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Notes from Vegan
Outreach
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone who has donated
their tax rebate check to Vegan
Outreach, making the "economic
stimulus" an ethical stimulus.
We'll continue to do our best to
make your generosity go as far as
possible for the animals.
Also -- many thanks to Tamara of
McFarland
Designs for her recent
sponsorship and contribution.
Q&A of the Week: Forcing Beliefs
By Anne Green & Matt Ball [modified
from sent version]
Vegans often hear from people complaining
that we are trying to "force
our beliefs" on others. Yesterday,
we received an email attacking our
parenting, which said, in part:
The problem I have is that
forcing your child to be a vegan
(or a vegetarian for that matter)
is bad parenting, you cannot force
your own beliefs on a child. Let
a child come to its own decision
in its teens.
Is "good parenting" simply
allowing society to impart the current
norms?
Parenting is, by definition, making
decisions for the child. Parents
decide where the child lives; which
school she attends; which religion,
if any, she learns; which culture(s)
and people she interacts with, and
many, many other things.
 Like
everything else about raising a
child, feeding her means making
decisions. We aren't forcing
our beliefs on our daughter Ellen,
we are living our values.
We have never forbidden her from
eating animals; rather, we have
explained (at an age-appropriate
level) why we believe it is wrong
to support killing and consuming
pigs, birds, fish, etc. We would
no sooner raise our daughter to
view animals as food than we would
teach her to hate and discriminate
against homosexuals (or, if we lived
150 years ago, to keep other human
beings as slaves).
Most children are naturally drawn
to and have an affinity for animals;
it is frightening and abnormal when
a child chooses to torture, rather
than befriend, other animals. We
believe it is inconsistent, unethical,
and yes, bad parenting not to respect
and nurture this inherent compassion,
but instead feed a child her friends.
When asked, 13-year-old Ellen chimes
in: "So what, are you just
supposed to not feed the child anything
until he or she is capable of making
a completely informed decision?
Come on! Based on the information
I have now, I would choose to be
vegan no matter what you had raised
me to eat, quite frankly. And I
would be mad if you had raised me
eating meat and waited until now
to let me 'decide.'"
Of course, this discussion ignores
the elephant in the room -- or,
rather, the pigs, chickens, turkeys,
etc. The animals who suffer on factory
farms and die in industrial slaughterhouses
are individuals whose lives are
real and complete on their own.
Their lives matter to themselves
-- they are not just hypothetical
pawns to be tossed  about
in the abstract. We have to answer
to them for every choice we make,
including what we eat, how we raise
our children, and how we interact
with others.
In her last, three-team meet
(above), lifelong-vegan Ellen Green
won the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m events.
She also finished the year with
straight-As in every advanced class,
with the highest score for the year
in Honors Geometry.
Product of the Week -- More Whole
Foods
Suzanne: At Whole Foods today I
discovered that Ian's is now making
a vegan
French bread pizza. The only
downside is that one box (two little
pizzas) is about six dollars. Still,
I imagine it'd be a really great
option for kids who have non-vegan
friends -- another convenience food
that's easy and "normal."
Send your nominees for Product
of the Week to product
(at) veganoutreach (dot) org;
previous products can be found here.
Notes from All
Over
Lightning Round
Notes from Our
Members
I received your brochure
at a local university -- I am shocked
and irate that the "food animal"
industry is allowed to inflict such
cruelty on animals. I am so grateful
the booklet crossed my path -- now,
I am so much kinder and wiser. I'm
now a vegetarian, and I would like
to join your  wonderful
group.
-KN, Sharon, MA, 6/2/08
Ellen Green leaflets at New
Mexico State; photo by Anne Green.
I decided to take a
gamble at Purdue,
to test my idea that at a major
university [in summer session],
there would still be enough students
present to make the not-too-far
trip worthwhile. This did seem to
be true. One of the vegetarians
I heard from let me know that it
was our booklet last August that
moved her to stop eating meat.
-Joe Espinosa, 6/4/08
At Coolidge Corner
Arts Festival in Brookline,
MA, one woman stopped in her tracks
and read the pamphlet for a few
minutes, then sat on a bench and
kept reading it. Another woman said
"I'm vegetarian because of
that flyer!!"
-Julie Rothman, 6/7/08
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Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 30865
Tucson, AZ 85751-0865
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