Regan’s Rightness … (06/21/17)
Before Tom Regan (professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University) passed away in February of this year (RIP, my dear Friend), he was a shining beacon of Justice & Compassion in a world darkened by greed & callousness … Tom Regan had the moral wherewithal to SEE back in the 1980’s what so many gorgeous Humans are just now starting to Seeing today — namely, that animals too want to live; that animals too know joy & pain & contentment & fear; that animals too suffer when enslaved & mutilated & murdered; and that we humans need do none of these horrible things to animals to live long & healthy lives ourselves … How fortunate we are that Tom regan walked among us, and how blessed we all are that his words still shine forth his brilliance!
“There are times, and these not infrequent, when tears come to my eyes when I see, or read, or hear of the wretched plight of animals in the hands of humans. Their pain, their suffering, their loneliness, their innocence, their death. Anger. Rage. Pity. Sorrow. Disgust. The whole creation groans under the weight of the evil we humans visit upon these mute, powerless creatures.
It is our hearts, not just our heads, that call for an end to it all, that demand of us that we overcome, for them, the habits and forces behind their systematic oppression.
All great movements, it is written, go through three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption. It is the realization of this third stage, adoption, that requires both our passion and our discipline, our hearts and our heads.
The fate of animals is in our hands.” ~ Tom Regan
;