Cut the Crap

I recently read the Letter to the Editor by Vanessa Schulz in TS Weekly. I looked into [her] other work and now realize that the sanctimonious crap she peddles is much more a danger to community than youngsters dissecting a trout.

I notice you are a Vegan and the question arises, just how much do you really respect life? Organisms, living ones, are displaced from the carrots you eat. Do you carefully place them elsewhere while you eat the carrot? No! You eat living organisms like the rest of us. The only way to truly follow the path you’ve insinuated in your work is to become a Jain. If you are unfamiliar with Jains, they are a mouse click away in a Google search. You may be interested in joining as their numbers are always dwindling since they hardly get enough to eat. C’mon, for crissake. Get some real problems!

I always seem to find that people who act pious about these issues have a lot of disposable income. Why did you go all the way to Chile to concern yourself with the dog problem there? Sounds rather imperialistic to me! I’ve got a better suggestion for your imperialist agenda. Just an hour north of Bend, in Warm Springs, there’s an equally horrific problem with starving, abused and/or severely neglected cats and dogs. Hell, you’ll even find people there who are not ‘white’ as you mentioned in your letter. “Blind white children being led by blind white elders” – to whom are you referring? It sounds like you’re incredibly angry with people who, through no fault of their own, suffer from albinism. What on earth could they have done to you to invite such contempt?

– Aaron Kirkpatrick, Bend

This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.

Dear Aaron Kirkpatrick, in response to your public slander of me (people have sued for less, by the way), I choose to support you in your cause to save the misunderstood carrot. While I personally prefer to focus on defending animals – in this case, objecting to school programs that teach 5th graders how to kill animals for fun – if your calling is The Vegetable, then clearly you have read The Secret Life of Plants, a superb book that shows us the extraordinary sentience of the world around us. I might not be joining you in a peace vigil for the carrot, but I'll gladly honk on my way by.

Good luck to you,
– Vanessa Schulz