Yes, you and I do. But the majority of Americans? Listen to what news items
they choose to remark on in general conversation. For example, everyone was
talking about those children in Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was on the
news constantly. Obama was talking about it. But from the minute it
happened, everyone talked about it. But when there's a news item about
another wedding party being killed in a drone strike, when people hear about
all the people dying in Yemen, even during the attack on Gaza last year with
the number of dead and injured rising every day, no one chatted about it in
the elevator in my building. My kids never said a word.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alice Dampman
Humel
Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2015 6:47 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The dentist and the dead lion
I don't necessarily agree that we do not feel outrage, anger, sadness,
despair, misery and a whole host of other emotions about the mass torture
and killing of humans and animals. We may not know each individual, but
intellectually and viscerally, we recognize that each one suffers the pain
and each one is mourned by friends and families, each one is ripped from his
life and that loss can never be made whole.
Sometimes, this is so overwhelming, the thousands and thousands and
thousands we will never know, that it can bring us to the brink of
destructive despair, even push us over the edge.
And the impotence we feel to make any significant difference can also be
devastating.
So we do feel upset, for lack of a better word, at these horrible events,
for all the good it does anybody.
On Jul 30, 2015, at 9:18 AM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Think about this. We hear about nine people being murdered in a
church or
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:
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