Another reason to give up meat

An essay that I wrote called "Why All American Christians Should be Vegetarians" is being published in a forthcoming theological journal. Here's a favorite excerpt of mine on environmental racism...
"
The greatest polluter of waterways in the United States comes from the manure excreted by the animals that are made into meat. This manure is often pumped beneath confinement facilities or stored it in waste lagoons. Although in can be used as fertilizer, the overabundance produced in today’s meat processing industry results in a hazardous surplus. “Airborne emissions from hog lagoons include ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, hundreds of volatile organic compounds, dust, and endotoxins that cause respiratory dysfunction” (58). The people that bear the negative effects of surplus manure are those that live nearest to the meatpacking plants and manure lagoons. Many people living in these areas report “breathing difficulties, burning sensations in their noses and throats, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and sleeping problems” (Nibert, 110). A detailed analysis of 2,514 swine-confinement facilities in NC found they were disproportionately located in poor, nonwhite communities that are dependent on local wells for their household water supply. These areas also had the highest disease rates and least access to health care in the state. It is clear that the poor and people of color bear a disproportionate burden of pollution from livestock waste."

Moving, but not moving on

I've been sick, without internet, and expected to read millions of pages for classes which began a week and a half ago. I have been busy, but still thinking of Palestine and will write more about my experience when I have the time to do so. I'm also working on a video project about the Mayor of a farming village in the West Bank who was abducted in the middle of the night. I'll post it soon.

Wish I could write more on the transition, but instead I just copy and pasted an email conversation I recently had. I also posted pictures of protesters at the Intl. AIDs conference and an unrelated photo of a sicki die-in.

EMAIL FROM FRIEND:

Hey deeps

i am in south africa right now. the reason i am emailing you is becuase i just came from a meeting at the Treatment Action Campaign office in Pietermaritzburg. TAC is the group that had the sick die-in at the International AIDS conference in august to demand treatment.

i thought of you because i know you love sicky die-ins

keep in touch. how is yale?


MY EMAIL IN RESPONSE:

That die-in was so sicki that I was moved to lay motionless in this crowded computer lab for twenty minutes before getting up, yelling "all power to the multitude," and replying to your note.

Yale is amazing. It is a bourgeois paradise where one can escape the admittedly nonacademic and non-hip issues of this world while referencing Foucault over vegan Malaysian food. Classes are classy, the kids are brilliant and often great to talk with, and New Haven rocks my socks off. The only downside is that the Div students aren't really into activism. I intend to change that a bit and jump on the undergrad bandwagon, which happens to be sending 110 students to NYC for the "Save Darfur" rally this weekend. (No div students will be in attendance, but they'll pray about it on Monday and do a exegetical analysis of genocide on Tuesday.)

So yes, all is well.

Let's keep in touch and do simultaneous/multicontinental die-ins on a regular basis.

Be very blessed, my friend.

dp

HEBRON: Nighttime round-up of Palestinian men

CPTnet
16 September 2006

HEBRON: Nighttime round-up of Palestinian men
by Christina Gibb

CPT Hebron received a telephone call at 10:00 p.m. on 13 September, saying that soldiers were holding a dozen men near the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) in the Old City. Team members also saw that soldiers were entering a house near the team's apartment. Four team members, with a visiting photographer, went to investigate.

Christina Gibb, Cynthia Burnside and the photographer went to the neighbours, while John Lynes and Char Smith went to the HRC.

Israeli soldiers had just brought four men out of the neighbours' house, and took them along the street towards the Ibrahimi Mosque, with the CPTers following. They passed some men sitting on the ground, guarded by soldiers, and then were joined by another squad of soldiers bringing five more men. The soldiers took them all through the turnstiles checkpoint, into the open space by the Mosque, where forty Palestinian men were already sitting on the ground. Each squad of six to ten soldiers turned back for a further search as soon as they had brought one lot of men in. By the Mosque, the soldierstook each man in turn and photographed him holding a sign with his name or ID number. They then took his fingerprints, and directed him past a barrier to another area. After a short time, the officer in charge first ordered and then pushed the CPTers back through the turnstile, where they stayed by the Mosque Gate.

Meanwhile Lynes and Smith had found a group of detained men at the HRC, whom soldiers soon moved to the Mosque too. The CPTers followed a squad of soldiers who were systemically banging on all the doors with their rifle butts. One carried a large sledgehammer for forcing the doors if families did not open them. Lynes stayed in the alleyway, while Smith went into
several houses with the soldiers. They not only searched every room for men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five but also burst into a room where seven young children were asleep. One soldier pointed his gun at them, but when Smith remonstrated with him he stopped doing so. The mother thanked her profusely.

By 11.30 p.m. there were ninety Palestinian men by the Mosque, and the
soldiers returned empty handed. The last man brought in had his hands
cuffed, and then his wife arrived, with a very frightened small girl. She
complained angrily to an officer that a soldier had stolen money and a
necklace.

At midnight, the soldiers started releasing the men one at a time back
through the turnstiles. The last was released by 1:30 a.m.