Activist
Profile: Stewart Solomon
 As
we did in 2005, Vegan Outreach is
profiling some of the top
leafleters from our
Adopt A College campaign. Here is
Stewart Solomon's
profile:
Where are you from and where
do you live now?
As a young child we moved around
quite a bit. When I was 9, we moved
to San Jose, California where I
completed grades 4 through 12. I
attended college at UC Santa Barbara.
In Santa Barbara I got married and
moved to the Los Angeles area.
What was the last good book
you've read?
I recently read The End of
Time by Julian Barbour. He
is a physicist who theorizes that
time does not actually exist but,
in fact, is an illusion of our consciousness.
I love reading books like this that
deal with the realm of our existence
based on what science can tell us
so far.
Who has been / is a major influence
in your life and why?
The person who has influenced me
in ways she probably cannot even
imagine is Margie Solomon, my wife
of 21 years. She taught me compassion.
She taught me over and over again
that when someone is in need, we
have to help them. And she taught
me that animals are loving, feeling,
emotional, and intelligent creatures.
How long have you been involved
in animal rights and how did you
get interested?
I have been active in animal rights
for about three years. I had already
been vegan for 4 years and vegetarian
for 17 years when I read a book
called Old MacDonald's Factory Farm,
comparing how most of us perceive
the life of farm animals to how
their lives actually are. I became
an activist after reading an article
in the newspaper that described
how a nearby factory farm destroyed
30,000 chickens by throwing the
beautiful live birds into a running
wood chipper. The district attorney
dropped all charges against the
men responsible, since no laws were
broken and the farmers were following
the direction of the USDA.
What made you decide to start
leafleting? If you were nervous
the first time, how did you get
over it?
After doing some protests and being
somewhat dissatisfied with the perceptions
and outcomes, I attended AR2005,
a very large conference in Los Angeles.
I heard many speakers but was most
impressed by the workshops given
by Matt Ball and Jack Norris. They
spoke about ways of actually saving
animals' lives by taking one or
two hours to leaflet on college
campuses and at concerts and claimed
that one could save many thousands
of lives simply by leafleting at
these venues. By then I had seen
films that showed blood spurting
from the head of a dehorned cow,
and screaming pigs having their
tails sliced away and their ears
cut off with scissors without any
anesthesia. I had seen and heard
pigs and cows being castrated and
birds debeaked, and I could not
turn my back or cover my eyes.
I ordered some VO leaflets and
brought them to Cal State Los Angeles.
I found a spot between the library
and bookstore, took out my leaflets,
and just stood there for a while,
very unsure, very nervous. But I
just had to do something, and completely
unsure as to how students would
react, I handed out my first leaflet.
A student took the leaflet and thanked
me. I handed out a few others and
finally someone opened it as they
walked and exclaimed, "This
is horrible!" So I lost my
nervousness and simply handed a
leaflet to everyone walking by.
Even professors were taking them.
I vividly remember one girl taking
the leaflet opening it and screaming
in horror, then violently throwing
it into the trash. But as I glanced
into the trash can, it was actually
not the leaflet which she disposed
of, but rather the untouched chicken
sandwich she had just purchased.
Later that hour a man approached
me asking me questions and I was
very comfortable explaining all
the facets of factory farming to
him. He asked me for seven more
leaflets to give to his colleagues
at work.
What was your most positive
leafleting experience this year
and why?
Leafleting UC Santa Barbara, my
alma mater, for the first time was
extremely enjoyable. Going back
to my own beautiful campus during
a regular school day, interacting
with the students and watching them
react to the leaflet was quite spectacular.
They open the leaflet and core beliefs
they have held since childhood are
instantly challenged. And then their
feelings of compassion and empathy
are suddenly at odds with their
habits and tastes and what they
perceive as necessary to survive.
As a teacher, I take great pleasure
in making my students think, and
this is no different. From a statistical
point of view, my most successful
event of the year was leafleting
the Morrisey Concert at the Hollywood
Bowl. In a few days afterwards,
7 people wrote that they had received
a leaflet at that very concert and
ordered a vegetarian starter pack!
Only counting these particular concert
patrons who e-mailed Vegan Outreach,
that's over 10,000 precious lives
saved in just 30 minutes of leafleting!
What would you say to individuals
hesitant about leafleting?
Leafleting might not be the most
glamorous form of animal activism
out there. In fact, it is downright
simple. But it is, by far, the most
effective method of raising awareness,
making new veggies and vegans, saving
lives, and changing the world!
You can see previous
issues of Vegan Outreach's e-newsletter
here.
Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 30865
Tucson, AZ 85751-0865
VO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
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