First coined in November of 1944 by Donald Watson when he co-founded the Vegan Society in England, “vegan” at first meant “non-dairy vegetarian”, and later was amended by Watson to refer to “the doctrine that mankind should live without exploiting animals”. Millions of the Earth’s human residents are already vegans these days (7% of Americans, according to a 2013 Public Policy poll, and roughly 2-3% worldwide), and yet, as often happens to concepts & principles over time, “vegan” has been watered down to mean many different things to many different people these days.

That having been noted, I feel it is important to clarify whom I have nominated to “hero” status with this post, and the easiest way to do so is to start by explaining to whom I do not refer – namely, what “vegan” does NOT mean to me.

*To me (and all other “ethical vegans” like me), veganism is NOT a diet – even though it does indeed tend to help one look and feel more fit.

*To me, veganism is NOT an environmental movement – though it is indeed by far the most multi-faceted (and thereby in my opinion the most effective) way to protect the Earth’s ecological stability and preserve its natural beauty.

*To me, veganism is NOT a call to preserve a fair & equitable distribution of resources to those in need – though every new vegan does indeed bring the world’s poor that much closer to sustainability, the world’s thirsty that much closer to clean water, and the world’s hungry that much closer to food.

*To me, veganism is NOT a health plan – though its lifestyle undeniably brings greater energy, less debilitating illness, greater clarity of thought and a longer, happier life.

*And finally, to me, veganism is NOT about striving for “spiritual enlightenment” – though becoming a vegan does indeed harmonize one’s values with one’s choices; bringing with it a deep sense of peace that can only properly be called a “soothed Soul”.

No, my Friends, while all these aforementioned “vegans” are indeed surely fine & dandy folks, they are not the subject of this post. For to me, vegans are simply any people who willingly abstain from using other sentient beings in any way – not as sources of food, not as sources of clothing, not as sources of entertainment, not as sources of research – not as commodities or indentured servants in any way whatsoever.

And yet, after penning and re-reading that last sentence, I feel it didn’t do proper justice to Vegan Heroes … And so I prepared this short tribute to explain further the depth of their service and the grandeur of their sacrifice; to make it all the more clear to you just what vegans ARE, first & foremost via what vegans DO …

*As it turns out, the simple economic workings of supply & demand mean that each & every vegan saves the lives and prevents the suffering of anywhere from 100 to 400 aware & caring animals every year. Noam Mohr, a mathematician & physicist at Queens College, puts the average number of annually vegan-saved animals at 198, while a mathematician named Harish puts that figure at 406 (his mathematical proofs of this subject are pretty complex, and he notes on his webpage that his 400+ estimate is a probable underestimation), but these figures don’t really matter. Even one life saved would make going vegan more than worth it, and it is an indisputable Truth that doing so saves FAR more lives than merely that one.

And yet even this noble doing is not the primary reason for me giving vegans their aforementioned “Hero status” … Consider the following illuminations into what it truly means to me to be a Vegan:

*Vegans are people who make their daily choices as though animals matter; as though animal cruelty is wrong, and not a right.

*Vegans are folks who have remembered that they have the power to refuse to take another life for their own enjoyment – and they are the people who refuse to pay others to do that taking for them … They have replaced the “might” of being able to dominate & terminate others with the “Right” of refusing to do so.

*Vegans know that intellectual sympathy and emotional empathy, while well-intended, are not enough when we come face-to-face with injustice … Vegans know that action is necessary to effectively combat any evil.

*Vegans are those who not only recognize the injustices being perpetrated against millions of animals around the world every day, but they are also the people who have chosen to actively DO SOMETHING about these crimes. They know that what we each allow in our own everyday private lives is what will persist & continue throughout society as a whole, and as such, they have chosen to refuse to allow cruelty & injustice & abuse to infiltrate their everyday choices. And thereby, they have lessened the prevalence of those travesties in our greater global society as well.

*Vegans are people who don’t care about calling themselves “animal lovers”, but instead go about the day-to-day task of actually actively Loving animals.

*Vegans are those who have awakened to the fact that animals are indeed sentient, and therefore that animals have rights – rights that those animals cannot defend effectively by themselves, and therefore rights that we humans must defend for them. These liberties include the right to life, the right to freedom, the right to pursue happiness, the right to privacy, the right to not be hunted or murdered, the right to not be tortured or experimented upon, the right to not be incarcerated or forced to perform for others, the right to not be harvested for food or fur, the right to not be forcibly impregnated, and the right to not have their children abducted after birth.

*Vegans are the ones who have the guts to stare our current society’s cruel conventions and tragic traditions directly in the face; and to openly call out their callousness, their cruelty & their ignorance. Thereafter, after those wrongs have been identified & exposed, vegans are those who refuse to be silent; who repeatedly stand up for the downtrodden & the oppressed; who give voice to those who are voiceless; to give strength to those who are too weak to fly free on their own.

*Vegans are those who don’t care if they are ridiculed or labeled an “insignificant minority”. Maybe they CAN only do a little, and yet vegans do that little anyway, and they do it with verve. They know that every innocent being that is confined, abused and murdered by human hands violates all of humanity. And as such, they know that every animal saved from such torture & termination is a victory; not only for the individual animal saved, but also for the sanctity of humanity as a whole as well … In essence, vegans are those who know that saving one animal may not change the world, but that each & every animal saved will indeed change the world for that animal — and thereby eventually change the world as well.

*Vegans see the innate Beauty of the Earth, and view their presence thereupon as a privilege to honor, not as a license to exploit.

*Vegans comprehend that – at least when it comes to how we are to treat our fellow beings – there is no fundamental difference between species. Vegans know that – at least when it comes to avoiding cruelty and engaging kindness – a man is a woman … is a child … is a dog … is a pig … is a cat … is a cow … is a horse … is a chicken … is a canary … is a whale … is a fish … is a mink … is a rat … is a hamster … is a goat … is a lion … is a lamb …

*Vegans may feel ostracized &/or uncomfortable being incorrectly labeled “weird” or “strange” or “radical” or “extremist” or “hippie” or “freak” or “crazy”, and yet — for the animals & for justice — they openly proclaim their veganism anyway.

*Vegans have immense compassion for all meat-eaters & all milk drinkers, for vegans know that it is non-vegans who are actually the unreasonable ones; that it is not logical to unnecessarily cause other sentient beings to suffer … that it is not logical to support farming practices that to this day are destroying our health, destabilizing our economic well-being and eroding our planetary ecologies … that it is not logical to slaughter BILLIONS of innocent animals every year – all to satisfy superficial cravings of taste & fullness … that it is not logical to despise hypocrisy & animal cruelty on the one hand, while hypocritically supporting far more harm-full acts of animal cruelty by purchasing meat or milk products on the other … that it is not logical to worship domesticated pets while enabling to torture & suffering of their farmed cousins … that it is not logical to drink the mammary gland secretions from another species when they have already weaned themselves from their mothers’ own breasts … Vegans understand these contradictions and refuse to manifest them in their everyday lives, and vegans have a gentle empathy for all those still enmeshed in those hypocrisies’ sticky webs.

* Vegans know that there is no such thing as “meat”; that what non-vegans partake of is actually the dead flesh of a butchered corpse.

*Vegans are those who are no longer conned by deceptive displays & manipulative marketing – they know the brutal & inexcusable truths behind the lies of “humanly slaughtered pork” & “grass fed beef” & “free range chicken”. Vegans know that no warm & fuzzy euphemisms for murder – neither “cruelty-free” nor “raised with compassion” nor “biodynamically tended” nor “organically fed” – can validate or justify the forceful taking of a life in its vibrant adolescence. Vegans know that it is greed & greed alone that creates the demand for this mass murder, and that it is apathy & apathy alone that prevents this travesty from coming to an end.

*Vegans are the people who are able to stoically confront the darker side of humanity – the shadowed side that has millions of otherwise kind & caring people actively participating in needless cruelty against animals only to satisfy desires of personal pleasure or convenience. Vegans confront this wall of seeming hopeless despair without losing hope … they do so with a remarkably resilient faith in the innate Goodness within every meat-eater & every milk-drinker; a faith that this latent, innate Goodness will one day come once more to the fore and re-awaken every non-vegan to a cruelty-free lifestyle. Vegans have a faith deep down – even when things seem hopeless & even when the cause seems lost — that their efforts to bring about a world of compassion and freedom and justice are never shared in vain.

 

These vegans come in all shapes & sizes, all genders, all races, all classes, and all sexual preferences. They inhabit all regions, are citizens of every nation, and represent every religion. They are a minority of the world’s population still, yes, and yet they are already everywhere – all around you; caring with power & presence for every sentient being on this planet … including you.

So I send out a great & heartfelt thanks to them, for thanks to them, a glorious world of peace & justice & respect & compassion is indeed already on its way …

Feel free to join the cause and help them make it so!

“I am not well-versed in theory, but in my view, the cow deserves her life … as does the ram … as does the ladybug … as does the elephant … as do the fish, and the dog, and the bee … as do all other sentient beings. I will always be in favor of veganism as a minimum because I believe that sentient beings have a right not to be used as someone else’s property. They ask us to be brave for them — to be clear for them, and I see no other acceptable choice but to advocate veganism to that end. If these statements make me a fundamentalist, then so be it. I will sew a scarlet ‘F’ on my jacket so that all may know I’m fundamentally in favor of peace and compassion and nonviolence; and may they bury me in that same coat, so that all will know forever exactly for whom I stood.” ~ inspired by Vincent J. Guihan

“Small acts, when multiplied by thousands of people, can — and do — transform the world.” ~ inspired by Howard Zinn

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt