thanks: giving, taking, or living?

This post is originally from 2022, but: 👇

To avoid the risk of repeating myself, I've compiled a list of the Thanksgiving posts I've written over the years from oldest to newest, so that you can choose which, if any, you'd like to reread. And the fact that I've posted about this holiday more than any other indicates how off-putting I find the notion of giving thanks by taking away life.

Other holidays too are incongruous for celebrating birth (Christmas) and resurrection (Easter) by killing living creatures, but the hypocrisy of Thanksgiving strikes me as being even more unjust (can't we express gratitude in a less violent way?), perhaps also because more people likely partake of this holiday than the others.

I really wish a movement would take place to reevaluate how Thanksgiving would best be celebrated. And just as 14 U.S. states, the district of Columbia, and more than 130 cities now celebrate Indigenous People's Day instead of Columbus Day, I wish more Canadians would become aware of the colonial history of Monday's holiday. 

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So, here are 8 posts (4 October Canadian ones and 4 November American ones - as they've been archived from the WaybackMachine you won't be able to see the comments, unfortunately) from the past:

2008 - turkey talk

2010 - turkeys belong on fields not on plates

2011 - the fowl/foulness of thanksgiving

2012 - thanksliving

2015 - some food for thought for thanksgiving

2016 - how to get through thanksgiving without killing anyone ;)

2017 - have you met cornelius the wonder turkey yet?

2020 - thanksgiving/taking, it's gotta change however you pronounce it

Comments

Krissa said...

Killing a defenseless creature to show thanks was never anything God said to do or wanted. It doesn't matter what religion a human being is, if they believe that God said that, they are wrong. And I know I'm in danger of causing a conflict in your comment section, but I have read all of the New Testament (HGV, you and I haven't written about this yet, and it's too long to go into here in the comments) and Jesus actually specifically said to not sacrifice animals. He didn't ever come out and say not to eat them, wear their skins, etc. (unless he DID say it and it was left out...don't get me started), but it is not disputed that HE SAID not to sacrifice them.

It boggles my mind that people of any religion can think that violence against any of God's creatures is "ok", much less wanted - that is beyond unbelievable. If a person doesn't believe in God, it still boggles my mind that they find violence against any creature "ok", maybe even more so than those who don't believe.

Human beings are out of place on this earth. We've been "given" the highest place in the hierarchy and we botched it badly, to say the least.

The world isn't the place it was when (possibly) our ancestors needed to kill other animals to survive. We have evolved into something that is dangerous for the entire planet.

We should all absolutely be thankful. And it is never ok to DIS-honor that thanks by torturing and killing other living creatures especially for a holiday with celebration.

Sorry HGV! You may wish I wasn't catching up on posts with this comment. I'm very glad you're posting again and sorry for being so far behind! Thanks too for keeping my cow friend Sweetie's photo on your blog. 💛

ReplyJanuary 21, 2023 at 07:00 AM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

Oh, I hear you, and I could write the longest post (which this comment may even turn into, snort, as the subject riles me to no end) if not an entire book on the topic, but I think among the incidents or passages from the Bible that contribute to this sorry mess includes, of course, animal sacrifice in the OT.

The story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac can be interpreted in different ways, but I (perhaps uncharitably) see it as a story of a god wanting to be feared and wanting to be obeyed, and when they are thus obeyed, innocent animals pay the price.

Theologians will instead say that animal sacrifice was God's loving way for humans to be able to atone for their sins until God made the ultimate sacrifice of throwing his only son under the bus - sorry, can't keep my own spin out of it - but I've noticed that not a single explanation of why animal sacrifice was necessary has ever included any hint of remorse about the pain and death suffered by animals. Why? Because humans are more important than animals. Heck, animals don't even have a soul, so why the fuss about their welfare, never mind rights?

So right there you have the notion that animals are expendable. And humans have taken that untruth to heart, despite contradictory messages in other passages about God loving ALL creatures. The hierarchy in the Bible is very VERY clear: God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, the church itself, men (preferably white), women, children, animals, plants, rocks...

Add to that these passages:

Genesis 1:26-28 King James Version

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Twist it around to turn dominion into domination and add "subdue it" in verse 28 and folk have happily said that that means humans can literally do whatever they want no matter the pain, destruction or death, with not only all animals, but the environment and the planet earth itself.

Animals are literally said to serve humans, just like humans are believed by some to be here to only serve god (sorry, refuse to capitalize.)

Notice too that verses 27 and 28 also set the stage for the unscientific claim that there are only two genders (a currently popular refrain used to inflame the by now almost hysterical anti-transgender movement), and for some to not only want to curtail human reproductive rights, but contraception as well. It boggles the mind.

Can you tell this subject often puts me in a bad mood? :(

But I agree with you. We SHOULD be thankful. And we HAVE screwed things up to such a degree that it'll be the death of our species and maybe even our planet at some point. And yet, there are still those who deny the obvious signs - global warming is a hoax they cry, for example.

Oh, but I better stop cuz I could go on indefinitely...

ReplyMay 28, 2023 at 05:57 PM

it's never too late (and you're never too old) to become vegan

Because while veganism is sometimes associated with youthful experimentation, older folk do go (and stay) vegan all the time. I myself was the ripe old age of 46, and 17 years later am still going strong. But if you need more inspiration, here's an article I found from 2022 about an octogenarian taking the leap. Yep, at age 82, this gal went vegan after the death of her husband. While I imagine having two kids who were already vegan made the idea seem palatable and doable enough, kudos to her for still making that type of a change later in life!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jun/20/a-new-start-after-60-i-became-a-vegan-at-82-and-found-a-new-sense-of-freedom

This also reminds me of a funny incident that happened a couple years ago: noticing an older couple (in their 70s I'd say) picking up a vegan product (sorry, can't remember what it was) I thought I'd encourage them to try it by letting them know I'd enjoyed it myself, and couldn't resist telling them I'd been vegan for 15 years. The woman smiled, then replied, 'honey, we've been vegan for over 50 years already.' 💥!

Also, while I'm not sure she was strictly vegan herself (although she didn't eat meat and was a supporter of less animal consumption), can we tip our hat to the legacy of Jane Goodall? As her name appears to suggest, she likely did more good overall for helping people see animals and the role of Mother Nature in a different light than most of us have been able to do.

Here are her last words of hope. As well, her last book was aptly titled The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times. 

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truth and reconciliation continued

With Canada's Thanksgiving and the US Indigenous People's Day (I don't give a 💩 what Donald the Clown in the Shite House proclaims about the former Columbus Day) coming on Monday, I thought it'd be fitting to add some links about residential school denialism to the September 30th Orange Shirt Day post.

https://beyond.ubc.ca/8-ways-to-confront-residential-school-denialism/

https://theconversation.com/confronting-residential-schools-denialism-is-an-ethical-and-shared-canadian-responsibility-265127

https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/10/01/What-Canada-Doing-Residential-School-Denialism/

hello, and welcome to my new home!

With Typepad formally shutting down by the end of today, I decided to import some of the pages to this blog site I had set up some years ago. So in the right sidebar you can find the old Vegan Slogans, Vegan Quotes, and Animal Rights Quotes pages.

And while I didn't end up importing the entire blog, I chose to copy and paste 50+ of either my best, most favourite, or most representative posts ranging from 2008 to 2024. I also copied and pasted the accompanying comments as they often generated interesting discussion. 

But if you want to view the blog in full, I'd suggest you'd use this handy link from the WaybackMachine. While it won't show any of the comments, you can at least click on categories and the More button under Archives to find individual posts.

p.s. unfortunately, links and pictures were originally from Typepad, so they've disappeared...

truth and reconciliation - every child matters

First posted this back in '22 on my Typepad blog, but am resurrecting it here. Sadly though, residential school denialism is still prevalent, with racist book Grave Error: Examining Media Claims About Residential Schools, a bestseller on Canada's Amazon site. This '24 Tyee article examines residential school denialism in detail.

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September 30 is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day. It's a day to honour the survivors of Canada's Indian residential schools, and the thousands of children who never returned. It's a day to recognize the trauma and inter-generational impacts suffered by families and communities.  It's a day for Indigenous people to try and help each other heal, and for non-Indigenous people to reflect on the roles our government, churches, institutions and individuals played in stripping vulnerable children of their culture, their traditions, their language, their spirituality, their family relationships, and the right not to be emotionally, physically, and sexually abused. It's a day for all of us to contemplate this truly horrific chapter in our country's history, and its long-reaching effects.

It's a day to really let the numbers sink in. That over a span of about 150 years (between 1831 and the late 1990s(!) when the last federally supported residential schools closed) 150,000 or more First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation children were taken with the goal of assimilating them. That more than 2000 unmarked graves have been found. That over 4000 children is estimated to have died in government-funded, church-run schools. 

It's a day (but not just a day, week, or year) of acknowledging and recognizing the truth of what happened, and a day of starting or continuing the process of reconciliation. It's a day of understanding both intellectually and emotionally that every child matters indeed. 

I wish the notion that all children are important was actually true in terms of individual and societal actions. Because it wasn't true for the ones ripped from their families and sent to those schools. Still isn't true today if you count something like access to clean drinking water as just one example of many. 

It wasn't true for the working-class kids sent to Ontario Training Schools either. And while not comparable in terms of cultural genocide, lasting trauma from severe abuse meted out by unqualified or plain sadistic adults also haunts its survivors to this day. 

It still isn't true if you consider the number of children currently living in poverty, going hungry, or being abused in any number of ways. We need to do more than pay lip service, more than small gestures like wearing an orange shirt. We need to genuinely honour, listen to survivors, and make reconciliation more than just a goal. 

On Friday, please reflect on the children who never made it home, and the ones who did, but not unscathed. Listen, learn, support, share, amplify, challenge stereotypes, respect, celebrate, attend an event - just do something to help make things better.

Some of the information I used in this post comes from Missing Children of Indian Residential Schools, a comprehensive resource of text, photos and recommended documents, compiled by the University of Windsor. And here's a good article for those wondering what they can do to better understand history, and what they can do now: Why the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation isn't just another stat holiday.

Comments

Krissa said...

Thanks for posting this. It seems that Canada is at least sort of acknowledging what they did to First Nations people. In the US, Andrew Jackson is still considered to be a great President and he was the one who systematically almost completely eradicated Native Americans from the US. Not defending Hitler here (since you know, but some people who might read this don't know, I have German ancestors and one Native American ancestor and I live in Germany), but it's ironic to me how he is vilified in the US for genocide, but they still don't get it about Jackson.

Ripping children away from their families to try to "assimilate" them is always wrong. It is so sad to picture those little children, unable to understand what was going on, unable to understand why they were wrong simply for being themselves....ugh, I'm going to cry. Anyway, thanks for posting about this.

This is interesting though because it IS something I do feel strongly about...when I lived in the US, I went to Pow Wows in KS with different family members and once by myself because I felt strongly about it. After I became vegan, I no longer support the feathers and leather used in the clothing and drums. I know it's their culture, but it's no longer possible for me to accept. Although, I know that they at least in times before Europeans showed up thanked the buffalo/bear/eagle/any animal they killed and revered their spirit and called them "brother" so for that at least, I respect the way their ancestors did things. And also they used every part of the 'animal' out of respect.

I think I still have more to catch up on, but I don't know if I'll make it today. Thanks for posting on important topics and I'm sorry I'm so far behind!

ReplyJanuary 21, 2023 at 06:32 AM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

No worries, I'm just as far behind! :)

Yes, acknowledgement by most Canadians, but certainly there's a contingent that declares this to be a big hoax, just like global warming. The schools were not horrible at all, there are no mass graves, blah, blah, blah... It's infuriating.

And just as Jackson is still considered a great President, Sir John A. Macdonald (Canada's first Prime Minister under whose rule residential schools began in 1883) is still considered a great leader by many, and there was an uproar when some wanted schools to be renamed or statues of him removed.

Granted, many MANY politicians and other institutional leaders of the day agreed with his stance and assimilation was the model of the day, so certainly Macdonald wasn't the only person to blame.

But what I find interesting was the furor, and the lack of recognition that folk might be upset by having Macdonald's name and representation everywhere.

And while I personally don't think that you always have to remove historical symbols (I think it's more important to find legitimate and enduring ways of remembering the bad and shameful parts of history), the angry cries against what was perceived as political correctness run amok, and progressive liberal "woke" agendas was illuminating.

Yeah, I'll always have a hard time accepting the seal hunt, for example, although I know there's a difference between subsistence hunting and the godawful commercial seal hunt.

And for vegans especially, there's so much to fight against such as factory farming, and sport hunting as just two examples, that I think we have to consider what will help the most animals and what will help to eliminate the most egregious forms of animal cruelty.

So in that respect, targeting traditional practices of the Inuit or other Indigenous folk should not be top priority, or even a priority at all.

ReplyJune 06, 2023 at 09:22 PM