A Letter About Compassion from Kurt Vonnegut and an Update from Moi in NYC

(Kurt Vonnegut and his dog)

Hello and Greetings,

From the land of Hurricane Sandy.

I was in NYC when it hit last night and nothing much happened in the area where I was. I was even kind of hoping the power would go out or a branch would fly up and hit the window but nothing. There were amazingly powerful winds that ripped the flag to shreds outside my window. We lost internet for a bit but it was kind of a let down because I had it on my phone. However there were sadly many scary fires which I was kept up to date about through fb, and flooding, but on the bright side, so many thrilling pictures of flooding surfaced on the internet. I hope the rats survived (everyone here seems worried about them even though they hate them) and got to higher ground. I have seen rats climb up the wall in the subways on a pipe so I hope they did that.

Today I took a walk around the brooklyn bridge to lower manhattan and there was no real flooding anymore. The waters have receded. It was really cool seeing everyone milling about and no lights on. All the stores were closed. It reminded me of being in France during the month of August when everyone was on “les vacances”. (vacations).

I am reading a wonderful book right now which reminds me of that My Life in France by Julia Child–it is about her discovering her passion late in life when she moved to France. The only thing which could make this book better is if Julia had somehow been aware or been taught that all the veal and foie gras she was so passionately preparing came from animals who suffer and feel pain. I don’t really understand why some people don’t put two and two together.

Which brings me to this wonderful letter I found on this blog I love called Letters of Note. It reprints beautiful letters from mostly well known people. Today’s was by Kurt Vonnegut, and it was backing his son, a conscious objector to the Vietnam War.

(Kurt Vonnegut with his Lhasa Apso, Pumpkin)

I love what he says in this letter about his distaste for people who find it “easy and reasonable” to kill. Most people feel this way about humans, but forget to extend their compassion to animals. You can tell he was an animal lover.

Without further ado….. (bolding mine, for fun):

November 28, 1967

To Draft Board #1,
Selective Service,
Hyannis, Mass.

Gentlemen:

My son Mark Vonnegut is registered with you. He is now in the process of requesting classification as a conscientious objector. I thoroughly approve of what he is doing. It is in keeping with the way I have raised him. All his life he has learned hatred for killing from me.

I was a volunteer in the Second World War. I was an infantry scout, saw plenty of action, was finally captured and served about six months as a prisoner of war in Germany. I have a Purple Heart. I was honorably discharged. I am entitled, it seems to me, to pass on to my son my opinion of killing. I don’t even hunt or fish any more. I have some guns which I inherited, but they are covered with rust.

This attitude toward killing is a matter between my God and me. I do not participate much in organized religion. I have read the Bible a lot. I preach, after a fashion. I write books which express my disgust for people who find it easy and reasonable to kill.

We say grace at meals, taking turns. Every member of my family has been called upon often to thank God for blessings which have been ours. What Mark is doing now is in the service of God, Whose Son was exceedingly un-warlike.

There isn’t a grain of cowardice in this. Mark is a strong, courageous young man. What he is doing requires more guts than I ever had—and more decency.

My family has been in this country for five generations now. My ancestors came here to escape the militaristic madness and tyranny of Europe, and to gain the freedom to answer the dictates of their own consciences. They and their descendents have been good citizens and proud to be Americans. Mark is proud to be an American, and, in his father’s opinion, he is being an absolutely first-rate citizen now.

He will not hate.
He will not kill.
There’s no hope in that. There’s no hope in war.

Yours truly,

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

From the educational and beauteous blog letters of note.

I Participated in a PETA Event!

Today I participated in a PETA event.

They unveiled a new ad starring Ru Paul’s Drag Queen race winner Sharon Needles. I responded to a facebook update on PETA asking for volunteers to dress up as zombies and stand in front of a steakhouse in NYC.

I had no idea what to expect. 
Would I get arrested? Would the owners of the steakhouse yell at us?

I was inspired to do this by my own blog post in which I listened to a wonderful interview with the founder of Toronto Pig Save Anita Krajnc talk about activism so beautifully.  
She made herself out to be just a regular person who was not especially fearless or daring. She read about Tolstoy’s activism when he was imprisoned and became interested in giving it a shot. Well through her explanation, I became interested in trying some activism myself.

Another one of my favorite bloggers Ragen Chastain of Danceswithfat.com has also been putting the idea into my head. I love what she stands for. She blogs about Health at Every Size and Fat Acceptance. Reading her blog has totally improved my body image and she has inspired me with her campaigns that she starts and gets going, like one that combatted a terrible ad campaign disguised as a health campaign bullying fat kids on bus stops in Georgia. (the ads said things like “chubby kids may not outlive their parents” -wtf) 
She had fat activists pose proudly in a new set of ads with inspirational slogans, showing kids who are fat that there are some positive happy fat people in the world and telling them about the principles of health at every size. She then raised enough money to put up the ads all over atlanta…and I donated. I was considered a fat kid when I was younger and know what it feels like to be the subject of mean comments and prejudice so it is a cause I really felt was important.

Anyway….I did it!

My thoughts on the event:

Everyone in cars stopped and stared. It was really cool.

The owners of the steak house never once came out to yell at us, though they looked at us weirdly, especially the people in PETA t-shirts.

It’s kind of cool that PETA is so bad-ass. If you see a PETA t-shirt, everyone’s alarm bells start going off. They’ve got a BAAAAAAD reputation…which is kind of cool.

No one on the street passing by said anything rude, except one crazy looking lady who was probably already angry. One person I handed a postcard with Sharon’s ad on it actually told me “NO, I am totally with you! I am all for this”. It was really cool to hear that from passerbys, and almost everyone took a postcard who passed by, smiling at the disturbance caused by zombies.

Contrary to popular belief about PETA events, everyone on the street seemed happy to see a crazy demonstration nearby. Some people in a nearby L’Occitane gave Sharon Needles a gift from their store…so sweet. The people in Le Pain Quotidien all rushed out as well and watched.

The ad said Eating Shouldn’t Cost an Arm and a Leg and had Sharon dressed as a zombie. 
Sharon herself was extremely cool. She made me want to be glamorous and fabulous. I loved her attitude. i should watch some Ru Paul’s drag race.

The demonstration only lasted about 30 minutes, and then that was it. There were tons of press there who took pictures.

Overall, I thought it was really cool. It really seems quite simple. If you want to protest something, you simply go set up on the street and do it. 
No one will arrest you, probably no one will scream at you–especially if it is done in a funny way like this was.

All in all, this was a very enlightening and great experience! 
After reading Free The Animals by Ingrid Newkirk I just have so much respect for what PETA does. They are really blazing a great path for animals…. 
And so are thousands of others helping animals in their own ways…through vegan companies, farm sanctuaries, volunteering at shelters etc, having vegan blogs, vegan clothing stores, taking photographs of animals etc.

A cool day.

(MyNonLeatherLife on Facebook)