Lisa V's Posts - Animal Rights Zone2024-03-29T10:24:08ZLisa Vhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/LisaVigerhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3145332678?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://arzone.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2v49ypa4ruyhn&xn_auth=noWhere to go from here ...tag:arzone.ning.com,2011-11-13:4715978:BlogPost:714332011-11-13T05:46:09.000ZLisa Vhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/LisaViger
<p>Many years ago, my brother in law was diagnosed with bone cancer. As he was laying on the operating table waiting to be put under for a mid thigh amputation, he tried selling the surgeon his financial services. Today, he's still just as passionate about what he does. I was always envious that he'd found his purpose ... he had a <em>raison d'etre</em> ... something that lit him up and kept him interested day after day after day. Not all that long ago, I realized <em>*this*</em> is my raison…</p>
<p>Many years ago, my brother in law was diagnosed with bone cancer. As he was laying on the operating table waiting to be put under for a mid thigh amputation, he tried selling the surgeon his financial services. Today, he's still just as passionate about what he does. I was always envious that he'd found his purpose ... he had a <em>raison d'etre</em> ... something that lit him up and kept him interested day after day after day. Not all that long ago, I realized <em>*this*</em> is my raison d'etre ... yay, I finally have one!! Not just AR alone, but the way everything connects with it ... like capitalism, slavery, feminism, poverty, etc. And, of course, I also like the food aspect of it all. And art, too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Well, I also find myself making all sorts of fresh starts at this time in my life. Practically like starting over. And I've just started the process of re-enrolling in college. I'll be starting winter semester.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So what to do? What classes? What program? I've never had to work at academics and was always at the top of my class with very little effort (when I chose to be). Where I stumbled was in staying engaged and interested. I've started different things (art, architecture, nursing) but never did finish a program ... close, but no cigar ... er, no degree.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I chose, instead, to take care of my kids, and have the family and white picket fence (which I painted blue!), and that sort of thing. And I'm mostly glad I did ... but now ... I want to do something else.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Part of what I do from here on out will be vegan food and cookbooks, definitely, and art and/or creative projects ... but where else can I improve myself to be as effective as possible within AR and the larger sphere of just making this a better world ... ? </p>
<p> </p>
<p>At "my age," ... basically halfway through my life ... what is there to do?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Roger, after a couple years of thinking about it, I actually got that final little push I needed to go back to school after reading what you said on the "Butterflies FB Great Debate Thread" ... and realizing that your path to where you are now wasn't without its stop and starts. What would you advise someone like me if I showed up in your office? (WWRYD? :)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Any input welcomed ... </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>The Most Delicious Thingtag:arzone.ning.com,2011-10-20:4715978:BlogPost:695012011-10-20T22:52:48.000ZLisa Vhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/LisaViger
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<p><a href="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/buford-drawing-sm-noir.jpg"><img alt="Lisa Viger The Most Delicious Thing Bill Buford" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-251 align-center" height="300" src="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/buford-drawing-sm-noir-300x300.jpg" title="Lisa Viger The Most Delicious Thing Bill Buford" width="300"></img></a></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;">“For the last two and a half years, I’ve been able to declare, without hesitation and with only a modest sense of theater, that the most delicious <em>thing</em> I’ve eaten in a long time was a bowl of warm pig’s blood.” So begins Bill Buford’s tale for the New York Times Magazine of one of the tastiest…</span></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/buford-drawing-sm-noir.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-251 align-center" title="Lisa Viger The Most Delicious Thing Bill Buford" src="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/buford-drawing-sm-noir-300x300.jpg" alt="Lisa Viger The Most Delicious Thing Bill Buford" height="300" width="300"/></a></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;">“For the last two and a half years, I’ve been able to declare, without hesitation and with only a modest sense of theater, that the most delicious <em>thing</em> I’ve eaten in a long time was a bowl of warm pig’s blood.” So begins Bill Buford’s tale for the New York Times Magazine of one of the tastiest meals and most aware moments of his life … a tale of his slaughtering of a living being so he might <span style="color: #008080;"><a href="http://eatingplantsdotorg.wordpress.com/tag/bill-buford/"><span style="color: #008080;">drink her blood</span></a></span>. The tale ends with an exhilarated Buford sheepishly sporting a blood moustache. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The blood was of a pig, an animal more intelligent, and often more socially complex, than any<em> </em> nonhuman primate. Pigs can play video games and they can remember abstract ideas years after an event. It’s recognized by most animal behaviorists that pigs are, “<span style="color: #008080;"><a href="http://chris-mclaughlin.suite101.com/the-intelligent-pig-a84448"><span style="color: #008080;">as intelligent as a three year old child.</span></a></span>“ </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">We all know, of course, that it would be wrong to kill a three-year-old child. Right? But here’s a thought. If a three-year-old child and a pig are equally aware, equally cognizant, equally alive … then is there really all that much difference between killing the child and killing the pig? Arguably, there’s a difference in their value to <em>us</em>. Under most circumstances, any human child is going to be more valuable than a pig would be to another human being. But to each of them, is there really any difference in their experience of dying? Of being killed? Would a pig experience the event of having a knife stuck in his throat in a significantly different way than would a human child of equal awareness? And if they would each experience the event in the same way, wouldn’t killing them be equally wrong? </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">What disturbs so many of us when we hear of a young child being injured or killed is we imagine what must have happened to the child and what she must have felt while it happened. Someone like Caylee Anthony, the little girl in the Florida case that transfixed the nation for months, was just weeks away from her third birthday. Whatever the cause of her death, she would have been cognizant enough to know something horrible was happening, but not so cognizant as to understand why. That she didn’t understand why it was happening makes her last moments, whatever they were, perhaps even more horrible to contemplate. Certainly, we all understand she was capable of pain and fear and terror; given her nearly three-year-old level of cognition she was capable of <em>suffering</em>. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">” … the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in a long time was a bowl of warm blood pig’s blood. I had it on a cold day in February 2009, in a gravel-and-straw courtyard, on a farm, in the hills above the Rhone River, in France.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Buford’s romanticized tale becomes a screaming nightmare if you reread it replacing the word pig with human child. Yet any three-year-old child, compared with any member of any species of pig, would possess roughly the same skill at playing video games, and have about the same memory for abstract events. They would each be fascinated by and <span style="color: #008080;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10angier.html"><span style="color: #008080;">able to use mirrors</span></a></span>. They would also have similar central nervous systems and a similar ability to feel physical pain and emotional terror. In other words, in all the ways that matter to the one who is being killed, their experience would be the same. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">“Two friends slaughtered the pig that morning, following an old-fashioned approach. I had wanted to witness it, mainly to see how the deed was done but also to learn what the effect on me might be.” </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Mr. Buford was curious about what it looked and felt and smelled like to kill a living being, one who had the cognizance of a three-year-old child, and because we have no laws preventing such things, he was able to indulge that curiosity. Being the arbiter of life and death, especially over a being so similar to humans, must be a powerful feeling. Indeed, Ted Bundy had this to say about his victims: “You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Bill Buford continued: “It was strong — it took four of us to pin it down — and had an abundance of character and a withering self-awareness: it knew it was going to die … “</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">After killing three year old Breeann Rodriguez, Shawn Morgan stated to the police that it “felt like it took an hour for the girl to die.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">During the actual experience of being killed, there really isn’t all that much difference between one being who has the awareness of a three-year-old child and another being who has the awareness of a three-year-old child, even if one of them is a pig. So what does that say about their killers?</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">What does that say about us? I can’t argue with Mr. Buford when he says, “Every meat eater participates indirectly in an animal’s death, normally at a very far remove.” Because he’s correct.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">At any given moment, there are 65 million pigs in American factory farms. Each year, in the United States alone, we will cut the throats of more than 112 million pigs … 213 every minute; 112 million living beings who possess the same (or higher) level of cognition and awareness as Casey Anthony, or Breeann Rodriquez, or any other three-year-old child. Of those 112 million beings capable of rudimentary video game playing, with bodies and minds so very similar to our own, many of them will arrive at the scald tank alive, conscious, and exquisitely aware of what’s happening to them. What they won’t understand is why it’s happening. And neither will I. </span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #008080;"><a href="http://eatingplantsdotorg.wordpress.com/tag/bill-buford/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #008080;">http://eatingplantsdotorg.wordpress.com/tag/bill-buford/</span></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #008080;"><a href="http://chris-mclaughlin.suite101.com/the-intelligent-pig-a84448" target="_blank"><span style="color: #008080;">http://chris-mclaughlin.suite101.com/the-intelligent-pig-a84448</span></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #008080;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10angier.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #008080;">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10angier.html</span></a></span></p>Faces of Vegan PROJECTtag:arzone.ning.com,2011-08-25:4715978:BlogPost:617212011-08-25T14:54:34.000ZLisa Vhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/LisaViger
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Hey my fellow vegans~! Some of the recent discussions here and elsewhere (in part) have been inspiration for a project that would give a face to vegans and veganism.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">And I'd LOVE to have you- and your face(s) - aboard!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> …</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Hey my fellow vegans~! Some of the recent discussions here and elsewhere (in part) have been inspiration for a project that would give a face to vegans and veganism.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">And I'd LOVE to have you- and your face(s) - aboard!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">So ... here's the scoop ...</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">What <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">do</span></em> vegans look like anyway?</span></h2>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana1d.jpg"><span style="color: #000000;"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-51" title="iamvegana1d" src="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana1d-300x238.jpg" height="238" width="300"/></span></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">They look like me. And they look like you.</span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">What is the PROJECT?</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">The Faces of Vegan PROJECT is a collaborative video project that will show the world what vegans look like. The video will be made of photos (and/or short video clips) of real, genuine vegans … in all our wonderful diversity.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">What do you have to do to participate?</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">First you have to be vegan.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">vegan <em>(ˈviːɡən)</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">-n a person who refrains from using any animal product whatever for food, clothing, or any other purpose</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Then ...<br/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana2d.jpg"><span style="color: #000000;"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-53" title="iamvegana2d" src="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana2d-300x257.jpg" height="257" width="300"/></span></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">It’s simple. Just take a photo or a very short video of yourself with something that says “I AM VEGAN.” It can be as simple as holding up a hand lettered sign in front of you and taking a quick photo.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana5d.jpg"><span style="color: #000000;"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-54" title="iamvegana5d" src="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana5d-300x258.jpg" height="258" width="300"/></span></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">But if you want to get creative, go ahead! Have fun with it! Do you live near a beach? Write I AM VEGAN in the sand. Make the words I AM VEGAN out of fruits and veggies, or rocks … or socks, or on a box. Take your photo with a dog, on a log … in the fog. Write it on your forehead, or in flowers. Make it fun. Or be serious. Whatever you like and whatever represents you best as a vegan.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana4d.jpg"><span style="color: #000000;"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-57" title="iamvegana4d" src="http://www.lisaviger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/iamvegana4d-300x234.jpg" height="234" width="300"/></span></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">The requirements are that the photo or video show your face and the words I AM VEGAN. Groups, of course, can say WE ARE VEGAN.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Video can include audio that says “I AM VEGAN” or “WE ARE VEGAN” but must also include it in written words in some way.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Please keep any video short and realize it will be edited for time and content.</span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">A few more (important) things …</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Please label your image file with your first and last name.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Photos and video must be clear and well-lit.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Photos and video must be unretouched, including no resizing and no text added. Send the image or video file just as it came out of your camera.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">Photo and video files must be no larger than 8MB.</span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">SEND your photo or video submission to: lisaviger@yahoo.com</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">There will (likely) be an alphabetical list of the participants at the end of the video, so please include a message about your name as you would like it to appear there.</span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">The small print …</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">By submitting a photo or video, you:</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">grant Lisa Viger the right to print, publish, broadcast the photo or video, and use in any manner deemed appropriate, in any media for public information without consideration or compensation.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;">further release Lisa Viger from any and all liability, claims, or damages arising out of or relating to the photo or video submission.\</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><br/></span></p>
<h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">DEADLINE for SUBMISSIONS is</span></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">November 1, 2011</span></h1>Consistent vegan message in art?tag:arzone.ning.com,2011-07-15:4715978:BlogPost:527012011-07-15T05:37:51.000ZLisa Vhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/LisaViger
<p>Maybe it's just late and I'm over thinking this ... but</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What are the "vegan values" for including animals and things like eggs in visual art?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is one of my paintings, which includes an image of an injured/dead bird.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150723382?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150723382?profile=original" width="288"></img></a></p>
<p>Cyn McCurry, a fabulous artist, does paintings which include images of eggs ... like this…</p>
<p>Maybe it's just late and I'm over thinking this ... but</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What are the "vegan values" for including animals and things like eggs in visual art?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is one of my paintings, which includes an image of an injured/dead bird.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150723382?profile=original"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150723382?profile=original" width="288"/></a></p>
<p>Cyn McCurry, a fabulous artist, does paintings which include images of eggs ... like this ...</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150723578?profile=original"><img width="300" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150723578?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"/></a></p>
<p>and this ...</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150726052?profile=original"><img width="300" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150726052?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"/></a></p>
<p>and also this ...</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150726038?profile=original"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3150726038?profile=original" width="188"/></a></p>
<p>Nonhuman animal images in art are often symbolic - and also often symbolic of oppression of one sort or another. What are the rules? ... or thoughts on how to keep a consistent vegan message in art?</p>