bias in favor of promoting dairy. But along the way the evidence against the long-time health claims by the dairy industry became too overwhelming to ignore. Also, along the way, both in the laboratory and in the policy boardrooms, I came to learn the thoroughness with which the dairy industry has indoctrinated all of us, largely in school hallway posters like those that Dave Warwak had challenged.

In a way, I felt a certain sadness with this episode for I was seeing, once again, how otherwise good people have become so thoroughly indoctrinated for so long in the health virtues of milk, thus leading them to equate Dave's views as heresy, perhaps also believing that he was doing something really evil. Let there be no mistake, the scientific evidence now questioning the alleged health value of milk has become substantial and is worthy of public dissemination, especially to children.

Although I did not directly testify to Dave's interest in teaching, through art, his ideas on non-violence, I also believe that it is well past time that schoolchildren also be informed of this very important consideration as well. As I write this, I am still so disbelieving that this event ever occurred. When are we going to come to our senses?

I repeat: I do not know the full details of this unfortunate event in Dave's life. But I know enough for now. Dave Warwak on this basis of my background information and my witnessing the trial was teaching compassion and health, as he must. He also had the courage to be bold in expressing his opinions. His actions are not only a great lesson for young people, they also are the stuff that made this country great.

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