At Harvard Medical School Southborough Facility some 1800 primates are kept. Recently one was killed in an extended tortured fashion when he was (accidentally?) left in his cage during an aggressive "cleaning" process. Here is my letter to Harvard President Drew Faust and Medical School Dean Jeffrey S. Flier:
"I write to express my sorrow and dismay at the neglect, torture and killing of primates at Harvard's Southborough Facility. The time has passed when such atrocities as the recent killing can be done with impugnity. The inquiry and fines that may be levied are an example that even the most conservative forces in society recognize the kind of immorality that was formerly done in secret, distorted in reports, and justified in public relations double-talk.
Most such "animal" studies as those at Southborough are misguided, poorly performed and unnecessary. The most enlightened vision of science and the earth is moving beyond torturing or killing creatures in the guise of "studies." We are not ON the earth; We are OF the earth. We live WITHIN the animal/plant/water/microbial life of the earth. We cannot live without it. A platelet shift in consciousness must be the next step in our evolution.
With every day we see more clearly that imprisonment and torture of beings such as practiced at the Southborough facility is not the solution or the way for the web of life to continue on this planet.
The same developments that created civilizations and enabled the ascent of humans as the apex predators on the planet gave us two conflicting opportunities. One was the technology to eliminate or imprison entire species for food, clothing, medical "study," industry and ornament or because we wanted exclusive use of the land they occupied. Another opportunity was slow to arise but is now at our doorsteps: through thinking and observation we began to see the web of life as we never did before. There is no defensible reason to continue the method of earlier and more primitive mankind by imprisoning, torturing and killing members of other species.
No one of these killings is simply a killing. We humans cannot survive if we continue our outdated approach to the other inhabitants of the world.
We ignore the welfare of other planetary species at the expense of our human spirits, our human life and the human future.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Nat'l Geographic asks us about Shell
The magazine wanted to know what we thought of their Shell Oil ads.
"In general my opinion of National Geographic is high, my opinion of all mainstream oil and energy companies is low.
I think we have not evolved the consciousness we need to be effective guardians of the planet as our dwelling place.
Since our destructiveness so far outpaces our consciousness through human history we need at this profound point not so much an evolution but a revolution of consciousness. That starts with clarity of information, a more dimensional understanding of life, passion for collective and individual ideas, and an open-ended search across all disciplines, arts and cultures for visions and other perspectives we have never known.
We ourselves and political leaders in Washington and elsewhere ignore the welfare of the planet and especially of other planetary species and lifeforms at the expense of human life and the human future."
"In general my opinion of National Geographic is high, my opinion of all mainstream oil and energy companies is low.
I think we have not evolved the consciousness we need to be effective guardians of the planet as our dwelling place.
Since our destructiveness so far outpaces our consciousness through human history we need at this profound point not so much an evolution but a revolution of consciousness. That starts with clarity of information, a more dimensional understanding of life, passion for collective and individual ideas, and an open-ended search across all disciplines, arts and cultures for visions and other perspectives we have never known.
We ourselves and political leaders in Washington and elsewhere ignore the welfare of the planet and especially of other planetary species and lifeforms at the expense of human life and the human future."
Monday, October 11, 2010
MoveOn.Org asks what we want and wish
My answer to MoveOn.Org is below.
"What do you take away from the news recently? What are you excited about? What do you want from MoveOn?
If you have any thoughts you'd be willing to share, please reply to this message or drop me an email at: jruben@moveon.org"
-0-
Dear Justin Ruben -- I'm glad you asked.
--My main frustration, edging into despair, concerns how the "others" have taken control of the public perception. Obama came into the presidency of a diminished and confused country. He seemed such a light that a great number of us -- even those who opposed him -- thought or wished that he could wave some wands of personal power and make us and our country better. We would have been glad to see the wands but our wiser selves already could see this was not thinking but magical thinking. So, just as in a family dysfunctional to the point of ruin, the blamers screamed loudest.
Whoever had worked the hardest to save the family most often became the villain. That almost could be considered emotional physics -- if you scream at the only clear-headed one you get a double payoff: you deflect blame or responsibility from yourself, you "win" by attacking the one who made you uncomfortable, the one who was trying to see and reveal the truth as a possible pathway to better life.
--So we got the tea parties, and a Republican party which rather smoothly transitioned and nurtured its moral corruption from the Bush presidency into a status of being pained and aggrieved about the mess we're in that they can deny they created themselves. They now yelled loudest and more effectively (give the devil his due)about the mess.
--We have to look at the battered public. What is the effect on a people of a ruling government (Bush's) which lies continuously and successfully to bring about a disastrous war that destroys a sovereign country, kills and maims thousands of its own military, along with hundreds of thousands of civilians in the invaded country? What can we think about the trillions of dollars spent on this destruction, money coming from the pockets of ordinary people who generally cannot imagine numbers even in the millions, who all of a sudden face the alien concept of trillions? People who know the tax numbers on their pay stubs represent money siphoned by a government which generally lies when it declares they have a voice and which, in effect, colludes with the richest tier of citizenry to protect the riches of the richest from taxation.
--We Americans have laughed and joked always about "politicians" and the wrong-headedness of those who govern. We all more or less know that it is an unusually exceptional man or woman who can, upon being voted into office, hold to the same moral principles of his or her campaign. Yet, because of the high-flown phrases and the litany of "American" ideals written and spoken we never quite give up the hope, the hope that -- through some happenstance -- the ideals will become a form of reality.
--We had a light in Obama, which to some of us, had an additional brightness because he was a man who -- in general terms of what we have seen as normal -- could not have been elected.
--We miscalculated the perfidy of Congress, which certainly can be considered as corrupt and implacable as most authoritarian governments. We miscalculated the power of overt and hidden racism. We miscalculated the "ethos" of the high profile Republicans.
--We stepped off a cliff. We hoped. We acted as a dysfunctional family in that we would not, could not, look at the truth of a tough reality as it unfolded. We were like a traumatized child who has to be brought carefully and caringly to a point where the terrible thing can be looked at -- only when we can do the hard work of seeing without blinders can we do the hard work of moving on.
--So we blame. We yell. We are angry. We see that hope seems to slip away. We see the days in succession taken by the forces of the status quo, the forces of raw power without compassion.
--Dilemma: If Obama or any of his kind emphasize the horrific state they encountered in Washington and in corporate America, they are drowned out by cries of lack of patriotism. The dark side translates all such talk into being a criticism of the American public. Very effective. How can it be said that most of us are good and valuable and deserve representation without sounding like the dark side which has co-opted these words? It reminds me of the hopelessness I felt when anti-abortion forces began to sing "We Shall Overcome." Good and meaningful words become almost obscene. America actually needs a revolution. The entrenched stasis and corporate twinship of Congress has to be stopped. How can it be done? How to find the words? How to find the actions? How to find the passions? How to find the vision? How to wake up the fearful? How to lead? How to "Fix It?" How to move on? We have to look at these questions with all our mental capacities and imagination and passion. We have to climb out of the deflections and wrangling and stand on another ground. We have to help Obama get back to his light, to regain his ground. We have to tend, with passion, to our own lights.
--One specific. I'm most disappointed in Obama's lack of a planetary vision. Sure it seems almost square to use the term. But the days of planetary considerations as a non-debatable necessity are already upon us, have been for some time. These thoughts cannot be secondary, or relegated to "when we can get around to it." I am disappointed in Obama's lack of consciousness about the position of humans in relationship to other living beings. The future of humanity cannot be effectively considered without acceptance of the planetary network of life -- animal/plant/water/microbial. We are not ON this planet; We are OF this planet. If the network cannot live we cannot live. We protect commercial interests and their destroy/kill/wipeout practices -- "America is business." Is it? New ideas, new concepts can arise. Otherwise we choose death, not just for the "others" but for ourselves. We have to unmire our feet from the sticky mud of the status quo -- If not now, when?
"What do you take away from the news recently? What are you excited about? What do you want from MoveOn?
If you have any thoughts you'd be willing to share, please reply to this message or drop me an email at: jruben@moveon.org"
-0-
Dear Justin Ruben -- I'm glad you asked.
--My main frustration, edging into despair, concerns how the "others" have taken control of the public perception. Obama came into the presidency of a diminished and confused country. He seemed such a light that a great number of us -- even those who opposed him -- thought or wished that he could wave some wands of personal power and make us and our country better. We would have been glad to see the wands but our wiser selves already could see this was not thinking but magical thinking. So, just as in a family dysfunctional to the point of ruin, the blamers screamed loudest.
Whoever had worked the hardest to save the family most often became the villain. That almost could be considered emotional physics -- if you scream at the only clear-headed one you get a double payoff: you deflect blame or responsibility from yourself, you "win" by attacking the one who made you uncomfortable, the one who was trying to see and reveal the truth as a possible pathway to better life.
--So we got the tea parties, and a Republican party which rather smoothly transitioned and nurtured its moral corruption from the Bush presidency into a status of being pained and aggrieved about the mess we're in that they can deny they created themselves. They now yelled loudest and more effectively (give the devil his due)about the mess.
--We have to look at the battered public. What is the effect on a people of a ruling government (Bush's) which lies continuously and successfully to bring about a disastrous war that destroys a sovereign country, kills and maims thousands of its own military, along with hundreds of thousands of civilians in the invaded country? What can we think about the trillions of dollars spent on this destruction, money coming from the pockets of ordinary people who generally cannot imagine numbers even in the millions, who all of a sudden face the alien concept of trillions? People who know the tax numbers on their pay stubs represent money siphoned by a government which generally lies when it declares they have a voice and which, in effect, colludes with the richest tier of citizenry to protect the riches of the richest from taxation.
--We Americans have laughed and joked always about "politicians" and the wrong-headedness of those who govern. We all more or less know that it is an unusually exceptional man or woman who can, upon being voted into office, hold to the same moral principles of his or her campaign. Yet, because of the high-flown phrases and the litany of "American" ideals written and spoken we never quite give up the hope, the hope that -- through some happenstance -- the ideals will become a form of reality.
--We had a light in Obama, which to some of us, had an additional brightness because he was a man who -- in general terms of what we have seen as normal -- could not have been elected.
--We miscalculated the perfidy of Congress, which certainly can be considered as corrupt and implacable as most authoritarian governments. We miscalculated the power of overt and hidden racism. We miscalculated the "ethos" of the high profile Republicans.
--We stepped off a cliff. We hoped. We acted as a dysfunctional family in that we would not, could not, look at the truth of a tough reality as it unfolded. We were like a traumatized child who has to be brought carefully and caringly to a point where the terrible thing can be looked at -- only when we can do the hard work of seeing without blinders can we do the hard work of moving on.
--So we blame. We yell. We are angry. We see that hope seems to slip away. We see the days in succession taken by the forces of the status quo, the forces of raw power without compassion.
--Dilemma: If Obama or any of his kind emphasize the horrific state they encountered in Washington and in corporate America, they are drowned out by cries of lack of patriotism. The dark side translates all such talk into being a criticism of the American public. Very effective. How can it be said that most of us are good and valuable and deserve representation without sounding like the dark side which has co-opted these words? It reminds me of the hopelessness I felt when anti-abortion forces began to sing "We Shall Overcome." Good and meaningful words become almost obscene. America actually needs a revolution. The entrenched stasis and corporate twinship of Congress has to be stopped. How can it be done? How to find the words? How to find the actions? How to find the passions? How to find the vision? How to wake up the fearful? How to lead? How to "Fix It?" How to move on? We have to look at these questions with all our mental capacities and imagination and passion. We have to climb out of the deflections and wrangling and stand on another ground. We have to help Obama get back to his light, to regain his ground. We have to tend, with passion, to our own lights.
--One specific. I'm most disappointed in Obama's lack of a planetary vision. Sure it seems almost square to use the term. But the days of planetary considerations as a non-debatable necessity are already upon us, have been for some time. These thoughts cannot be secondary, or relegated to "when we can get around to it." I am disappointed in Obama's lack of consciousness about the position of humans in relationship to other living beings. The future of humanity cannot be effectively considered without acceptance of the planetary network of life -- animal/plant/water/microbial. We are not ON this planet; We are OF this planet. If the network cannot live we cannot live. We protect commercial interests and their destroy/kill/wipeout practices -- "America is business." Is it? New ideas, new concepts can arise. Otherwise we choose death, not just for the "others" but for ourselves. We have to unmire our feet from the sticky mud of the status quo -- If not now, when?
Monday, October 4, 2010
U.S. Army Wants to Defy German animal welfare laws
In defiance of Germany's animal welfare laws the U.S. Army is trying to get permission to attack pigs and other animals as "training exercises" for combat medicine. An example of these attacks is one soldier who shot a pig in the face with a high-powered rifle, then poured gasoline, set it on fire, and bragged about keeping it alive for 15 hours.
In my posted reply to this proposal I wrote: "Why add to the already tarnished image of the U.S. military by seeking to conduct cruel and deadly trauma so-called training exercises on animals in Oberpfalz -- exercises already denied by German officials who are trying to hold the U.S. army to the same moral standard practiced within their country.
The image and public relations of the U.S. Army still includes -- internationally -- suspected cavalier killing of civilians, mistreatment of prisoners, torture and other violations of internationally accepted standards of decency.
It illustrates further hubris and imperalism for the U.S. Army to insist on violating animal welfare laws in a sovereign nation."
PETA said "Oberpfalz officials have already denied the Army's previous application because they determined that this training would violate Germany's animal welfare law, since effective non-animal methods--which are already used by the German military--are available. Germany's own Armed Forces has written to PETA, stating: "[T]he armed forces do no animal tests for training purposes. For training exercises the soldiers learn with really good models and the doctors don't need animal experiments." The US Army's Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell also does not use animals in its trauma program . . . Clearly, animals are not needed to teach trauma management skills."
To take action:
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3307&autologin=true&c=weekly_enews
In my posted reply to this proposal I wrote: "Why add to the already tarnished image of the U.S. military by seeking to conduct cruel and deadly trauma so-called training exercises on animals in Oberpfalz -- exercises already denied by German officials who are trying to hold the U.S. army to the same moral standard practiced within their country.
The image and public relations of the U.S. Army still includes -- internationally -- suspected cavalier killing of civilians, mistreatment of prisoners, torture and other violations of internationally accepted standards of decency.
It illustrates further hubris and imperalism for the U.S. Army to insist on violating animal welfare laws in a sovereign nation."
PETA said "Oberpfalz officials have already denied the Army's previous application because they determined that this training would violate Germany's animal welfare law, since effective non-animal methods--which are already used by the German military--are available. Germany's own Armed Forces has written to PETA, stating: "[T]he armed forces do no animal tests for training purposes. For training exercises the soldiers learn with really good models and the doctors don't need animal experiments." The US Army's Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell also does not use animals in its trauma program . . . Clearly, animals are not needed to teach trauma management skills."
To take action:
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3307&autologin=true&c=weekly_enews
Friday, September 17, 2010
Childrens Rides on Tubercular Elephants -- "Care" of Elephants
At Southwick's Zoo in Massachusetts a second elephant used for children's rides has died of tuberculosis. My letter to the Zoo president follows:
Dear Ms Justine Brewer,
I was saddened by the death of the elephant named Dondi by her owners at Southwick's Zoo, and more so because she is the second elephant to die of tuberculosis at your facility. First, it's upsetting that the Zoo continued to use elephants for children's rides after the first elephant died of TB, highly transmittable to humans. Since it's difficult to tell whether elephants have TB, since TB is highly contagious to elephants and humans, and since one had already died would it not have been the better part of sense to stop the children's rides after the first death?
In general can you please consider another approach to the use of elephants? Ask yourself whether they are treated, in effect, as prisoners forced to perform not only rides with nervous children and no breaks, but degrading circus tricks for their food and shelter. It's indisputable that elephants are intelligent, sensitive and social creatures who, as captives, suffer continuously from being in the kind of inadequate and artificial environments you provide.
The elephant who died was named "Dondi" by her human owners. She had another and more valid identity to the other elephants in her life at the time and formerly. We haven't yet tried to know what may be the true identities of these beings who are as much individuals as humans are. Certainly consideration of their needs and respect for their lives needs to be the foundation of our relationship with them. Humans who make their living by the use of captive animals need to transform from owners to guardians.
A new consciousness is emerging on the earth about the human relationship to animals. Please consider this in your thinking about the web of life without which humans cannot live. Thank you.
Dear Ms Justine Brewer,
I was saddened by the death of the elephant named Dondi by her owners at Southwick's Zoo, and more so because she is the second elephant to die of tuberculosis at your facility. First, it's upsetting that the Zoo continued to use elephants for children's rides after the first elephant died of TB, highly transmittable to humans. Since it's difficult to tell whether elephants have TB, since TB is highly contagious to elephants and humans, and since one had already died would it not have been the better part of sense to stop the children's rides after the first death?
In general can you please consider another approach to the use of elephants? Ask yourself whether they are treated, in effect, as prisoners forced to perform not only rides with nervous children and no breaks, but degrading circus tricks for their food and shelter. It's indisputable that elephants are intelligent, sensitive and social creatures who, as captives, suffer continuously from being in the kind of inadequate and artificial environments you provide.
The elephant who died was named "Dondi" by her human owners. She had another and more valid identity to the other elephants in her life at the time and formerly. We haven't yet tried to know what may be the true identities of these beings who are as much individuals as humans are. Certainly consideration of their needs and respect for their lives needs to be the foundation of our relationship with them. Humans who make their living by the use of captive animals need to transform from owners to guardians.
A new consciousness is emerging on the earth about the human relationship to animals. Please consider this in your thinking about the web of life without which humans cannot live. Thank you.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Belgium Catholic Church Praises Its Courage
Here's my letter to the public editor of the New York Times in reference to the Associated Press story of September 13 about the Belgium Catholic Church's admission of hundreds of instances of sexual abuse. I asked the Times to expand and/or question in these ways:
Antwerp bishop Johan Bonny: ''We have had the courage to let the commission do its work and publish its conclusions." This attitude needs to be questioned editorially. It comes across as a falsehood, pretentious and self-praising. After all these decades courage cannot have been the church's motivation, rather the overwhelming pressure of truth-telling by hundreds of victims, an action that qualifies for the attribution of the word "courage."
Continuing . . .
"On Monday, Leonard said it was up to the Vatican to decide on any punishment.
''"It is not up to Monsignor Vangheluwe himself. The nuncio has assured us that a decision in Rome will be taken with a reasonable time limit,' he said."
I hope the New York Times will discover and report on the laws of Belgium in regard to such abuse. Please question the compelling and timely issue of whether religious bodies are exempt from the laws of the countries in which they practice.
This resonates with the experiences of Somali-born Ayaa Hirsi Ali who received a range of threats, even of death, in the Netherlands when she questioned Muslim "religious" practices such as genital mutilation of young girls being carried on in immigrant communities living there and in other Western countries. Hirsi Ali questions whether nation-states should continue to use the guise of "religious freedom" to look the other way at "religious" practices defined by the state as criminal. From her book Nomad:
p 217: It is not a trivial thing to know that, even in the West, if you criticize or even analyze a particular religion you may require protection… if you speak out…you yourself … will become a target, stalked, ostracized, even murdered. . . Most people consciously or not, seek to avoid it. Fear has an effect.
. . .
Thus slowly,. . . people begin to get used to not saying certain things, or they say them but certainly won’t write them. The thin fingers of self-censorship begin to tighten around individual minds, then groups of people, then around ideas themselves and their expression. When free speech crumbles in this way, . . . when Westerners refrain from criticizing or questioning certain practices, certain aspects of Islam, they abandon those Muslims who seek to question them too. They also abandon their own values. Once they have done that, their society is lost.”
Antwerp bishop Johan Bonny: ''We have had the courage to let the commission do its work and publish its conclusions." This attitude needs to be questioned editorially. It comes across as a falsehood, pretentious and self-praising. After all these decades courage cannot have been the church's motivation, rather the overwhelming pressure of truth-telling by hundreds of victims, an action that qualifies for the attribution of the word "courage."
Continuing . . .
"On Monday, Leonard said it was up to the Vatican to decide on any punishment.
''"It is not up to Monsignor Vangheluwe himself. The nuncio has assured us that a decision in Rome will be taken with a reasonable time limit,' he said."
I hope the New York Times will discover and report on the laws of Belgium in regard to such abuse. Please question the compelling and timely issue of whether religious bodies are exempt from the laws of the countries in which they practice.
This resonates with the experiences of Somali-born Ayaa Hirsi Ali who received a range of threats, even of death, in the Netherlands when she questioned Muslim "religious" practices such as genital mutilation of young girls being carried on in immigrant communities living there and in other Western countries. Hirsi Ali questions whether nation-states should continue to use the guise of "religious freedom" to look the other way at "religious" practices defined by the state as criminal. From her book Nomad:
p 217: It is not a trivial thing to know that, even in the West, if you criticize or even analyze a particular religion you may require protection… if you speak out…you yourself … will become a target, stalked, ostracized, even murdered. . . Most people consciously or not, seek to avoid it. Fear has an effect.
. . .
Thus slowly,. . . people begin to get used to not saying certain things, or they say them but certainly won’t write them. The thin fingers of self-censorship begin to tighten around individual minds, then groups of people, then around ideas themselves and their expression. When free speech crumbles in this way, . . . when Westerners refrain from criticizing or questioning certain practices, certain aspects of Islam, they abandon those Muslims who seek to question them too. They also abandon their own values. Once they have done that, their society is lost.”
Friday, August 6, 2010
HERO WALKS OUT OF NASA
Engineer April Evans left NASA when the agency refused to address her concerns—and those of a growing number of scientists—about its misguided plan to irradiate squirrel monkeys in the unlikely thought that this will yield information for human space travelers. You can sign and write your own thoughts for an email to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. This outreach is organized by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: http://pcrm.org/newsletter/aug10/nasa.html
Following is my precede to the letter
We of the human species are going through an evolution in thought -- beginning to realize we are OF the earth, not just ON the earth. We are AMONG the other inhabitants of the earth. Our descendants eventually will look with astonishment at how we killed, tortured, imprisoned and used our fellow species in ways that to an enlightened mind will look like insanity.
Please be part of the enlightenment to come. Please help by your example in taking the first step out of now-accepted behavior that already belongs to the past.
Following is my precede to the letter
We of the human species are going through an evolution in thought -- beginning to realize we are OF the earth, not just ON the earth. We are AMONG the other inhabitants of the earth. Our descendants eventually will look with astonishment at how we killed, tortured, imprisoned and used our fellow species in ways that to an enlightened mind will look like insanity.
Please be part of the enlightenment to come. Please help by your example in taking the first step out of now-accepted behavior that already belongs to the past.
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