“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
~Gandhi
One of my favorite tee shirts has a caricature of a spouting whale on it. And underneath are the words: “Save the Humans”.
Most days on this blog, I attempt to do just that. To raise our common consciousness. To contemplate some of the deepest truths of our natural world. To make us think. To help us wake up, to help us realize our divine nature. That we are all one. By my daily actions, the smallest of my efforts, I wish to leave this world a better place than when I was brought into it.
In the words of Einstein:
“Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes – goodwill among men and peace on earth.”
And sometimes this isn’t easy. To quote Martin Luther King:
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right.”
Let me ask … Do you speak up for what is right? Or do you feel you have no voice, or are you afraid to use that voice of conscience?
A few weeks ago, I watched the movie “12 Years a Slave”. It’s the story of an Afro-American man. He’s a beautiful soul: Intelligent, creative, a productive citizen, living with a family as a free man in the North. His world is turned upside down, when he is kidnapped, beaten and bound with chains, and transported to the South. He would serve the next 12 years of his life in slavery. I watched the movie with tears rolling down my face for much of the time.
Oh, how my heart aches for humanity!
And I had to ask myself, had I been living in the 1800’s, would I have owned a slave?
I pray to God, not! I like to believe that I would have been Brad Pitt, the Canadian, who would risk his life, who would use his voice, to help return this slave to freedom.
And I sit in gratitude at how far we’ve come over the past 150 years. It’s not been that long!!
Well, today I ask you to deeply consider your attitude towards non-human slavery. To widen your circle of compassion. To embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
You’d have to be living under a rock, not to be aware of the backlash Seaworld is experiencing from the movie Blackfish. Our human consciousness is expanding.
We are being forced to ask: Is it right that we hold animals in captivity for our entertainment? That we place baby calves in cages, where they cannot see or move for 6 weeks, before we kill them and turn them into veal cutlets?
Today, I will finish by sharing a link to a story which makes my heart sing. I think to myself, “Yes God, there is hope!”
It’s the compelling story of Tommy, the enslaved chimpanzee, and his lawyer.
It’s the making of legal history. The story asks: Should a chimp be able to sue its owner, its human captor, for abuse and ask for its freedom?
Please won’t you take a moment today, to read this story, and deeply consider your attitudes towards non-humans. Help me in widening the circle of compassion by sharing this story from the New York Times via your social media channels …
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/magazine/the-rights-of-man-and-beast.html?_r=0
In his book “The Animals’ Savior” Jim Willis writes:
I looked at all the caged animals in the shelter…the cast-offs of human society. I saw in their eyes love and hope, fear and dread, sadness and betrayal. And I was angry.
“God,” I said, “this is terrible! Why don’t you do something?”
God was silent for a moment and then He spoke softly: “I have done something,” He replied. “I created you.”
Yes, he did …. I am vegan, and I am a voice for the voiceless. And I’m out to save the humans in the process.
