Liberation in Celebration of the 4th of July
(from guest blogger Vegina – musings from a feminist vegan rabble rouser…)
The 4th of July is here! Today is the day when we come together to commemorate our liberation from oppression. We celebrate by hanging out with the people we love, eating a lot of food and watching the sky explode with fireworks. But while we celebrate there are billions in this country who are not free.
Many are imprisoned physically and often unjustly. The prison industrial complex is big business and it is a growing business that leaves countless victims trapped without their freedom.
Since 1991 the rate of violent crime in the United States has fallen by about 20 percent, while the number of people in prison or jail has risen by 50 percent…[This increase is largely] because of imprisonment of people who have committed nonviolent offenses. Instead of community service, fines, or drug treatment [nonviolent offenders are sentenced] to a prison term, by far the most expensive form of punishment.
Others are imprisoned by a sense of fear because our society is sexist and homophobic; in 2008 the FBI recorded over 1,600 hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation (likely a gross underestimate) and transgender individuals are so discriminated against that the Southern Poverty Law Center suspects that they have highest rates of being murdered compared with other hate crime targets.
Who is the Bold Native?
Bold Native is the culmination of almost ten years of work by literally hundreds of people. It was conceived in the summer of 2001. It was shepherded through numerous drafts by Denis Henry Hennelly, Casey Suchan, Mary Pat Bentel, Jeff Bollman, Jessica Hagan, Todd Helbing, Ted Deiker, Jashub Absher, Danielle Lurie, Jimmy Franklin, Peter Alton, Goody-B Wiseman, and too many others to name here.
From the spark of its beginning to today, we’ve watched as terrorist attacks, oppressive government regimes, and draconian laws have radically changed the landscape of political and social protest in our country and the world. We’ve maintained a hope that we could create a film that spoke to the hopes and dreams of millions of compassionate people and the suffering of billions of non-human animals that have at every moment occupied our hearts and minds.
The film would not be possible without the generosity and kindness of everyone who gave their time and labor. The film is dedicated to you. And it’s dedicated to the brave, anonymous women and men who risk their freedom to give freedom to another. It’s dedicated to the individuals and groups who fight for legislative and social change, work to educate the public, and care for abused and rescued animals at farm sanctuaries. And it’s dedicated to the billions of animals who were never saved and whose brief time on our earth was filled with pain and sadness.
Finally, it’s dedicated to everyone who watches this trailer and says, “Yes.” Yes, the time has come to reject the notion that the saving of a life or the protest of an industry is terrorism or violence. Yes, there is something more important than our momentary pleasure or convenience. Yes, the lives we take have value and their interests, no matter how different from ours, deserve consideration.
Who is the Bold Native? Find out this summer.
An open letter to the FBI on the occasion of a Salt Lake City raid
Agent Dale Cooper
If I hadn’t become a filmmaker, I would have been an FBI agent. I feel confident I would have gotten in… I’m smart and disciplined and a good problem-solver. As a child, I read every detective story and mystery book in the library… literally. I was the kid who played detective instead of cops and robbers. I staked out neighbors’ garages and houses in elaborately imagined crime stories. I would have never believed you if you’d told me that as an adult I would feel deeply disillusioned with the FBI.
My impression of an FBI agent was a stalwart defender of American justice and a tireless fighter against crime and violence. It seemed a noble and righteous vocation. Digging through evidence, interrogating witnesses, following leads, analyzing clues, and getting your man (or woman). That man or woman would be someone who committed a crime against an innocent individual, someone who was a threat to society and a danger to our freedom.
Ironically, it was the story of a very peculiar FBI agent that drew me into filmmaking and away from dreams of working for the bureau. Agent Dale Cooper drove into the town of Twin Peaks and my bedroom television one night in 1990. The mystery and beauty of that world entranced me, and I became obsessed with the idea of creating fictional worlds. Agent Cooper was intuition and virtue embodied. He was everything an FBI agent should be: concerned with justice, open to unique ways of solving a case, and always alert to the changing dynamic of a case. He never took the question of good and evil at face value and never let prejudices get in the way of seeking the truth. And he always had time for a slice of cherry pie and a damn good cup of joe.
Making connections
The amazing political blog Down With Tyranny just put up a great post on meat-eating and its environmental impact. The post mentions Thom Hartmann, a truly genius writer and radio talk show host. I have not read his latest book mentioned here, but I did read The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, What Would Jefferson Do?, and The Prophet’s Way, and they each had a huge impact on my thinking. Apparently, in the new book Thom says (quite accurately), “A sudden and worldwide shift to vegetarianism… would have more impact on global warming than if every jet plane and car in the world were to fall silent forever.”
Down With Tyranny also mentions Cheri Shankar’s recent Huffpo post on the same subject.
And they mention us! Howie Klein, the writer, saw a test screening of the film:
“Last year my friend Phil took me to the screening of a groundbreaking movie that is mostly filmed, Bold Native; they’re still working on it. I still haven’t gotten it out of my mind.”
Why We Do It
Been thinking about what I wanted my first blog to be about all week. And a series of 3 minor events – always the rule of 3, always the little things – made it super obvious.
First, I went over to my bud Joshua’s (who plays Wyatt in Bold Native), and his black cat Tom Dexter (love full named animals) was rocking 13 stitches and an Elizabethan collar… One of these hilarious but heartbreaking apparatuses…
Photo by Ilmari Karonen
Apparently he’d gotten into a rumble in the ‘hood, with a raccoon probably – or maybe a coyote – Tom’s a badass like that. One of his signature moves is to leap on the kitchen countertop and wait for someone to turn the faucet on like a drinking fountain. I watched TD attempt the leap and miss, and my heart ached for him. After he figured out how to painlessly nuzzle in my lap, we spent an hour together. I loved giving him a much wanted belly rub, and I’m not even a cat woman – despite looking phenom in a cat suit. It’s the Florence Nightingale syndrome in me. If I met a guy out pimping an Elizabethan collar, I’d definitely go home with him.
Animal Extremism… Yes, yes it is.
Extremist? Violent? Terrorist? Absolutely. But not us.
These are the words the meat, pharmaceutical, and fur industries use to describe animal advocates and activists. We can’t stop them from tossing off this language, but we can stop using it against ourselves.
It’s time to redirect these words back to where they belong, the real perpetrators of terrorism and violence and extremism, those very same animal abuse industries. While we may disagree with each others’ methods, let’s not call one another violent. Be specific with language. Call it illegal. Call it criminal. Call it a good tactic or a bad tactic.
Express your honest opinion, of course, but end your support or criticism with a reminder that the real violence is happening every day in laboratories to fellow primates like chimpanzees and baboons and monkeys and to millions of other mammals likes rabbits and rats and mice and guinea pigs as well as reptiles by the millions for research that is often unnecessary, redundant and just bad, unpredictive science.
