Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Very recently, someone in my life got a new used car.  An older car.  It doesn’t have any bells and whistles; there is no A/C, it has hand-cranked windows, it is loud, it bounces around in every bump in the road and I love it.  You should know that he got the car because his personal belief is that too many people get into their cars and they forget that it is a machine.  They stop connecting to the fact that they are doing something unnatural.  They get into these boxes, drive 80mph, with heated seats, DVD’s playing, listening to their choice of radio station pumped in via satellite.  They have lost sense of reality.

He got the car so that he could remember that he is in a machine.  A machine that could kill him or another person, so it forces you to obey the speed limit.  A machine where you are present to the weather, either because you are cold or hot, so you understand what is happening on this planet.  A machine that, by the nature of the type of machine it is, is not always the convenient choice, so it often times is not used and instead walking or biking is.  Every time we talked about it, even if I have no inclination of changing my car for something more.. rustic… I completely understand his position and agree with it.

The reason why is because I participate in my version of the same discussion.

I live in a townhouse.  My building contains six units and each of us has two stories.  The neighbors on one side also have six two story units and the other side is also a two story building with 12 units.  There are houses behind me.  There is a 24 unit apartment complex directly across the street.  I live on a very busy street which I just learned is zoned as a “secondary highway”.

I live with the windows and doors open as often as possible.

This is my version on the new used car.  Although, to be fair, I didn’t set out to live this way as a test.  I grew up in a house built in 1926.  We did not have air conditioning my entire childhood (my family did install it within the last year).  Whether it was where or when I grew up, the house was wide open all the time.  In the summer, we had nights where we were hiding from dive bombing june bugs while trying to sleep.  If a skunk sprayed it was swelter in the house without any draft or suck it up and learn to live with the smell.  This also allows you to wake up to the sound of birds greeting the day and hear the crickets sing you a lullaby to sleep.

So when it came to living on my own, before I would turn on the AC, I open every window and door in my house.

What this has done is similar to my friend with the car.  I hear everything.  I hear my neighbors incessant dog barking the night away.  I hear the kids behind me having tantrums.  Not to mention, the house that I suspect is occupied by drug dealers.  One neighbor does not turn his morning alarm off for no less than 45 minutes.  Beep, beep, beep for 45 minutes at 630am!  Another neighbor BBQ’s no matter what time of year.. and I am vegan so this presents its own problems.

But if I am really honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Why?

Because each and everyday, I am reminded that I am part of a community.  This is a neighborhood.  There are people who live around me.  Neighbors that I have to make compromises with and ask them to do the same.

This is what it takes to be a human being living in a metropolis.

This is very different than most of the others who live around me.  Those who hermetically seal themselves in their homes behind locked doors and windows for all intents and purposes, preserving themselves in unnatural frigid temperatures.

These are the people that end up being extremely entitled at the Starbucks yelling at the barrista for not giving them the right amount of cinnamon on their latte.  These are the people that speed down a street that is posted at 25mph but they can’t be late so they go 70mph.  To put it simply these are the people that forgot how to negotiate with the others around them thereby creating a harmonious place to live instead of one where we are all out for ourselves.

I know this may seem ridiculous to some of you.  How could keeping your window do all this?  But, I truly think that it does.  I think that when you shut yourself off from your community by the physical act of shutting a window, you are that much more willing to do it psychologically.

So thank you to the man who got a used car so you could remember what it is like to be in a machine.  That simple act helped me remember that I live in a neighborhood.. with a lot of people…and I like it!

One Possible Answer

Why is there a disconnect to the meat people eat?

For the last two years, I have gradually given up meat, fish, and dairy and for the last few months have transitioned to a full vegan diet.  I had chosen this path initially because as an environmentalist, I felt it was the best thing to do for the planet.  The fact is that animal agriculture is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gases, primarily methane, and therefore environmental destabilization and planet warming.

I had initially given up red meat, but that was easy, as I never really had a craving for it.  As I read more and more about animal welfare and the treatment in the facilities, it became very simple for me to give up other animal products.  Additionally, learning that there is an allowable level of pus in my dairy products does not make me feel that great about putting it into my body.

Fish was the last thing I gave up.  I had an excuse and it went something like this:  “I have sensitivity to gluten and there are times that the only vegetarian meal on a restaurant menu is the pasta, which I can’t have.  So, on those occasions, I allow myself to eat fish.”  Before you judge, because trust me I do enough of it to myself for the both of us, everyone has their process of getting to where they need or should be.  This was mine.  I was informed enough to know at the time that over-fishing and farm fishing were a reality and a conflict with all the other ethical lines I drew for myself.

I don’t think it truly sank in until I read Foer’s “Eating Animals”.  Like for many people, this book changed my life.  He discussed the reality of the fishing industry in terms that truly affected me and I knew from that point on, fish was gone, too.  I told myself I might give myself one last sushi night.  That night never arrived and I don’t regret it one bit.

But, as most vegans do, I always wonder why do others not change after learning about factory farming?  Why does Meatless Monday seem to be a rational end for most people, instead of a small beginning?  Why do some people not give up meat?

I don’t have all the answers and I hope that I will never pretend to, but I think I have an idea about one of the answers.

I think it is as simple as this.  People don’t equate millions of animals being killed when they have simply ordered a hamburger, grilled chicken breast or wild salmon.  They see it as a one to one ratio.  I ordered a hamburger, therefore, one cow has died.  I simply think that people don’t make the connection that in order to have hamburger on the menu, hundreds, if not thousands, of animals have had to die.  And if they had to kill that many animals, what could the system be like that had to raise those animals…?  I think our brains simply don’t make that connection.  Similarly, when I knew that over fishing was a serious issue, I don’t think I made the connection to the fish that was on my plate was one of many that were caught that day.

But today I saw this photo:

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn15018-pick-of-the-pictures

With this photo, what I have learned and what had gotten me to quit my last vestige to the animal eating world, was put into a perspective and confirmed what all the scientists have been telling us.

This photo is 75 tons of sharks that are being killed only for their fins.  Just one simple body part and this is what it takes.  But what is more shocking is last year they killed 35,000 tons… that is 470 times more than what you see in this photo.

Yes.  I know that we Americans don’t eat shark fin soup.  And, I am sure some of you will use that reason to negate my point of writing this essay.  But I want you to really look for a moment at how many fucking animals are dead in this picture.  That many animals used to be in the ocean and there are 470 times more that will be killed and pulled out of their home for us to eat ONE BODY PART.  If you have an ounce of compassion, the magnitude of this will hit you.

It is simple math.  There are six billion people on this planet.  That means we have to raise/catch/slaughter almost equal amounts of animals to feed those who still eat meat. For those that we raise, their living conditions are horrendous and their treatment is akin to the treatment of people killed in genocides of the past.  For those that we catch, we are forcing species to go extinct at rates that are not normal per typical evolutionary response.

This planet is not ours.  The animals are not ours.  We have no right to do what we are doing.  It is up to you to make it stop.