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Originally Posted by Burning Down
Oh he's fine! He turns 12 in September. He is a high-functioning autistic, which basically means he doesn't show many physical signs of having autism. He does have some tics though, but if you met him for the first time without knowing about his autism you'd never suspect a thing. It's more of a learning disability in his case. Autism is just an umbrella term that covers so many different conditions.
Oh, he also won't eat something if it jiggles, like Jello (which none of us eat because of the gelatin).
I'm not a big meat eater myself. I'm not a religious Jew (neither are my parents) but I grew up with and respect the culture and traditions so I don't eat pork or shellfish. I don't eat red meat because I think it's gross. I just eat chicken and once in a while fish (because it's expensive). And I have an allergy to most dairy products but I get my calcium and other essential nutrients through supplements.
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I'm glad your brother is doing so well, Burning Down! His food dislikes are kind of endearing (though probably frustrating when you all worry about his health!). I don't eat jello either (because of the gelatin).
Burning Down, I remembered from another thread that you and your family are Jewish. (I was engaged to a Jewish man who was a non-religious Jew...I think his whole family were atheists...but their heritage was still obviously important to them). So, I know what you mean when you say you aren't a religious Jew.
I'm wondering, if you wouldn't mind, would you please read the post I made just above yours, because I would like your opinion on similarities or dissimilarities you see between the Nazis' nearly successful attempt to exterminate all Jewish people (perceived as "sub-human"), and the practice of people raising and killing animals (seen as "sub-human").
I know this is a delicate topic, and I do not mean to offend by asking about it, but it is a question that has been interesting me more and more as I read book after book about the Holocaust and survivors' memories.
Earlier in this thread, I pointed out several ways in which the Holocaust is much, much worse than what people do to livestock. People don't *usually* intentionally try to maliciously torture animals before killing them, for example. The Nazis intentionally brutalized Jewish people...you probably know all the ways. And, the Nazis wanted to exterminate all Jewish people; livestock producers want animals to stay alive (for a short while), and perpetuate them.
However, I see a similarity: in both situations, people learned to believe that a group of living beings was "sub-human" and inferior and deserved to be killed, and are not too concerned about malicious treatment. There are many reports from livestock confinements of people being brutal toward animals...and industry practice is to bludgeon baby pigs to death, and pile up the male chicks of the "egg-laying" variety to suffocate them, without food or water.
How do you view humanity's treatment of animals given your Jewish background?
I remember a story a classmate told once about how her grandfather, a U.S. soldier in Germany or Poland at the end of WWII, gave some freed, starving Holocaust survivors a metal wire so they could kill a pig they were chasing. I thought: how ironic, how sad, yet also so understandable, since starving people will eat anything...and sometimes anyone...to survive: grass, putred rotten soup, leather, bark. The account of the Holocaust survivors slitting a pig's throat with a wire saddened me, because I felt the survivors were doing the very thing their captors had: dismissing the feelings of another being, and killing that being for their own gain. I wonder, if I were starving, who would I be willing to hurt?