Tuesday, April 10, 2001
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Tuesday, April 10, 2001 |
| Wespeak: Discomfort makes you think By Korin Mills Okay, so now we want the animal rights people to stop including all animals in their protests? "Perhaps you would get more support if you only protested cruelty towards puppies and kittens. Everyone loves puppies and kittens." This is roughly the message I received from Ben Abelson’s wespeak. But I eat puppies and kittens. What about me? Why can’t there be a political organization on campus that makes me feel good about that? Should W.A.R.N. (Wesleyan Animal Rights Network) really be concerned about ostracizing cow-eaters? It seems that we, the "liberal" Wesleyan student body, are constantly attempting to get others to stifle their message. "Loosen up." "Stop being so immature." "Don’t proselytize me." The word proselytize gets thrown around this newspaper way too much. What these tirades are really saying is, "Don’t make me think. I like things the way they are. This requires too much compassion and too little selfishness. Don’t be unreasonable." Well, I hear you, my brothers, and don’t worry. Your cause is being taken up by spoiled college kids everywhere. As I write this students at Vassar, Bard, and even here at Wesleyan are being moved to speak out about their Black Student Unions for being too exclusive, or their Community Service groups for not bringing the Poor to them, or their Queer student communities for being so damn queer all the time. Something that would theoretically make Wesleyan great if it existed would be freedom and variety of opinion maintained and supported by the campus community. The fact that W.A.R.N.’s message causes Abelson discomfort is not a sign that they are on the wrong track. On the contrary, perhaps that discomfort has made him and anyone else similarly affected and think about their message more closely. Perhaps other people have even questioned the feeling of guilt that Abelson says their "McCruelty" McDonald stickers instilled, and thus these people may have re-evaluated their position. Thought has been known to produce such effects. Because Abelson is complicit in the cow-killing enterprise, he feels guilty when someone who is not complicit brings it to his attention that he is, as was the case the other day outside of WesShop when he initiated a conversation with a W.A.R.N. representative. Abelson stated that he probably wouldn’t even stop buying Proctor & Gamble products, which was W.A.R.N.’s main objective in their tabling campaign, which he also claimed to support. Clearly Abelson is not interested in change. I do not believe W.A.R.N. had him in mind when they planned their strategy, and in his eyes that was an egregious error. It makes him "angry" that they did not consider the meat-eaters’ feelings when crafting their campaign to stop people from eating meat. I agree that a bloody Ronald McDonald sticker is not the most clever or effective anti-meat campaign imaginable. If his description of his encounter with the W.A.R.N. member was accurate, then the group probably should have done a better job of providing their representatives with more information about the cause in the event that a meat-eater would try to pick a fight with them. The idea, however, that one animal injustice has nothing to do with the other is ridiculous. "You mean you care about all animals? Even the ones I eat? Outrageous." As a meat-eater I recognize W.A.R.N.’s right to protest the entire meat trade. They are my peers. Their opinion is valuable to the community as a whole. When it is provided to me, let alone when I actively seek it out as Ben Abelson did, I will respect it as such. Mills is a member of the class of 2001 and WARN. |
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