I was close to being killed last Saturday.
This is a picture of my poor bike, confirmed as a write-off since the front end is smashed up pretty bad. A car pulled out right in front of me and I lost control of the machine trying to avoid a collision. Luckily I came off on the right hand side of the bike, which then hit the car as I slid past the rear of it. Although it is a cliche, my life passed before my eyes.
One image I seemed to have was of when I was waiting outside a store in
Scunthorpe with my son, who was about 4 years old at the time. He was eating pieces of an orange if I remember right and a man approached me saying in all seriousness, "don't be rotten, give him some sweets."
A recent Facebook entry by the mighty
Elizabeth Collins reminded me of something else from the past. Elizabeth posted this message: "
I very much regret my 34 years of not being vegan." This reminded me that, in the early 1980s, I used to apologise to the "meat" as I passed by butcher's shops in Liverpool because I had not been about to do anything to save the nonhuman animals involved.
I think all this is linked to the pain campaigners often feel deep inside and the issue of burnout. In my 30+ years of campaigning, I've seen a lot of people come and go as one might expect. It is true that some of the brightest lights have burnt out the soonest and I still feel that fierce frustration about the fact that we have not achieved animal liberation yesterday - many yesterdays ago in fact. However, that's just not the way things work: in the absence of revolution, social change is slow, generational and incremental.
One advantage of being "at it" for so long is seeing the changes that younger campaigners don't see and certainly do not appear to appreciate. For example, when I decided to live vegan in 1979 in England, there was not a single type of soya milk on the market - no soya ice cream, none of that fake meat and cheese (assuming that's your thing), apart from "textured vegetable protein," a foodstuff with possibly the most off-putting name ever.
Obviously the availability the vegan foods and other goods on the shelves means little in itself - but social ideas have shifted too. A little. Gone are the days when the only vegetarian restaurants were called "Cranks," and people tend not to faint so quickly at words and phrases like "vegan," "animal liberation" and "animal rights" any more. If new and recent animal advocates could be transported back to the late 1970s and early 1980s just for a day or two, I think that they would see that things have changed and changed for the better.
Don't think this is about complacency or sitting back - its about context.
4 comments:
Doing some advocacy on the Huffington Post comment section last week, I came across some people who vehemently claimed that forcing veganism upon a child under the age of three is tantamount to child abuse. I couldn't believe what I was reading.
It reminded me of the things I heard about child protective services knocking on doors of vegans in the 90s and even early 00s. I read about those instances when I was researching veganism in infants before my wife and I decided to have our first child (of two). I never fear that CPS will knock on my door. I'm not afraid to proclaim to anyone who will listen that I've never knowingly fed my children anything from an animal. For that, I thank all those who came before me and all those who are currently fighting with me in their own way (present company included).
I've only been vegan for 8 years, and even in that short time, I'm astounded at the changes in attitudes and amount of media exposure (both positive and negative, but exposure nonetheless) veganism gets. The other day, I was walking through Target (a big retailer in the States) and saw Daiya vegan cheese hanging next to all the cow's cheese. I pointed it out to my 5 year old daughter and said, "Look at that, honey. Vegan cheese in Target! You don't know how good you're going to have it."
I agree about the increased number of vegan foods in the shops. That thought cheers me up a little! I just wish so many people wouldn't get defensive at the mere mention of the word "vegan".
I wonder how much the current plethora of allegedly vegan celebrities has helped push veganism into the public consciousness?
Sorry about your bike. I'm glad that it wasn't worse (although not half as glad as you are, I'm sure).
I agree that things are changing slowly but gradually and that it's crucial for advocates to keep this in mind. I have to remind myself of it each time I get impatient that more aren't "getting it". It's important to remember to step back to put things into perspective when we're in the thick of things. Thanks for that reminder.
I'm a bit less of a veteran but have been vegetarian since the late 80s/early 90s and vegan since the mid-90s - I can see enough evidence of how it has got easier. Not everyone accepts veganism, sure, but most people seem ok with someone not eating meat - so I can guess it will be the same with dairy/eggs in a few years too. I'm not holding out much hope for most people my age to go vegan, but if they don't obstruct their children doing so that's a huge improvement.
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