Can America Overcome Again?

Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away and judging by past experiences, my family is thrilled. This holiday tops any other holiday that we celebrate. We invite people from all over; family, friends, and even newly met acquaintances. Like most fortunate families celebrating this holiday, the quantity of food is unbelievable; mashed potatoes, corn, apple cider, pumpkin pie, and of course the turkey. We do however have something that’s a little different—we serve Tofurkey.


Now, for those who aren’t familiar with Tofurkey, it is a non-meat alternative to turkey and also the brunt of many jokes regarding vegetarian food. We serve this because I’m a vegan. A lot of people already know my dietary preferences, but I would guess that a majority of people cannot figure out why I care so much about avoiding eating animals. This is the normal reaction at least. Many people think there are so many other ethical issues that are more important, so why should we waste our time with this?

The fact is all of these ethical issues are remarkably similar to each other. Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King’s wife, spoke of animal rights as a “logical extension” of her husband’s work. I’ve already pointed out with many examples how the past trends of racism, sexism, and discrimination based on sexual orientation are all so closely related. All of these involve an uncalled-for, harsh domination over another being without a valid reason and sadly, only a small amount of people stood up to these atrocities. When we look back into history, it sickens us to think that our ancestors didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything, didn’t even question or care how we treated others. To think that our generation will act with the same ignorance— not care how we treat others— really makes me uneasy.

By the looks of everything, we are again getting lazy with our morals. An overwhelming amount of people actually think that the ten minutes of taste meat gives us is worth more than the animal’s life—how can this be a valid reason to kill animals? There shouldn’t be any sincere debate whether factory farming is right or wrong—just look here if you are unsure. With any bit of logic we see that the way we raise and treat animals is not right; it’s just whether people will stop making excuses as to why they eat meat and start to care enough to change the way they eat.

When we look back at any of the –ism’s mentioned above, the majority of people agreed that how they treated others wasn’t right—they however did nothing to change that. Currently, many people have a problem with how we treat animals, yet they still choose to do nothing about it. For our ancestors, expressing their opinion was potentially dangerous activity while our situation is quite the opposite. Every time we go shopping we are voicing our opinion through our purchasing power; we are essentially voting with our money. If we feel as though something is wrong, we should address it, not ignore it. Next time we go shopping, instead of staying with status quo like we did with racism for so many years, we should skip over the cruel options (and that’s putting it lightly) and choose the civil alternative.

Thanksgiving will be America’s next test to see if people ignore our generation’s ethical folly. Depending on which food they grab, the turkey or Tofurkey, it will be a clear indicator as to how far America’s humanity has come. Chances are people will continue to follow along with the same ignorance as their ancestors did by doing nothing, but I hope not. I hope people will try a diet without meat for a week and see how it goes. We by no means have to eat meat and in fact, nutritionists recommend vegetarian diets. Most people have never tried it, but once they do, they realize how easy it is and see the benefits. We have to remember, while African Americans were getting killed by the KKK for no real reasons, our ancestors embarrassingly did nothing. To think that we will do nothing with the way we treat animals will be disgusting. If something is wrong, we should do something about it. There is no reason to sit back like our ancestors did; it is sick, inexcusable, and ignorant. Our solution is clear; if we don’t want to act as pitifully as our ancestors, it’s time to go vegetarian.