Zucchini Versus Sausage:
different choices today
Janet Kuypers
3/21/19
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Gandhi
I heard of “MeatOut Day” the day before,
and I thought it was a holiday for barbecuing,
and for the masses to be glutenous in
mass-cooking their mass-slaughtered animal.
I’m a vegetarian, & my husband learned
that it was a holiday to eat vegan for the day.
That made me smile, and then he said,
“Well, I guess I won’t be eating fish tomorrow” —
which also made me smile. No one spoke
of this quote-unquote holiday in the 7th largest
meat-eating city in the United States (which
may seem surprising, but not in this long horn state),
which means I didn’t hear a thing about
this idea of veganism anywhere... which is the same
as every other day of the year. In fact,
while I was out yesterday during “MeatOut” day,
I heard two women talking very loudly
at the table next to me, contemplating what food
to order. Since appetizers were half-off
for Happy Hour, they planned to each order an
appetizer and an entrée (eating there,
I order only one appetizer, and that is too much).
When one hefty woman chose salmon
for the appetizer, the other hefty woman was saying
(loud enough for the entire room to hear)
that she couldn’t decide between the spinach and
the meat ravioli. So I decided to interject,
and I mentioned that if she’s trying to decide,
today happened to be “MeatOut” day,
and when those words left my lips she instantly
said no, like eating vegetables was like
contracting a deadly disease. So I smiled and tried
to go back to my work (which was next
to impossible near these two loud-talking women),
but then I did hear the indecisive woman
say it might be smart to not get the beef ravioli —
if the other woman’s getting salmon
and they’re also ordering entrees, the beef
may be too heavy. Okay, but they’re
still not getting the concept of “MeatOut” day...
so I started to think about “MeatOut”
day being designed to promote our health,
the environment, and animals, and
it was when I was thinking about our health
that I then heard the indecisive fat
woman say that her mother, while in the hospital,
had a heart attack (where she then said,
‘and that’s the best place to have a heart attack’).
The woman then explained that her
mom then had quadruple bypass heart surgery.
I looked at the size of this woman,
and okay, it’s one thing to be overweight, but
maybe their diet might have something
to do with their health. Crazy idea, I know, as I
hear of men I know taking daily pills
to combat their regular indigestion and heart
burn, and my response is, what is
heart burn? Stop eating so many steaks
and you won’t have to medicate
yourself daily to continue eating dead animal.
But that does seem to be the American
way, kill as many animals as we can so we can be
as glutenous as we want to be, then
medicate ourselves so we can stay on this cycle.
If we think there is too much violence
in the world, with terrorism and school shootings,
maybe, just maybe, this violence starts
with what we allow the world to slaughter,
so we can injest that violence every
day, at every meal. Wear these skins on your backs
and feel like you have power, when
these capitalists allow others to do the killing
for them. What does that say for who
we really are? Brain-washed and overweight
people scoff when I suggest not
eating meat — for once. If vegetarians and vegans
get together for one day while
not eating meat, and the people who need it most
won’t listen, I don’t know what else
to do, non-violently, to spread the word.
What steps can we take to truly make
a difference? I look at my diet, and without trying
I get plenty of protein. But meat markets
convinced the urban Chinese to eat more meat
for protein, though historically they
were never low on protein, but lucky them,
guess what, a lot of them now,
versus before, also have a lot of heart disease.
Listening or corporate cogs
to do what you’re told is seldom the solution,
but it seems that people prefer
to not think, especially about the death
they choose to consume every day.
Maybe it’s only once people really look at
what they’re doing to themselves,
maybe only then will the world really change.
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