Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Those selfish vegans...

... always thinking about themselves, and all the animals, and the planet, and their own health and well-being. So selfish!

Did anyone read the Toronto Sun today? Not a newspaper where I would expect to see the word "vegan" come up. A colleague plopped the "Dear Abby" or "Dear Ann" or whatever it is in front of my face... you know that section where everyone complains about what's going on in their lives and asks for the all-knowing Abby to solve their problems. How people can expect any of their problems to be answered in a space that takes up one little corner of the back of the newspaper, by a total stranger no less, is beyond me. But I digress.

The scenario, explained in 2 or 3 sentences was this: Daughter & Daughter's Boyfriend are getting married. They are both vegans. They want a vegan wedding (well duh! of course they do!!). Dad is so unhappy about this, he is almost refusing to go to the wedding, saying that the daughter and her fiance are "selfish" and Mom is stuck in the middle and doesn't know what to do.

Ann/Abby/Whatever her name is suggested that the day was about his daughter and not about him (YA!) and that if he was worried about it, he should eat before he goes to the wedding. WHAT?!?

Am I insane, or can some people not go ONE MEAL without having meat??!

This would have been my reply:

"How DARE you call your daughter selfish?! Your daughter is celebrating what she may consider the most important day of her life, or at the very least it will be a day that she will cherish for her entire life. She and her fiance have decided to celebrate their joy of getting married by having a wedding and offering a meal to their family and friends. The meal, in alignment with their core values, will not contain any animal products. I would venture to say that your daughter has omitted animal products from her life because she is a compassionate person and wants to live a compassionate lifestyle without harming other animals. Rather than go one meal without meat, you would rather miss your daughter's celebration of love with your new son-in-law?? You are pathetic! You call your daughter selfish, and yet you have no regard for the thousands of animals that will undoubtedly be put to slaughter so that you can have your precious meat at every meal. You sir, obviously care more about your own stomach than you do about your daughters beliefs, and you have the nerve to call her selfish? Shame on you! Shame on you for not thinking about anyone other than yourself. Shame on you for putting your taste buds ahead of all the torture and massacre of innocent animals, who die so that you can have your meat. You are a pathetic excuse for a human being."

I'm guessing that the columnist wanted to say something similar, but she was told to keep her answer under 30 words.

I would reference the column, but after scouring the Sun's web page for a bit, I couldn't find it. It's just as well, it's not exactly a newspaper that I want to support with adding a link on my blog.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just read that same article and was thinking the same thing as you. Here's the link: http://www.kilgorenewsherald.com/news/2009/0120/advice/008.html.

I think the writer did a good job with her response. It's much harder to keep composed and try to remember why people have misconceptions about meatless diets than to go off on them.