I was on www.vegweb.com this morning looking for something good to take to potluck and I happened to surf onto an ad for some really groovy looking T's. One said "All my heros have an FBI record". Since this is a website devoted to vegetarian T's I was curious what that could be about. In the blurb it talked about SHAC 7. I Googled SHAC 7 and what I read made my blood boil and I have to say that SHAC 7, if they are as innocent as all the sites I have read say they are, have quickly become hero's of mine right along side Aung San Suu Kyi.
SHAC 7 is a group that wanted to close an animal testing lab. Now I love animals and I am a vegetarian but I have never really gotten highly fired up about a lot of things like slaughter houses and testing labs...probably more out of ignorance than anything but I will get fired up when someone's right to protest and try to close down a business that they believe is not operating honestly and lawfully is denied them.
You can read the details of their case on their site www.shac7.com.
Read about them...why was this not on national news? Why do I know that Brittany Spears shaved her head and not know that these 6 people are rotting in prison for exercising their right to free speech? Why do I need to know who lost at Idol or what happened on the last episode of Lost when people are quietly being refused their 1st amendment rights? Where is the fire of our patriotism?
I just started reading Walden written by Thoreau last night. There is a often used quote in that book about true patriotism being dissension. And is that not true? If I loudly disagree with something does it not show that I am interested enough to care? That I am engaged with my surroundings enough to become aware of what is going on. What is worse that I was so disengaged, that I relied on main stream media to bring me news such as the SHAC 7 and guess what, it let me down. Shame on me!
Really I am often bored by people's conspiracy theories. For one people get fired up about "supposed" things but never have the balls to go see if it is true for themselves. So I plan to read more about SHAC 7. Did they do something wrong? Did they directly order someone to bomb the plant and kill the people and/or animals inside? If so, then fine, maybe they are psycho and belong in prison. But so far I have not read anything that even says they were any where near to that.
Coming home from Cambodia I literally bowed down and thanked God that I live in a country where I can blog about things I disagree with. That I live in a place that will allow me to protest peacefully. Will this paranoid country be the USA that our children, nieces, nephews grow up in? A state ruled by fear and people to weak to stand up for truth.
Have you watch Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck" If not, I challenge us (myself included) to sit down, stop the flow of movies that are feeding our hunger for sensational ever more gory entertainment and watch this mind blowing movie. It happened then and it can happen now. Even more interesting is watching it with your grandparents. I watched with my grandma who lived during that era. How fascinating.
What do we do about it? I am researching and I will be back with more of what can be done.
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