Let’s Create a New Normal of Nonviolence
Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle From All-Creatures.org

Vegan lifestyle articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.

FROM

Betsy Wosko
June 2018

All the instruments and indicia of incivility have no place in our society. We need to create and celebrate a new normal of nonviolence to all species and to the environment that is our common home.

Pope Francis, in a May 13 interview for CBS’s “60 Minutes,” referred to the Catholic mission to care for the poor and queried, “Who is the poorest of the poor? I would say, Mother Earth! We have plundered her! We have abused her! And we are all responsible! No one can say, “I have nothing to do with this.’”

The Catholic mission of kindness and compassion, especially to the disempowered, is shared by every other major religion and by every civil rights activist. When we cut down 300-year-old trees, or kill moles in our backyards, or use pesticides, insecticides or herbicides, or eat animals, or experiment upon animals, or use animals for entertainment or “sport,” we plunder and kill Mother Earth and its inhabitants, our non-human brethren. We have a normalization of violence toward our environment and its inhabitants, and many are now calling for a new normal. We need to become proactive, including becoming vegan in our consumer habits. And as consumers, we must demand it, as a matter of not just sustainability for our planet, but also civility.

Enslaving and warehousing animals and then eating them is impolite in the extreme, as “civil” people do not abuse their power over the disenfranchised, weak and voiceless. Fishing and hunting are barbaric. Using animals for experimentation is useless if not misleading, and better alternatives exist, such as computer modeling. Toxic applications on plants and insects is murderous in and of itself, but also disrupts the ecosystem and causes diseases. All the instruments and indicia of incivility have no place in our society.

We need to create and celebrate a new normal of nonviolence to all species and to the environment that is our common home. A new norm of nonviolence to all sentient species and to our common environment would truly and lastingly make America realize its shining promise. And it starts locally: one preserved old-growth tree at a time; one vegan meal at a time; one decision to leave moles alone at a time; one pesticide-free home and herbicide-free property at a time.

Our cities and towns can then be an example for our State, and then our State, in turn, can be an example for the United States, and then the United States, in turn, can be an example for the rest of the world - “a lamp lifted beside the golden door,” as it has been since its inception, and as inscribed in Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty; an invitation of liberty, not just for the tired, poor and tempest-tossed immigrants who have already made us a great nation, but for all species and for our common home, whose restoration and inclusion will make us nothing less than a utopia; a Heaven on earth.

Betsy is an attorney residing in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

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