There is a common thread running through all those self appointed
murderers and the puffed up dentist. Each has determined that they
are superior to all life around them. The man who stands up in a
theater or charges into a school or a shopping mall, and opens fire is
no different than the Super American White Male Middle Class
Professional Dentist who believes he has the right to murder an old
Lion. We can deny it all we want, but there is a serious sickness in
our society. Sure, it's running ramped around the Globe, too, but
here in America it is our problem to confront and deal with.
We pulled onto the Ferry dock yesterday with our truck windows down,
taking in the clean, warm air. A van pulled up next to us. On the
back window was a sign that said, "No worries. We place our lives in
God's hands".
and in the back seat were three young children playing their video
games. What we heard was the sounds of bombs, machine guns, and
bloody screams. Mom and Dad sat happily in the front seat, probably
handing all that noise and anger and game play...killing...off to God
to deal with.
I'm sure these folks would assure me that their children know the
difference between games and real life. But I remember how I was
programmed to think about those Geeks in Viet Nam back in the 60's.
And how many of our white sisters and brothers feel about their black
counterparts. There is murder and violence within our culture, and we
are playing Make Believe, that it doesn't exist, that we can tell the
difference. And then a cop leans into the front seat of a car and
shoots a Black man in the face. A man whom he'd pulled over because
he had no front license plate. Or the cop who suddenly went off the
deep end when a Black woman refused to put out her cigarette.
And as bad as these actions, and others go, what is worse is the
violent reaction by outraged citizens. We seem far better at
retaliating with like violence, rather than working together to figure
out what is wrong in our culture that is creating a more and more
violent society.
To me, the dentist and the random gunner are no different. Both are
festering pus under our flesh.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/30/15, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 7/30/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Think about this. We hear about nine people being murdered in a church orAh yes, the wonderfully soft, luxuriant mink coat of bygone years.
several people killed in a movie theater and we are very upset because we
are able to see the victims and the killers as individuals. We relate to
the
situations personally. But we do not live in perpetual outrage over all
of
the people killed by our drones or the Palestinians murdered every day by
Israelis with our complicity because we just canpt conceptualize hundred
and
hundreds of people as individual human beings. We learn about the hubris
of
one American who feels it necessary to kill an old, well known lion, but
we
are not angry at the people who torture animals for profit in our own
country. When animal rights people began talking about the immorality of
raising and killing minks for their fur coats, I never gave it a thought.
I
even bought a mink coat. That the ways in which the animals were raised
and
cared for was torture, just didn't phase me one bit. So for years animal
rights activists have been trying to show us what happens to animals on
these farms, on factory farms, in laboratories, and slowly, very slowly,
I
began to understand. So now our government calls the people who called
the
torture to my attention, terrorists and they are imprisoned and some of
them
are put in solitary confinement.
Miriam.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 12:19 AM
To: blind-democracy
Subject: [blind-democracy] The dentist and the dead lion
What sort of sport is luring a rather tame lion out in the dark of night
and
killing it with a bow and arrow. Was it the joy of the kill? The
excitement of knowing the old lion did not die at once, but suffered
before
death? Or was it just the thrill of an arrogant American "Wanna Be",
looking to be a "Somebody"?
Frankly, I hope this great sportsman finds his dental business as dead as
a
rotten molar. You think I would let his dirty hands in my mouth?
Does this sad example of an American First Class Citizen think he is so
Goddamned Special that he can just go off killing for the pleasure of
killing? Is this what our grand nation is breeding?
When are we going to stop calling killing a sport? Maybe a fun sport
would
be to trick this sad excuse for a man out of his house some dark night
and
then kick the crap out of him.
Now I 'm not suggesting chopping off his head and sticking it up over the
fireplace.
Carl Jarvis
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Joseph HH - Avaaz.org" <avaaz@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:22:21 -0400
Subject: Re: The dentist and the dead lion
To: "carjar82@xxxxxxxxx" <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
Dear friends,
A 13-year old lion named Cecil was just lured from a park in Zimbabwe
where
he lived under legal protection, shot with a crossbow and rifle, then
beheaded and skinned. The hunter who paid over $50,000 for the kill is a
dentist from Minnesota.
Experts say lions could be extinct in the wild in our lifetime, and the
US
is partly to blame. The number of lion trophies imported by American
hunters has skyrocketed, doubling between 1999 and 2008, and there are no
sanctions in the US for hunters like the dentist who killed Cecil,
because
lions aren't listed under the Endangered Species Act despite a recent
government recommendation.
Right now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a petition to
list
lions as endangered, and a massive outcry from across the country could
speed up the process and start saving lions now. Sign now and recruit
others
to join on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere else:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/us_list_endangered_african_lions_b/?blJLibb&v=62
544
Can you imagine the African savannah completely devoid of lions? It's a
depressing thought, but defending lions like Cecil also isn't even just
about altruism; Cecil was a major tourist attraction at Hwange National
Park, and a few days of his photo being taken by tourists was more
lucrative
for Zimbabwe than the one-off price paid for his head.
Countless other tourism jobs across southern and East Africa depend on
the
existence of these incredible animals.
Listing the African lion under the Endangered Species Act wouldn't
immediately create a ban on American hunters traveling to Africa to hunt
lions, but it would establish a stringent new permitting process, whereby
any hunting could only happen in closely monitored programs that also
support lion conservation. It's the first step toward any real, ambitious
plan to save the world's lions, and frankly it's outrageous that it
hasn't
happened already.
It's past time we respond to this dramatic scenario with dramatic action,
starting by listing lions as endangered. If everybody also finds one
friend
to join them, we can double the strength of our demand. Sign here and
let's
make sure Cecil's death wasn't in vain:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/us_list_endangered_african_lions_b/?blJLibb&v=62
544
Scientists warn that we're living in an era known as the sixth
extinction,
an acceleration of habitat and species loss from urbanization, climate
change, and aggressive hunting. Large mammals like lions are some of the
most vulnerable; their rates of reproduction lag far behind the rate
they're
being hunted and poached.
But our movement is accelerating too, and every day Avaaz members
worldwide
are propelling hopeful and ambitious policies forward to build the world
we
love, a world where African lions continue to roam.
With roaring hope,
Joseph, Rewan, Mia, Andrew and the whole Avaaz team
More information:
Cecil the lion's killer revealed as American dentist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/1176
7119/Cecil-the-lions-killer-revealed-as-American-dentist.html
Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33674087
African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered Species Act
Protection
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lions-face-
extinction-by-2050-could-gain-endangered-species-act-protection/
African lion (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/african_lion.html
Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway
http://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction
Avaaz.org is a 41-million-person global campaign network that works to
ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global
decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.)
Avaaz
members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18
countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages.
Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/highlights.php/?footer";> or follow us on facebook
here: http://www.facebook.com/Avaaz or twitter here:
http://twitter.com/AvaazThis message was sent to carjar82@xxxxxxxxx.
To change your email address, language, or other information, contact us
here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact/?footerWant to leave this list?
Send
a
message to unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxx, or click here:
https://secure.avaaz.org/act/?r=unsub&cl=8110036077&email=carjar82@xxxxxxxxx
&v=62544&lang=enTo
contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us
via
the form at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at
+1-888-922-8229 (US).
Was it Queen for a Day where the winner received a ten thousand dollar
fur coat? Maybe some other give away early TV program. But when I
stroked the super soft fur on Missus Arnold's mink stole and oohed and
aahed, mother later told me how many little mink gave their lives so
Missus Arnold could strut her stuff. And yet, even proclaiming such
slaughter to be barbarian, I went about my life without much thought
regarding the cruel treatment these, and other little helpless
animals, underwent in order to bring pleasure to Human Superior.
Right now, this very morning, I deleted about ten or twelve cries for
help in saving everything from wolves to trees to the air we breathe
and the water that is running down to a trickle. I'm sympathetic and
stretch my meager energies and resources as best I can, but it's not
nearly enough. Too many of us are on a very slow learning curve. A
major part of it is having to first undo all that our society has
built in. My attitudes toward Gays. My unrealized, unspokan
prejudices toward Blacks, Asians, Indians, and yes, even toward women.
I had to accept that I was a womanizer, and with that mind set it was
impossible to accept women as equals. All of it and more had been
dumped inside my head before I was old enough to begin sorting it out.
And I'm still in the process. At one place in my life I just gave up
and tried embracing Jesus Christ. For a very short time this solved
all my problems. Just take it to the Lord! In other words, go into
deep denial. All problems are dumped into God's perfect hands. Bull!
Once I realized it was me, down inside, that had to deal with what
went on inside my head, and no God was around to dump on, or lean on,
I began to make real progress.
It's hardf for me to believe that, as a born again Christian, I told
my church brothers and sisters, all White folk, that we should just
bomb the hell out of those Geeks and wipe Veit Nam off the face of the
map. That was how badly I had been damaged by our wonderful superior
american culture. And by the way, I feel no shame, no guilt over who
I was back then, any more than I will feel shame ten years from now
over what I have been today. Just so long as I am growing.
Carl Jarvis
