Vegan Mascots

It is March, and therefore MADNESS ensues.

Valerie is Duke Blue. I live in Durham NC and there IS something in the water! I grew up a football person, but during the month of March it is all basketball, all the time!

My sister Valerie, Duke graduate, married to Jennifer Smith, UNC graduate… it gets a bit tense. Duke and UNC have an amazing rivalry. At the end of most days, this rivalry is good spirited. We are good sports.We need each other to be for or against  this or that team to continually create the swirling  wonder of opposing forces working together to create this cacophony called March Madness.

Valerie does a basket ball pool for the women’s tourney. This year’s pool is called VEGAN MASCOTS. She is featuring some unusual college mascots from around the country in her emails to the participants of the pool.

There are lots of vegan mascots. They are all ridiculous, and that is a good thing. I use humor to talk about stuff, serious stuff.

so first humor……

can you believe this!

And now for something a bit more serious.

“[T]he word ‘veganism’ denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment.” – The Vegan Society (1979 memorandum) (no endorsement)

My Sophomore year of High School I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and I was done with sausage for sure.

In college at James Madison University in Harrisonburg Virginia, my track coach Lynn Smith had us run through the turkey factories to see for ourselves how gross they were. I was done with poultry for sure.

I tended towards vegetarian foods so as to not hurt the animals and not hurt myself, but it has grown. It… Veganism has become a political, social, spiritual, fitness, common-sense, all-around everything approach for how I handle ahimsa of/for/with and because of Earth.

Being vegan is a big deal. In a  low-tech way, small footprint, everything you do actually matters way, being vegan takes huge strides in addressing everything from getting a handle on global climate change to getting a handle on your own personal body mass index.

We are all in this together. Time to think about the big picture.

Suzanne Ruth Faulkner II

Is it wrong for me to point out that our Big Blue Marble is Duke Blue!

warning.. serious link below.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/05/all-forms-life-are-sacred