VEGANGELICA

Hey Veggie,
I have a distinct memory of being 17 the day or so after high school graduation as I was sitting on the bed thinking, "And now, at last, my life begins." In retrospect there were many things I would have done differently during my teen years...such as learn more about the world (outside my tiny sphere), learn about all the problems others have that I could help solve, and study intensively the topics that interested me to become an expert early on...but the good news for you is that I feel life really *did* get better after high school. I hope you will also find life seems better once you are out of high school and have more control over your life in many ways.

My No-Thanks Giving gripe is about Thanksgiving, which every year reminds me again how different I am from my meat-eating acquaintances as I sit staring at some dead turkey people killed, and the people, like strange alien creatures, happily ask for a god to "bless this meal" before they perkily enjoy the skin-covered carcass. I always think to myself, "If that turkey were *really* blessed, wouldn't s/he be alive?!?!"

Then today the meat-eating propaganda creators sent my child home with a lovely little coloring book the first graders made by coloring all these happy-looking turkeys and filling in the blanks of sentences to select the correct word: "I love to (blank) turkey," with the only choices being "ate, eat, eaten." GAA!!! No "care for," no "protect," no "love," no "befriend." Just eat. EAT. EAT!!! It's all they ever seem to think about!!

I always wonder what is going on psychologically with adults such that they feel the need to make kids color giant pictures of beautiful, happy, LIVING turkeys (even having the kids translate what the gobbles mean), only to turn around, with zero compassion or real interest in turkeys, and have the kids eat these self-same animals. If people like living turkeys so much, then why don't they stop eating them and stop breeding them with such heavy breasts that the turkeys can't even have SEX anymore, which humans deal with by collecting turkey semen and inseminating the females (inter-species sexual activity)!?

What these turkey-eaters teach children in school about turkeys seems no different to me than if someone said of a dog, "Oh, look how cute Fido is! Let's color pictures of happy Fido! What is Fido saying when he barks? Isn't Fido playful? Look how much fun he is having! Now, here, have some delicious fido."

Creepy.

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