tinhuviel | Entries tagged with humanity

I got to thinking about this after reading a news story about a park ranger who got suspended without pay for refusing to kill two bear cubs. The reporter used the word "destroyed" when mentioning the mother bear. Such language diminishes the gravity of what happened to this bear. She had gotten in the habit of raiding a freezer full of salmon, so she was murdered. Plain and simple. Afterward, the media reduced her to an it that was "destroyed". You destroy buildings, you destroy works of art. These are things. Destroy is a word better suited to inanimate objects. The bear was not inanimate at the time of her murder. So, I bit the bullet and took the plunge into Change.org. Here's what I wrote, along with the video I added. Click the bear pic to go sign my petition, if you feel the call to do so.

Language matters. Language is how we exchange information and share common experiences. It helps to form our worldview and even how we see ourselves. It is also used as a tool of propaganda to sway the opinions of millions, a perfect example of which is its use by the Nazis, which resulted in the agony and death of countless millions more, either in the Holocaust or many battles of World War II. The language our officials and media outlets use when referring to non-human animal deaths at human hands is done so to keep us ignorant of, or complacent regarding the methods used to increase profits for industries dependent on such practice. Words like "destroy", "put to sleep", and "process" are examples of this. We are more comfortable with these words, because it paints over human complacency and disregard of other life on Earth. As long as we remain comfortable, however, the more lives will be lost. The media and government need to stop propagating such language when talking about our fellow Earthlings. The three aforementioned terms should be replaced with more accurate expressions of human/non-human lethal interaction, such as "murder" or "mass murder" instead of "destroy" or "population control", "euthanized" or "executed" instead of "put to sleep," (dependent on if the animal were ill and near death, or an inmate in a pound that engages in supposedly unwanted animal executions), and "slaughter" instead of "process." In just one generation, such changes would produce more empathy in humanity, not just for non-humans, but toward one another and toward the planet we all call home, as well. The sanitization of our language has blinded us to how brutal nature is and, indeed, how much more vicious we ourselves can be to everyone around us. Because of the shift of opinion based upon the language we use, we would take a longer time to decide to wage war or not be so complicit in the Prison Industry. By simply replacing a few little words with more accurate and honest ones, we could put ourselves on the road to a better and more sustainable way of life for all Earthlings.

So there you have it. If enough people sign the petition, hopefully it will bring the suffering we inflict on others to fore, and eventually make life on Earth better for everyone.

Mood: pensive
Where? the house
Music: Cypress Hill - Hits from the Bong

Willful blindness was why we didn’t see Cosby as creepy before. It was why many people had never heard of these accusations: because the media forgot about them, too. Nobody wanted to believe this about America’s favorite dad. Powerful people in Hollywood felt it was to their financial benefit to overlook it. Now, suddenly, it is not.

(Click pic for the full editorial.)

What I'm about to opine is not a defense of Bill Cosby; rather, it's a condemnation of the industry of which he is a part or, for that matter, any place in society that allows a person to presume they are immune from the consequences of their wrongdoing. We've seen it before in the entertainment industry, and we'll see it again, just as we've witnessed horrible accounts come to light in the political, religious, law-enforcement, and military arenas in a neverending slideshow of insanity.

The only way anything will ever change is if society stops glorifying money over ethics, and endeavour to create a reality where those who cannot boast a lofty station can still expect the benefit of the doubt, and those who had previously always enjoyed the luxury of being above the law are held accountable for their crimes. Only then will the next Michael Brown not get gunned down in broad daylight and the next Cosby or Stephen Collins pay for the damage they've done to women, children, and a generation's trust.

If that happened, perhaps those who are trying to feed the homeless would no longer be arrested and tried for the transgression of kindness, while others are celebrated in the media for having litters of children on a planet struggling to sustain the life already here, or still others bask in the knowledge that their activities in human trafficking and child molestation will almost always remain unknown because they are influential/rich enough to maintain a convenient invisibility.

Do I ever see that happening? Will the Pat Robertsons, Mama Junes, and Dr. Ozs carry on, business as usual, as they laugh at our obvious willingness to be duped? Will public acts of affection between Gays continue to be demonised while adoration of all things martial in nature is endlessly encouraged? Will we learn before we end up destroying ourselves and countless other truly innocent Earthlings?

Bill Cosby is not an exception, he's the rule. And most everyone is too stupid or too afraid to acknowledge that, because it would mean we'd have to take a good long look at ourselves in that mirror, and ask ourselves if we would have done the same thing, if we thought we could get away with it.

Mood: gloomy
Where? Home
Music: Shriekback - Planet

Something truly odd happened to me a couple of days ago. The day before, I suffered a wee tad of vertigo and crashed into a door facing, injuring my right shoulder and, I'm discovering today, blacking my right eye. I figured the vertigo was the result of my not eating for three days because of this godawful toothache, which was beginning to radiate up through the left side of my face and behind my eyeball.

So I figured a trip to urgent care may be in order to make sure I hadn't broken anything and maybe I could get an antibiotic for the tooth so the dentist could pull it immediately when I get to see him after September 1, instead of making me wait and take antibiotics then.

But because I had suffered vertigo, urgent care sent me to Mercy Scripps emergency room. They x-rayed me there and everything was in order; however, they did give me some tramadol for the pain and giant penicillin horse pills to take three times a day for the next week to get my tooth ready for extraction. I already feel better there.

Anyway, whilst I was outside the E/R waiting for my cab to the drug store, this dude came up to me and assured me that everything was going to be okay. I wanted to believe him, because he looked like Montel Williams. He asked if they were able to help me, and I told him yes. He said he was waiting for them to take his vitals, but wanted to come out and smoke real quick like, and thought I was pretty, so he figured he'd take his chances and talk to me. I thanked him, and smiled the best I could, with my swollen face. Then he asked if I was waiting for my husband to pick me up, and I thought oh here we go…. I told him I wasn't married. Lawd, you would have thought he'd won on Jeopardy. He put his arm around me and started yip-yapping about everything, and informed me that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but was taking his medications, so he was okay. He introduced himself as Geno. I immediately thought of Geno Vanelli. He then gave me his phone number and practically begged me to call him. Then, as my cab pulled up, he asked me for a quick kiss. WTF? He gave a light peck on the lips and dashed back into the hospital.

After all that, my emoticon face was set on o_0.

So, today, I went to the grocery store with the Mother Unit, and as I rounded the corner of an aisle, this short, chubby guy stopped me. He held up a huge bottle of Jim Beam in one hand, and a family-size box of Fruit Loops in the other. In a lovely Middle Eastern accent, he asked "This is a great combination, eh?" I laughed and agreed with him. He practically skipped away with glee.

WTF?

I think I'm really starting to like San Diego.

Mood: amused
Where? Home
Music: Captain Cook_tape - shriekback

4-Man Bobsled

Four Men in a funny-shaped 500 pound pod hurtling down a slippery tube of icy death whilst an international crowd cheer them on in a plethora of languages as they wave miniature flags and ring tiny cowbells.

What does this tell us about the human race? Is it any wonder alien visitors have yet to make themselves known? I mean really...doubleyew tee eff, mate?

Mood: weird
Where? home
Music: Olympics on TV

Carl Sagan is one of my lifelong heroes. This is but one reason why.

Mood: peaceful
Where? home
Music: Peter Murphy - Huuvola

Sometime this week, I have to do my 3 - 5 minute presentation on the importance of body language in human communication. I really dread this. First off, I have never been good at making speeches or doing presentations, even though some have told me I do fine at it. Secondly, I'll be using this blasted webcam, which freaks me out. My primary concern is trying to maintain eye contact with this teentsie camera resting at the top of my monitor. I'm not concerned with what I'm gonna say. I could write reams on human body language and how we communicate with each other (and other non-human Earthlings) without even knowing we're doing it or what we're saying. I really need to do this right, though, because I'm sucking in the class thanks to lack of communication between myself and my instructor. That's kind of sad, too, considering the class is called "Professional Communications." When the teacher eval came around for me to fill out, I gave this instructor a big, fat, undulating F.

Mood: frustrated
Where? home
Music: Robin Meade on the telly

The lady with whom I work the closest at Sally Foster is a fellow animal lover. A day doesn't go by without Amy telling me the intrepid tales of Flossie the Bull Terrier and Willard the Scottie. She's an absolute joy to be around.

The other day, though, Amy got off the phone with her brother in tears. She'd just found out that her brother's cat, a Katrina rescue by the name of Blaze (because he was found on the roof of a burning house), had cancer and needed to be euthanised. Amy is very tender-hearted and can't deal with stuff like this, not when it comes to animals. She was quiet for a time, then she piped up and said, "Tracy, let me ask you a question. Do you believe that there's a heaven for animals?"

Amy knows that I'm a Witch, or a Wiccan, as that's the term with which she's most familiar. I guess she sensed that I'm also more comfortable serving in the Crone aspect of the Goddess, given her question seemingly from left field. I wasn't prepared for such a question and had honestly never really developed a concrete theory about animals and the afterlife, just feeling that they go through essentially the same cycle that we humans do. Something in her question triggered the Crone within me, though, and I shared with her this theory:

I told her that I believed that there's a heaven more so for animals than for humans because animals are essentially more pure in spirit. Humans have a lot of issues with which to deal, most of it of our own making. Animals come to this plane to do whatever they came to do, then return to that place of spirit to wait on their humans to get our shit together so we can stop reincarnating and join them in the spiritual realm. She seemed comforted by this, but asked if I ever thought that animals ever returned to the physical realm. Unequivocally yes! I think that animals spirits can connect to human spirits to the extent that they choose to return to the Earth plane to be with that human. I told her about Smidgen and how she is supernaturally so alike to Henry and Toque before him, even "patty-caking" to get whatever it is she wants when we never taught her to do this, but did teach Henry, who was a dog and keen to learn goofy tricks like that. Smidgen came to us as a five-week-old kitten, patty-caking her way to indulgence, this behaviour imprinted on her seemingly at birth. I have no other way to explain this than the animal spirit that manifested as Toque and Henry returned to the human spirit with whom it's bonded. I'm assuming that the spirit that's now known as Smidgen will continue to walk the life path with me as long as I'm reincarnating to try to get my own shit together. I'm hoping that this special spirit doesn't tire of my inability to learn and grow beyond the trappings of this plane, leaving me to my own devices to return to the spirit realm where it belongs.

Although I'm very sorry for Amy's family and I feel their pain in their loss of Blaze, I'm thankful to Amy for making me think about the role of animals in this and other planes of existence. I'm kind of ashamed that I'd never thought about it before, but I'm only human and about as far from perfect as any human can be.

Mood: contemplative
Where? home
Music: Alan Parsons Project - Hawkeye