Dear friends,
Yesterday, I read a piece over breakfast called “Humans are Animals. Let’s Get Over It!” I have long been confused by the idea that we are anything other than animals. What intrigued me was the discussion of how valuing human lives over the lives of animals has led ultimately to pernicious and artificial distinctions among groups of people.
[T]he devaluation of animals and disconnection of us from them reflect a deeper devaluation of the material universe in general. In this scheme of things, we owe nature nothing; it is to yield us everything. This is the ideology of species annihilation and environmental destruction, and also of technological development.
Further trouble is caused when the distinctions between humans and animals are then used to draw distinctions among human beings. Some humans, according to this line of thinking, are self-conscious, rational and free, and some are driven by beastly desires. Some of us transcend our environment: Reason alone moves us to action. But some of us are pushed around by physical circumstances, by our bodies. Some of us, in short, are animals — and some of us are better than that. This, it turns out, is a useful justification for colonialism, slavery and racism.
This is why we need to insist that Black Lives Matter. It is appalling but not surprising that the officers who threw a hood over Daniel Prude and held him down until he lost consciousness were not charged by a grand jury for his death.
Support Black Lives Matter and the “ongoing fight to end state-sanctioned violence, liberate Black people, and end white supremacy forever.”
Of course Daniel Prude was also a man with mental health problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that by late June, “40 percent of adults in the United States had been struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues, and rates of depression and anxiety had risen since 2019.”
Once we head down the slope of making false distinctions, we find ourselves careening into the cruelest depths. Here’s something we can do to try to put the brakes on the othering of our fellow animals.
Write a letter in support of the Invest in New York Act package. This is a ready-made action that you can personalize in 1-2 minutes.
Contribute to the Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance, a diverse coalition of tenants, homeless people, manufactured housing residents, and advocates from across NY.
One of my favorite groups of human animals are young ones, and they are worthy of special protection. But the policing of schools has contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline. Districts that are phasing out the policing of schools, like those in Oakland, California, and Denver, Colorado, are redirecting resources to hire counselors and social workers trained in restorative justice practices.
The results of pilot studies in both Oakland and Denver were quite positive. In Oakland, graduation rates increased 60% in schools that implemented restorative justice practices, and suspensions fell by 56%.
Contact your council member to let them know that you support Intro 2211, requiring a plan to transfer all school safety functions from the NYPD to the DOE and to retrain school safety personnel in restorative justice practices and conflict mediation and de-escalation.
If you want to protect the young humans in your family from needless educational testing during this pandemic year, you, as a parent, have the right to refuse to allow your child to take the State tests.
Download and print a refusal letter if you wish to opt out of testing for your child (grades 3-8).
Medical research and the training of scientists of doctors has seldom seemed as important as it does in the midst of a pandemic. It is all the more important that such research and training be done responsibly.
Please sign this petition to urge the Medical University of South Carolina to end the inhumane practice of training surgeons on live animals.
Look out for your fellow beings!
with love,
L