Susie Duncan Sexton's Blog, page 11
June 24, 2015
Easy to spot who is tooting phony horns
Read this provocative/thoughtful post from Rumpydog - "My history is steeped in racism, and I didn't even know it" - click here
I can totally empathize, but, now living in Indiana, I detect as much if not even more racism in the Hoosier state. Lots of prejudices here - and among the churchiest of us - and often in newspaper editorial cartoons. Very often!
And as for our politicians?
I cannot vote for certain ones....sorry, Koch brothers! Stay away from Indiana politics, and place your money/bribes with somebody in some other state. Money should not buy votes in any state...voters, beware!
Candidates, stop asking for donations. You'll get more votes that way! It is a new world. Voters, vote for those who do not spend money.
Easy to spot who is tooting phony horns and over spending on themselves. The Supreme Court is not as smart as the American voter.
Try to notice who is already spending outrageous $$$$$$$ on premature articles, advertising, trips and is beholden to special interests (the over-eager candidate's palms outstretched for more from big spenders not even affiliated with your state). Those types (with palms up) once were referred to as prostitutes and are presently only "religious" about themselves and climbing the ladder and showboating. Try not to be duped.
We need real people and not obvious charlatans on the fast track to misguided power.
In summary (!), climate change matters, racism must be squelched, the gun "culture" is out of control, and personal profiteering and catering to the upper 1% is not the AMERICAN way no matter what costume is being worn.
(Oh, and stop viewing the Fox Network and tuning into Rush! PEACE!)
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
Excerpt: "And I live in a region with lots of whites who are worried that their heritage is being trampled on. I'm trying to figure out what that's supposed to mean. How can someone want an ancestor honored as a war hero for fighting against the US, while at the same time wanting to blow up every country in the Middle East because a few people from that region attacked the US? It just doesn't make sense."
I can totally empathize, but, now living in Indiana, I detect as much if not even more racism in the Hoosier state. Lots of prejudices here - and among the churchiest of us - and often in newspaper editorial cartoons. Very often!
And as for our politicians?
I cannot vote for certain ones....sorry, Koch brothers! Stay away from Indiana politics, and place your money/bribes with somebody in some other state. Money should not buy votes in any state...voters, beware!
Candidates, stop asking for donations. You'll get more votes that way! It is a new world. Voters, vote for those who do not spend money.
Easy to spot who is tooting phony horns and over spending on themselves. The Supreme Court is not as smart as the American voter.
Try to notice who is already spending outrageous $$$$$$$ on premature articles, advertising, trips and is beholden to special interests (the over-eager candidate's palms outstretched for more from big spenders not even affiliated with your state). Those types (with palms up) once were referred to as prostitutes and are presently only "religious" about themselves and climbing the ladder and showboating. Try not to be duped.
We need real people and not obvious charlatans on the fast track to misguided power.
In summary (!), climate change matters, racism must be squelched, the gun "culture" is out of control, and personal profiteering and catering to the upper 1% is not the AMERICAN way no matter what costume is being worn.
(Oh, and stop viewing the Fox Network and tuning into Rush! PEACE!)
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
June 22, 2015
Deplorable.
The day that I vote for some person who lists as a criterion for public office of any kind that he is a member of the NRA?
Well...just be advised that will never ever happen...
So, hoping others feel the same. How sad that a candidate believes such a membership is a qualifying reason to be chosen by the masses to participate in "serving" our country. No doubt, he receives funding from that organization to advertise for them. Deplorable.
These candidates, who think they are pushing all of the right buttons, even kissing their spouses for photo ops and parading a gaggle of progeny in front of cameras, should never be paid by us taxpayers (nor subsidized by special interests) to obtain desks in Washington or statehouses or locally ... ever. Not even one accidental term. Hopefully they all get shut out, every last one of them. They are termites...big, old, deplorable termites.
Further reading/viewing...
Bill Maher says Matt Drudge, Fox News, and conservative media inspired Dylann Roof
Detroit Free Press' Mike Thompson - Charleston shooting, Dylann Roof
The Daily Show – Charleston Church Shooting
South Carolina Congressman, please break your silence
Ted Cruz keeps cracking jokes as Americans mourn Charleston terror attack
John Oliver has a suggestion for South Carolina's Confederate Flag and it's perfect
Support Everytown
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
Well...just be advised that will never ever happen...
So, hoping others feel the same. How sad that a candidate believes such a membership is a qualifying reason to be chosen by the masses to participate in "serving" our country. No doubt, he receives funding from that organization to advertise for them. Deplorable.
These candidates, who think they are pushing all of the right buttons, even kissing their spouses for photo ops and parading a gaggle of progeny in front of cameras, should never be paid by us taxpayers (nor subsidized by special interests) to obtain desks in Washington or statehouses or locally ... ever. Not even one accidental term. Hopefully they all get shut out, every last one of them. They are termites...big, old, deplorable termites.
Further reading/viewing...
Bill Maher says Matt Drudge, Fox News, and conservative media inspired Dylann Roof
Detroit Free Press' Mike Thompson - Charleston shooting, Dylann Roof
The Daily Show – Charleston Church Shooting
South Carolina Congressman, please break your silence
Ted Cruz keeps cracking jokes as Americans mourn Charleston terror attack
John Oliver has a suggestion for South Carolina's Confederate Flag and it's perfect
Support Everytown
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
June 14, 2015
UPTON SINCLAIR, LET'S RAKE MUCK ONE FINAL TIME--To Restore Biodiversity
Thanks to Roland Windsor Vincent and his Armory of the Revolution for allowing me to guest blog there - you can read the original post here!
Thankfully, an increasingly dwindling number of Homo sapiens seem to be revealing these days that they remain unfathomably ignorant, foolishly stubborn and downright awful about an appropriately changing world .Well, hoo-ray for diminishing stats and fewer and fewer dim bulbs! Vacuous apathetic dead-heads and sniggering bullies certainly sense that they are on the losing end of history, so they feel the need to lash out at someone or something. Sad. Arguments, tongue-lashings, and pointless banter rumble all about ourselves. "We can just agree to disagree"…well, uh-uh! Certain truths do exist. All species desire to be happy, secure, and often just left alone to breathe in and out…all living beings. The justification for victimization and violence aimed at all manner of sentient beings drools and spews from smug, sneering pie holes of human zombies and Beavises and Buttheads who seem to be cluelessly partying at the expense of others. Manipulative self-involved politicians snooze in bed with insatiably ravenous lobbyists who campaign for those corporate predators specializing in live export -- back again across the oceans -- of the Earth's most ancient of slaves, packed, crammed and squeezed mercilessly onto boats and now planes.
During a span of 44 years, my dad manufactured indigo blue denim jeans for men, women, children, prisoners, farmers, catalog models, country-western artists, week-end hunters, and rodeo superstars -- denim, yes, a durable fabric which could withstand a rigorous level of activity; somewhere along the line folks flocked in droves to these pants as the uniform of choice and then got to swaggering around a bit -- too big for their breeches? Roping steers, excavating coal, delivering campaign speeches, appearing in films about the great American West, attending sock hops, interior decorating, creating pottery, gliding along runways, snowmobiling, ripping fashionable holes into their peg-legged trousers -- Americans in their official casual attire, their leggings…rugged yet preening cowboys and cowgirls in their ever cutesier costumes.
Swaggering and striding, wiggling and sashaying … and tighter and tighter and phonier and phonier … posing like gods and goddesses as the years passed until now…the present.
Contentiousness has risen up like a phoenix to no doubt crash to the earth only to be consumed in its own ashes until the wrangling starts afresh …repetitiously. We waste our breath on hateful rationales for why we do what we do…we care only about the sound of our own voices, the tooting of our own horns. We never listen. We support exclusively the cults to which we belong…the secret handshake provides entry to church homes, political persuasions of extreme almost comedic varieties, athletic contests, "wholesome" youth clubs, fraternity beer blasts, and trivial pursuits. Meanwhile each second -- filled with agony for every species other than ourselves -- ticks by, and who gives a damn? Well, at long last, legions of us do!
"Move 'em in! Move 'em out! Rawhide!"
Animals — bred to be killed as young as 6 months shockingly (not to mention “broiler” chickens murdered at 6 WEEKS old!)…the females of the species forcibly impregnated…are shipped to slaughter or dropped off at butchers each second of our own vanity-filled days and nights. Hunting gear is purchased for fun frolics in the wild. Factory farmers demand to rule and ruin, unchecked and unregulated and unmonitored. The agricultural "industry" shamelessly engages in indoctrination of children via agri-ganda at every opportunity. Crass, vulgar television commercials, pushing fast food down our throats, simultaneously taunt and offend. Churches and a plethora of mind-numbing committees and boards dream up and manufacture fund-raising schemes (involving wrestling pigs and throwing turtles here in Indiana)…even though both "not for profit tax-exempt" status and tax dollars keep frivolous man-made establishments rolling while coffers become engorged with currency often dependent upon the absolute torment of animals. Controversy is the journalistically blow-offish word choice and is pointed to as the unnecessary ridiculous bone of contention…the true term instead should be abuse which is factual… and the names of the contests and competitions and circuses to raise temporary cash, until the insecticide-laced crops flow in or the kickback from auctioneering arrives, feature the labels "mutton", "veal", "bacon", pork" "beef", "venison" rather than the proper genus names of sheep, lambs, pigs, cattle, deer. We classify animals subliminally and incorrectly as "harvested"? The products which farmers are subsidized by our government to harvest would be the insecticide-laced toxic grain and wheat and soybeans we feed to LIVE-STOCK (the most stunningly psychologically deceptive mind-warping classification ever devised --think about that word!) instead of our generously and responsibly sharing safe crops with starving children in third world countries from which we import even more feed for our over-reproduced "lambs to be led to the slaughter"!
Misplaced questionable ingenuity of cunningly guileful human pirates -- with respect (or lack of) to the development of bullfighting contests, rodeos, zoos, circuses, "sea worlds", shelter fund-raisers involving chopping up some poor species or other for barbecues or port-a-pit chicken -- amazes more and more of us exponentially. We have become aware. We have been shaken awake. No further annihilation of man nor beast. Those of us who are empathetic and no longer asleep are not "socialists or dumbocrats or tree huggers" nor any other name-calling epithets screamed our way…we don't all "piss while sitting down". (We never really should have mumbled "grace" offerings while our eyes closed shut and our heads bowed over dining room-tables laden with cancer-diabetes- Parkinson's Disease-producing Easter hams, Thanksgiving turkeys, crispy fried chicken or scrambled eggs accompanied by cholesterol enhanced bacon.) Rather a growing number of us see the concept of "right to life" as non-political and universally inclusive of all living beings…around the world… Unspeakable mass-death delivery systems or unthinkable abuses at the falsely entitled hands of man or woman or child are beginning to startle and horrify the sanest among us. Life matters. Evolution happens. No one can stop it. Discover alternatives. Explore kind, humane possibilities. Accept the inevitable, and don't worry about justifying unjust deeds. Then we creatures great and small and bright and beautiful can ALL be happy , The peaceable kingdom is close at hand. Now, isn't that wise and wonderful?
CAUTIONARY NOTE: Our Earth once reigned as a monumental kaleidoscope of life forms and naturally interrelated species! Biodiversity! The promising potential for a healthy eco-system? However, over-abundant exploited livestock unfortunately introduce, into our environment, an unimaginable amount of pollution through manure and urine -- yearly in the United States 2.7 trillion pounds of manure which is 5 tons of waste per animal, one dairy cow alone eliminating 100 pounds of daily waste. Author Gene Bauer writes in "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life", "…we (must) follow a plant-based diet that seeks to reverse (these) ominous trends. Living in harmony with animals and the environment is not simply a matter of being in nature and communing with our fellow creatures. It's also about acknowledging that communing with animals rather than eating them is the healthiest choice that we can make for the planet and the future generations that will inhabit it. Plus it makes the animals happy…"
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
Thankfully, an increasingly dwindling number of Homo sapiens seem to be revealing these days that they remain unfathomably ignorant, foolishly stubborn and downright awful about an appropriately changing world .Well, hoo-ray for diminishing stats and fewer and fewer dim bulbs! Vacuous apathetic dead-heads and sniggering bullies certainly sense that they are on the losing end of history, so they feel the need to lash out at someone or something. Sad. Arguments, tongue-lashings, and pointless banter rumble all about ourselves. "We can just agree to disagree"…well, uh-uh! Certain truths do exist. All species desire to be happy, secure, and often just left alone to breathe in and out…all living beings. The justification for victimization and violence aimed at all manner of sentient beings drools and spews from smug, sneering pie holes of human zombies and Beavises and Buttheads who seem to be cluelessly partying at the expense of others. Manipulative self-involved politicians snooze in bed with insatiably ravenous lobbyists who campaign for those corporate predators specializing in live export -- back again across the oceans -- of the Earth's most ancient of slaves, packed, crammed and squeezed mercilessly onto boats and now planes.
During a span of 44 years, my dad manufactured indigo blue denim jeans for men, women, children, prisoners, farmers, catalog models, country-western artists, week-end hunters, and rodeo superstars -- denim, yes, a durable fabric which could withstand a rigorous level of activity; somewhere along the line folks flocked in droves to these pants as the uniform of choice and then got to swaggering around a bit -- too big for their breeches? Roping steers, excavating coal, delivering campaign speeches, appearing in films about the great American West, attending sock hops, interior decorating, creating pottery, gliding along runways, snowmobiling, ripping fashionable holes into their peg-legged trousers -- Americans in their official casual attire, their leggings…rugged yet preening cowboys and cowgirls in their ever cutesier costumes.
Swaggering and striding, wiggling and sashaying … and tighter and tighter and phonier and phonier … posing like gods and goddesses as the years passed until now…the present.
Contentiousness has risen up like a phoenix to no doubt crash to the earth only to be consumed in its own ashes until the wrangling starts afresh …repetitiously. We waste our breath on hateful rationales for why we do what we do…we care only about the sound of our own voices, the tooting of our own horns. We never listen. We support exclusively the cults to which we belong…the secret handshake provides entry to church homes, political persuasions of extreme almost comedic varieties, athletic contests, "wholesome" youth clubs, fraternity beer blasts, and trivial pursuits. Meanwhile each second -- filled with agony for every species other than ourselves -- ticks by, and who gives a damn? Well, at long last, legions of us do!
"Move 'em in! Move 'em out! Rawhide!"
Animals — bred to be killed as young as 6 months shockingly (not to mention “broiler” chickens murdered at 6 WEEKS old!)…the females of the species forcibly impregnated…are shipped to slaughter or dropped off at butchers each second of our own vanity-filled days and nights. Hunting gear is purchased for fun frolics in the wild. Factory farmers demand to rule and ruin, unchecked and unregulated and unmonitored. The agricultural "industry" shamelessly engages in indoctrination of children via agri-ganda at every opportunity. Crass, vulgar television commercials, pushing fast food down our throats, simultaneously taunt and offend. Churches and a plethora of mind-numbing committees and boards dream up and manufacture fund-raising schemes (involving wrestling pigs and throwing turtles here in Indiana)…even though both "not for profit tax-exempt" status and tax dollars keep frivolous man-made establishments rolling while coffers become engorged with currency often dependent upon the absolute torment of animals. Controversy is the journalistically blow-offish word choice and is pointed to as the unnecessary ridiculous bone of contention…the true term instead should be abuse which is factual… and the names of the contests and competitions and circuses to raise temporary cash, until the insecticide-laced crops flow in or the kickback from auctioneering arrives, feature the labels "mutton", "veal", "bacon", pork" "beef", "venison" rather than the proper genus names of sheep, lambs, pigs, cattle, deer. We classify animals subliminally and incorrectly as "harvested"? The products which farmers are subsidized by our government to harvest would be the insecticide-laced toxic grain and wheat and soybeans we feed to LIVE-STOCK (the most stunningly psychologically deceptive mind-warping classification ever devised --think about that word!) instead of our generously and responsibly sharing safe crops with starving children in third world countries from which we import even more feed for our over-reproduced "lambs to be led to the slaughter"!
Misplaced questionable ingenuity of cunningly guileful human pirates -- with respect (or lack of) to the development of bullfighting contests, rodeos, zoos, circuses, "sea worlds", shelter fund-raisers involving chopping up some poor species or other for barbecues or port-a-pit chicken -- amazes more and more of us exponentially. We have become aware. We have been shaken awake. No further annihilation of man nor beast. Those of us who are empathetic and no longer asleep are not "socialists or dumbocrats or tree huggers" nor any other name-calling epithets screamed our way…we don't all "piss while sitting down". (We never really should have mumbled "grace" offerings while our eyes closed shut and our heads bowed over dining room-tables laden with cancer-diabetes- Parkinson's Disease-producing Easter hams, Thanksgiving turkeys, crispy fried chicken or scrambled eggs accompanied by cholesterol enhanced bacon.) Rather a growing number of us see the concept of "right to life" as non-political and universally inclusive of all living beings…around the world… Unspeakable mass-death delivery systems or unthinkable abuses at the falsely entitled hands of man or woman or child are beginning to startle and horrify the sanest among us. Life matters. Evolution happens. No one can stop it. Discover alternatives. Explore kind, humane possibilities. Accept the inevitable, and don't worry about justifying unjust deeds. Then we creatures great and small and bright and beautiful can ALL be happy , The peaceable kingdom is close at hand. Now, isn't that wise and wonderful?
CAUTIONARY NOTE: Our Earth once reigned as a monumental kaleidoscope of life forms and naturally interrelated species! Biodiversity! The promising potential for a healthy eco-system? However, over-abundant exploited livestock unfortunately introduce, into our environment, an unimaginable amount of pollution through manure and urine -- yearly in the United States 2.7 trillion pounds of manure which is 5 tons of waste per animal, one dairy cow alone eliminating 100 pounds of daily waste. Author Gene Bauer writes in "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life", "…we (must) follow a plant-based diet that seeks to reverse (these) ominous trends. Living in harmony with animals and the environment is not simply a matter of being in nature and communing with our fellow creatures. It's also about acknowledging that communing with animals rather than eating them is the healthiest choice that we can make for the planet and the future generations that will inhabit it. Plus it makes the animals happy…"
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
June 12, 2015
Remember trying to walk home from school?
A Yale professor, who spoke of teaching the -ISMS (racism, ageism, sexism), said that never did he have more dissension or hatefulness issuing from students than when he attempted to teach SPECIESISM.He believed the collective guilt of having already eaten meat for a lifetime and laughing at animals and never stopping to face the reality of all the abuse other species suffer at the hands of humans is the primary reason humans become so stubbornly heinous. Yet, some of us become compassionate and wish to change. We are the true brave hearts. The others are cowards playing with murderous weapons. Nothing but cowards.
And as usual they - those who want to make an ugly point of their God(?)-given "dominion" over, well, everything, it seems - are once again taking their vileness and coarseness and ignorance out on the innocent - even stepping it up. Pretty odd stuff - sociopathic and psychopathic and bizarre. A bully is a bully is a bully.
Those types are as nuts toward humans as they are animals, in spite of any insincere attempts (on their part) at denial of such. Often...usually always...the swaggering grows due to gang-like behavior. Humans trying to impress other humans and to be accepted in some nightmarish club or other. Just unbelievable to observe.
But so goes history....ethnic cleansings, world wars, crusades, feeding ____ to lions, gladiator contests, rodeos, bull-fights, turtle tossing, quail shooting, and ..................... and all manner of kinky, mean, smug, creepy, stupid stuff.
Remember trying to walk home from school? And the little cliques that lay in wait? Well, those kids never change. And they seldom seem to pay for their nasty behavior. They manage to raise their little fists and display their Wal-Mart weapons in photo ops because maybe they really always wanted to be movie stars or quarterbacks or cowboys or roller derby dolls or something?
And they should have been disciplined by parents (who often maneuvered their way on to school boards) or teachers (who often wish to be popular with the meanest kids so that their work day goes smoother!).
C'mon 99% can relate to the horrors of the public school system then and now. Same old same old. And look where we all are today...putting up with the ugly fireworks I just described and whatever else the entitled want to impose on the rest of us.
Have a great weekend!
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
June 5, 2015
I am a sissy about animals suffering, but if we look away we cannot help.
Just now added a new friend to my life, and she got me to thinking as I messaged her and realized that this post applies to nearly my entire list of friends. So here goes...my love note to you all, and you know who you are! She is the best as are you folks!!!!!And be sure to check out Evelyn's wonderful new website People4Pigs here: http://www.people4pigs.com/
She explains, "The intention of this site is to promote awareness, respect, compassion, and protection for these precious beings who, while one of the most intelligent species on the planet, are also one of the most abused."
***************************
Again I am recommending SPECIESISM THE MOVIE. [Click here for my earlier entry on this film.] The film may seem like slow-going, BUT I realized that I am a pig person when I watched. It is a pretty cerebral film with very little graphic stuff. I am a sissy about animals suffering, but if we look away we cannot help.
One of the out-takes features a professor, I believe, sitting in a lawn chair stating with tears in his eyes that one must visualize a totem pole in the mind's eye, and one animal will appear on the very top and that is YOUR calling. That animal is the one that you will go the mat for (my only reference to wrestling you'll notice).
...And guess what? Me, a dog and cat nut and a horse admirer and a deer saver? The pig was at the top of that totem pole for me!
BLESS YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE TO HELP THE PIGS AND SUPPORT OUR EFFORTS! You are humans at the top of my totem pole and hoo-ray for our friendship.
Friends of animals are always and ever friends of mine...we have known each other all of our lives!!! Doesn't it seem that way when we discover an earnest and enthusiastic and brilliant animal enthusiast????
Thanks for this feedback!
Kim Elizabeth Johnson: "Thank YOU, Susie and your family, who brought the pig wrestling issue to the spotlight for all of us to take action on as best we could and to respond and voice our horror on the subject to the proper people!! Big Hugs!! ((hugs))"
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
June 3, 2015
Centuries of yesterdays have come and gone
Click here for little Magoa who desperately needs a rescuer.
What a doll. The folks who kill these precious souls hopefully toss and turn at night. This is America; we are not Romania nor Russia. NOKILL should be the immediate plan on which we are all working...and yesterday!!!!!!
And how about Frida here - please click share and help find a forever home for these sweet kids.
Aw, c'mon! How can anybody NOT share FRIDA? Join those of us who share. Better than anything is the very real possibility that lives get saved and that humans stop for a second and care...and share.
It works...it really does. The key that unlocks a restless world and reminds us of love and respect for all life.
All of us in a civilized society sharing ideas for preserving lives - no politicization where the sanctity of life is concerned. Enough time has passed. Today is the day...since centuries of yesterdays have come and gone.
All species matter. The human heart has room for all of us already here and looking for kindness and support and a helping hand!
Welcome to the 21st century and to evolution of the minds we were blessed with and now must begin to employ!
Kim Elizabeth Johnson: "I totally agree that the No Kill model for shelters is the only way to go. I cannot believe there are people who argue against this idea and make tons of excuses for why it can't possible happen. Thanks for getting the word out there, Susie!"
________________________
Postscript
This just in! Charlie White discusses the need to abolish pig wrestling in Indiana on his eponymous show on the Indiana Talks radio network. You can listen here: http://indianatalks.com/site/2015/06/...
"Are liberals the only folks angry at Gov. Mike Pence (#PamperedPence)? Is Gov. Pence acting like a crybaby in his latest fundraising email? After Indiana’s image took a beating over RFRA, did the PR firm Pence hired using $2 Million of taxpayers money suggest it was wise to introduce pig wrestling as public entertainment?"
Working ourselves to death to stop these events will be worth it because so many folks revealing they have disapproved and are delighted that an effort is being made to stop such unfitting competition.
(So sorry to learn of some kind of Hoosier bacon lottery misguided contest. When cards are scratched, the scent of bacon happens, and the prize sponsored by the 3,000 sponsoring hog farmers is 20 years supply of bacon? How did such an odd concept pop up right now? And the happy little pig drawing makes no sense at all. Our local Ft. Wayne news channel announced the scratch off event on Wednesday evening. Is this a knee-jerk reaction to the public's growing empathy for animals involved in unfair contests only for entertainment for humans? The timing is so "INDIANA" - at least those various folks who stubbornly remain insular and ingrown and anti-progress.)
The photos themselves of these pig wrestling events break a kind person's heart. And why is the word "pig" burdened with such a negative connotation when they are such bright, special, intelligent souls?
Our community endured a rodeo four years ago too, and a letter to the editor from a distraught parent whose child became quite upset while watching a calf get injured and dragged off a field and tossed into a pick-up accomplished that there would be no more rodeos. But the pig wrestling continues...so very sad.
Well, Charlie White is one super person! What a terrific Hoosier...enjoyed listening immensely. Wish I could use as my banner that "WELCOME TO MIKE PENCE'S INDIANA" (see link to broadcast above) which is an understatement as of late - so many petty and mean-spirited failures, patched up hardly at all with 2 million bucks of taxpayer's money. I don't want my tax money to go to any fairgrounds which feature wrestling with any animal whatsoever.
And the pig's face is so very sad that it would be difficult to look at every day, and the large man with the shaved head holding the neck of the frightened, puzzled pig in the stranglehold is not my kind of fellow. He looks to be more immense than the animal and not as bright or alert, and there are 3 other men as well. One of those pictures so many of us have seen enough of -- "fight or flight" theory holds that pigs do not fight...and wish to run away from the bullying and the ganging up but are imprisoned in a pen and cannot do so.
It is very moving to listen to Charlie as he speaks of the need for this competition to be cancelled across Indiana and preferably by Pence now. Great idea. Would be the mark of a gentleman...of a leader. Evidently none of those kinds of people available at the Statehouse these days. Thanks, Charlie White...
We have, however, been terrifically impressed by the state-wide support for several important causes within the past two months and the cooperative spirit so evident in so many - an improved Indiana may be on the horizon. Many very wonderful Hoosiers AND those people from outside the state who support kindness and inclusion and accountability and who see no boundaries for such positive behavior - countless people are actively pursuing and promoting the correct course, the only course.
That has done my heart good. Individuals coming together - and with a gentle persistence reversing the damage which has been done by those who are only looking out for themselves and their own personal gain. Far more good-hearted activists and doers than those who manipulate the system for personal gain.
Interesting to begin to know who the self-serving are in fact, but absolutely heart-warming to meet and get to know citizens who care enough to stand up and be counted as we all work toward a common goal - peace and compassion and moving forward together, leaving arguments and dissension far behind us.
Thanks to those who think deeply about very important issues that affect us all. That's what makes the world continue to go 'round as it should do...oh, yeah!!!!!!
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
May 26, 2015
Latest Old Type Writer - The Times They are A-Changin' -- we can only hope!
Here is the latest "Old Type Writer" installment "The Times They are A-Changin' -- we can only hope!" About this column, editor Jennifer Zartman Romano writes, "Columnist Susie Duncan Sexton is hopeful that a sense of compassion could be growing in the community. Read the latest installment of Old Type Writer by clicking here."
In the column, I reflect on a life of advocacy and the arts, including a wonderful reunion with long-lost theatre chums Larry Wardlaw, John Tolley, and Bruce Curless. Quote "But evidently Bruce, Larry and John sensed some rather suspect quality about me then that had always eluded my consciousness up to that moment and will assuredly (until my demise) remain untapped. I am such a good girl -- I am!"
Read the rest at this link: http://talkofthetownwc.com/oldtypewri...
________________________
Thank you for this feedback! Wow!
Betty Bob Buckley: "Susie Sexton, you sure have a great way with words!"
Drex Morton: "Susie Sexton always reminds me with her serendipity that on the days I feel I was born too soon (per Mama Rose in Gypsy), it's never too late to be well advised and to become a better steward of '...all creatures great and small...'"
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
In the column, I reflect on a life of advocacy and the arts, including a wonderful reunion with long-lost theatre chums Larry Wardlaw, John Tolley, and Bruce Curless. Quote "But evidently Bruce, Larry and John sensed some rather suspect quality about me then that had always eluded my consciousness up to that moment and will assuredly (until my demise) remain untapped. I am such a good girl -- I am!"
Read the rest at this link: http://talkofthetownwc.com/oldtypewri...
________________________
Thank you for this feedback! Wow!
Betty Bob Buckley: "Susie Sexton, you sure have a great way with words!"
Drex Morton: "Susie Sexton always reminds me with her serendipity that on the days I feel I was born too soon (per Mama Rose in Gypsy), it's never too late to be well advised and to become a better steward of '...all creatures great and small...'"
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
May 13, 2015
4-H Values NOT reflected in pig-wrestling - Whitley County, Indiana
Proud of my husband Don for this letter to the editor, regarding the upcoming pig wrestling (!) event at our local 4-H Fair this summer.
So ashamed that such a cruel activity involving children and animals is occurring in this town where I grew up and still live. Unreal.
This just in! Someone has started a petition - please sign and share here: https://www.change.org/p/whitley-coun...
Read Don's letter originally posted here: http://www.talkofthetownwc.com/commun...
If you would like to offer your feedback to the fair, encouraging them to look at alternative activities, please visit their Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/wc4hfair?fre...
Learn more about petition efforts to cancel similar events down the road in Muncie, Indiana here and Stephensville, Wisconsin here. Other Nations offers a great overview of how detrimental pig wrestling is to all participants here.
________________________
Don's letter ...
Eliminating the pig wrestling event at the Whitley County 4-H Fair 2015
The four values of …
• Head – managing, thinking
• Heart – relating, caring
• Hands – giving, working
• Health – being, living
… are not reflected in the Pig Wrestling Event to be held this summer at the Whitley County 4-H Fair.
The 4-H Vision is “a world in which youth and adults learn, grow and work together as catalysts for positive change.” The Pig Wrestling Event does not reflect positive change.
There is a ground swell of media attention decrying pig wrestling events around the country. Our Whitley County 4-H Fair can avoid being swept up in the media blitz and inevitable growing publicity which surrounds the welfare of all participants – be they two-footed or four-footed.
The comments which are being leveled at this event center around the thoughts that pig scrambles (wrestling) teach the wrong lessons. Pig Wrestling teaches our children that it is O.K. to manhandle animals (“Let’s go be mean to pigs!”), to chase them, to scare them, and to hurt them – and it is all in “good fun.” Any veterinarian will tell us that this event causes fear, stress, and undue pain to these docile creatures – and it is clearly abuse.
What alternative events could replace Pig Wrestling? Some suggestions are – human mud wrestling, mud football, bicycle races, art contests, paint ball tag, water gun tag, archery contests, cooking contests – all things that encourage using your talents … not violence.
Our community needs to discuss this topic and take a proactive stance leading the way to eliminate this event from the 2015 Whitley County 4-H Fair. This decision is an opportunity to set an example of compassion and will reflect positively on our Whitley County 4-H Fair.
We are the species with imagination, rationality and moral choice – and that is why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect all living creatures.
Don Sexton
Columbia City, IN
________________________
Postscript ...
We love this suggestion from pal Jimmy Rhoades ...
"You know what would be cool? Every place that cancels the pig wrestling event sets up a (supervised) pet-a-pig booth. Feed a pig a carrot! Snuggle a pig! Scratch a pig behind the ears! Let's not just deny one experience, let's replace it with one that will expand empathy for a very cute, very intelligent fellow creature."
Amen, Jimmy. Amen.
________________________
Thanks for this feedback ...
Drex Morton: "As a former member of 4-H from my teen years, I applaud your Dad's envisioning... And the pigs will appreciate not being exploited..."
Roxy Diederich: "Omg...this broke my heart. I'm a farm gal from Wisconsin and have never heard of any organized activity this cruel. And certainly not connected with 4H. Jeesh... Am I just old? And, to add to the credibility of the high intelligence of a pig - I was Moonbeam McSwine in a run of Lil' Abner (long enough ago that I still filled the costume appropriately!). Well, as part of that job, I was handed a suckling pig and told to 'train' it... Her name was Tunie (short for Petunia, of course) and she was incredible; litter trained in a day, drank from a bottle like a baby, slept at the bottom of my bed, was a clean - devoted - obedient little girl, and definitely smart. Within a week I didn't even need to have her on a leash on stage anymore - she just knew to follow me wherever I went. She was the darling of the production and enjoyed the greatest curtain call accolades. These are loving, feeling, and highly intelligent animals and I can't believe the abuse is considered acceptable. And yet, turn on the news tomorrow morning and what people are doing to people isn't any more palatable..."
Pamela Forbus: "I left a post: 'Pig wrestling gives living, feeling animals no choice, natural inclination, respect or dignity. Animals do not exist for humans to exploit and use for entertainment and frivolous games. Please teach compassion towards animals. Be the change. Thank you.'"
Lisa Lamberth Colvin: "Great letter!! I saved it in case I need to borrow some of his wise words. My town's school had a donkey riding basketball game last year!! I was appalled and will say something next year if I hear about it. Way to go, Don...people do not think on their own very well critically, and he is helping them!"
Julie Storbeck: "You're welcome, Roy. And thanks for posting your dad's letter; there's nothing fun or funny about terrorizing an animal."
Coreen Conley: "Thank you to your Dad for standing up and writing a letter against this atrocity!"
Rann DeStefano: "It is awful and totally worthless use of time not to mention cruel."
Judy Moffet: "Pig wrestling is inhumane!! I urge you to reconsider this event. This is just wrong on so many levels! Pig Wrestling really! Please find a better activity to replace this unacceptable event. Pigs like all animals do not deserve to be treated inhumanely, and this event is very inhumane. I urge you to reconsider."
Kelly McBride: "As you are probably aware social media reaches very far. I have heard about your event with pig chasing/wrestling in Australia. However you regard a pig as ending up at death on your dinner plate, does not mean it is justified to treat a living animal as produce before hand. It's up to you and the people that make decisions whether you run (an event) most of us animal lovers would consider cruel...... but if you want to raise funds ...... Do you want to be labelled as cruel to animals and given that tag or should you find another way to fund-raise?"
Terry Doran: "Wonderful letter, Don!"
Naida Austin: "Wow! I hope the letter moves the editor as much as it moved me."
Angel Mariani: "Great job! Shared! Let's keep this in our prayers."
Marie Justine Lentz: "I agree that sort of thing is not only outdated but serves no purpose. We as a society should be teaching our children to show compassion to all living creatures. Even the circus is phasing out elephants!"
Marian Patience Harvey: "Please cancel Hogwrestling at your Fair this Year. It is legalized ...cruelty, the same as intense confinement of Animals 4-H, Farm Bureau, meat producers support. I am surprised at the blatant contempt for the animals that sustain us at local Hoosier Fairs. Hoosiers 4-Healthy Animal Agriculture urges boycott of any fairs sponsoring this ridiculous event. It is a shame our children are being taught that Animals are ours to do with however we please. Those of us who know hogs, chickens, cows as sentient beings know they are here to help us, teach us....Confined Animal Feeding Operations and smaller, unregulated, CFOs are being expanded despite the fact that adopting a plant based diet is the number one best thing one can do for the earth and the environment. We will protest, and we urge 4-H Fair boycotts throughout the nation. Marian Patience Harvey, RN/Health Educator/Earth and Animal Advocate/Putnam County (stopped Hogwrestling...about 5 years ago...the Christians protested!)"
Wendy Lamont Smith: "Cruelty at its worst, Why can they not wrestle each other..... Cowards!!"
Joelle Sobczak Schade: "Your entire family has been blessed with an incredible talent and you all inspire me with how you use it to advocate positive change in our world! Go Sexton Family!!!!"
Evelyn Avanti: "Wow, what a well-written letter! Kudos to your dad. I hope it's effective in getting the fair to reconsider. What weird and abusive ideas we humans come up with to amuse ourselves -- at other beings' expense. I doubt any pig considers this to be a fun activity. Shame on we humans. Crossing my fingers this Fair decides to be fair. Just sent them this message: 'I was disappointed to learn that you will be having 'pig wrestling' at your upcoming event. I bet if you ask any pig they would tell you that this is not an enjoyable activity for them, to put it mildly. We should not be teaching children that we have the right to mistreat other sentient beings for the sake of our own amusement. There are plenty of other suitable activities you could do in place of this. How 'bout having humans wrestle each other and leave the pigs out of it? I hope that the Fair decides to be fair to these animals who don't get a say in the matter. Since they can't advocate for themselves, I am speaking up on their behalf.'"
Ben Blankenship: "Your dad writes very well; I may steal his article for our local paper."
Lucy Grant: "Yet another crazy Sexton going off on the good clean fun at the 4H Fair….THANK GOD! Hope your Dad’s letter makes for a change. I am particularly proud that he included so many alternate ideas. They could all play and create and then go to the bar-b-que pig roast…oh dear!"
Love and appreciation for what matters and is beautiful often demand(s) bravery to speak up and defend the innocent and the special among us…exhausting but necessary and rewarding, right? Let’s never stop…not ever! Thanks to all of you for caring about all species in our universe....your voices matter so much...I have great respect for you all!
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
So ashamed that such a cruel activity involving children and animals is occurring in this town where I grew up and still live. Unreal.
This just in! Someone has started a petition - please sign and share here: https://www.change.org/p/whitley-coun...
Read Don's letter originally posted here: http://www.talkofthetownwc.com/commun...
If you would like to offer your feedback to the fair, encouraging them to look at alternative activities, please visit their Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/wc4hfair?fre...
Learn more about petition efforts to cancel similar events down the road in Muncie, Indiana here and Stephensville, Wisconsin here. Other Nations offers a great overview of how detrimental pig wrestling is to all participants here.
________________________
Don's letter ...
Eliminating the pig wrestling event at the Whitley County 4-H Fair 2015
The four values of …
• Head – managing, thinking
• Heart – relating, caring
• Hands – giving, working
• Health – being, living
… are not reflected in the Pig Wrestling Event to be held this summer at the Whitley County 4-H Fair.
The 4-H Vision is “a world in which youth and adults learn, grow and work together as catalysts for positive change.” The Pig Wrestling Event does not reflect positive change.
There is a ground swell of media attention decrying pig wrestling events around the country. Our Whitley County 4-H Fair can avoid being swept up in the media blitz and inevitable growing publicity which surrounds the welfare of all participants – be they two-footed or four-footed.
The comments which are being leveled at this event center around the thoughts that pig scrambles (wrestling) teach the wrong lessons. Pig Wrestling teaches our children that it is O.K. to manhandle animals (“Let’s go be mean to pigs!”), to chase them, to scare them, and to hurt them – and it is all in “good fun.” Any veterinarian will tell us that this event causes fear, stress, and undue pain to these docile creatures – and it is clearly abuse.
What alternative events could replace Pig Wrestling? Some suggestions are – human mud wrestling, mud football, bicycle races, art contests, paint ball tag, water gun tag, archery contests, cooking contests – all things that encourage using your talents … not violence.
Our community needs to discuss this topic and take a proactive stance leading the way to eliminate this event from the 2015 Whitley County 4-H Fair. This decision is an opportunity to set an example of compassion and will reflect positively on our Whitley County 4-H Fair.
We are the species with imagination, rationality and moral choice – and that is why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect all living creatures.
Don Sexton
Columbia City, IN
________________________
Postscript ...
We love this suggestion from pal Jimmy Rhoades ...
"You know what would be cool? Every place that cancels the pig wrestling event sets up a (supervised) pet-a-pig booth. Feed a pig a carrot! Snuggle a pig! Scratch a pig behind the ears! Let's not just deny one experience, let's replace it with one that will expand empathy for a very cute, very intelligent fellow creature."
Amen, Jimmy. Amen.
________________________
Thanks for this feedback ...
Drex Morton: "As a former member of 4-H from my teen years, I applaud your Dad's envisioning... And the pigs will appreciate not being exploited..."
Roxy Diederich: "Omg...this broke my heart. I'm a farm gal from Wisconsin and have never heard of any organized activity this cruel. And certainly not connected with 4H. Jeesh... Am I just old? And, to add to the credibility of the high intelligence of a pig - I was Moonbeam McSwine in a run of Lil' Abner (long enough ago that I still filled the costume appropriately!). Well, as part of that job, I was handed a suckling pig and told to 'train' it... Her name was Tunie (short for Petunia, of course) and she was incredible; litter trained in a day, drank from a bottle like a baby, slept at the bottom of my bed, was a clean - devoted - obedient little girl, and definitely smart. Within a week I didn't even need to have her on a leash on stage anymore - she just knew to follow me wherever I went. She was the darling of the production and enjoyed the greatest curtain call accolades. These are loving, feeling, and highly intelligent animals and I can't believe the abuse is considered acceptable. And yet, turn on the news tomorrow morning and what people are doing to people isn't any more palatable..."
Pamela Forbus: "I left a post: 'Pig wrestling gives living, feeling animals no choice, natural inclination, respect or dignity. Animals do not exist for humans to exploit and use for entertainment and frivolous games. Please teach compassion towards animals. Be the change. Thank you.'"
Lisa Lamberth Colvin: "Great letter!! I saved it in case I need to borrow some of his wise words. My town's school had a donkey riding basketball game last year!! I was appalled and will say something next year if I hear about it. Way to go, Don...people do not think on their own very well critically, and he is helping them!"
Julie Storbeck: "You're welcome, Roy. And thanks for posting your dad's letter; there's nothing fun or funny about terrorizing an animal."
Coreen Conley: "Thank you to your Dad for standing up and writing a letter against this atrocity!"
Rann DeStefano: "It is awful and totally worthless use of time not to mention cruel."
Judy Moffet: "Pig wrestling is inhumane!! I urge you to reconsider this event. This is just wrong on so many levels! Pig Wrestling really! Please find a better activity to replace this unacceptable event. Pigs like all animals do not deserve to be treated inhumanely, and this event is very inhumane. I urge you to reconsider."
Kelly McBride: "As you are probably aware social media reaches very far. I have heard about your event with pig chasing/wrestling in Australia. However you regard a pig as ending up at death on your dinner plate, does not mean it is justified to treat a living animal as produce before hand. It's up to you and the people that make decisions whether you run (an event) most of us animal lovers would consider cruel...... but if you want to raise funds ...... Do you want to be labelled as cruel to animals and given that tag or should you find another way to fund-raise?"
Terry Doran: "Wonderful letter, Don!"
Naida Austin: "Wow! I hope the letter moves the editor as much as it moved me."
Angel Mariani: "Great job! Shared! Let's keep this in our prayers."
Marie Justine Lentz: "I agree that sort of thing is not only outdated but serves no purpose. We as a society should be teaching our children to show compassion to all living creatures. Even the circus is phasing out elephants!"
Marian Patience Harvey: "Please cancel Hogwrestling at your Fair this Year. It is legalized ...cruelty, the same as intense confinement of Animals 4-H, Farm Bureau, meat producers support. I am surprised at the blatant contempt for the animals that sustain us at local Hoosier Fairs. Hoosiers 4-Healthy Animal Agriculture urges boycott of any fairs sponsoring this ridiculous event. It is a shame our children are being taught that Animals are ours to do with however we please. Those of us who know hogs, chickens, cows as sentient beings know they are here to help us, teach us....Confined Animal Feeding Operations and smaller, unregulated, CFOs are being expanded despite the fact that adopting a plant based diet is the number one best thing one can do for the earth and the environment. We will protest, and we urge 4-H Fair boycotts throughout the nation. Marian Patience Harvey, RN/Health Educator/Earth and Animal Advocate/Putnam County (stopped Hogwrestling...about 5 years ago...the Christians protested!)"
Wendy Lamont Smith: "Cruelty at its worst, Why can they not wrestle each other..... Cowards!!"
Joelle Sobczak Schade: "Your entire family has been blessed with an incredible talent and you all inspire me with how you use it to advocate positive change in our world! Go Sexton Family!!!!"
Evelyn Avanti: "Wow, what a well-written letter! Kudos to your dad. I hope it's effective in getting the fair to reconsider. What weird and abusive ideas we humans come up with to amuse ourselves -- at other beings' expense. I doubt any pig considers this to be a fun activity. Shame on we humans. Crossing my fingers this Fair decides to be fair. Just sent them this message: 'I was disappointed to learn that you will be having 'pig wrestling' at your upcoming event. I bet if you ask any pig they would tell you that this is not an enjoyable activity for them, to put it mildly. We should not be teaching children that we have the right to mistreat other sentient beings for the sake of our own amusement. There are plenty of other suitable activities you could do in place of this. How 'bout having humans wrestle each other and leave the pigs out of it? I hope that the Fair decides to be fair to these animals who don't get a say in the matter. Since they can't advocate for themselves, I am speaking up on their behalf.'"
Ben Blankenship: "Your dad writes very well; I may steal his article for our local paper."
Lucy Grant: "Yet another crazy Sexton going off on the good clean fun at the 4H Fair….THANK GOD! Hope your Dad’s letter makes for a change. I am particularly proud that he included so many alternate ideas. They could all play and create and then go to the bar-b-que pig roast…oh dear!"
Love and appreciation for what matters and is beautiful often demand(s) bravery to speak up and defend the innocent and the special among us…exhausting but necessary and rewarding, right? Let’s never stop…not ever! Thanks to all of you for caring about all species in our universe....your voices matter so much...I have great respect for you all!
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
May 6, 2015
From Kat Kelly-Heinzelman: Families That We Make
To my friend/family Kat Kelly-Heinzelman:
Tears welling in my eyes, a smile on my face at the same time? What a poignant and revelatory essay, Kat!
Read "Families That We Make" here: https://lighthousekat.wordpress.com/2...
Your paragraphs about Roy and me moved me beyond words at a time I sorely needed a kind nod my way…I love people appreciating Roy even more than I vainly loved what you wrote about me!
Kat, I wonder if you realize what a good turn you just did for me and all those whom you mentioned and those whom you included without specific names. I totally believe in inclusion…and you are a champion at that skill! Your grace and kindness and humor receive an A + from this old former English teacher who no longer capitalizes and punctuates because I am all worn out.
You are a tonic…a gin and tonic! We love you and feel that we have always been family…the three of us forever! Your losses have been mighty, and you have prevailed with a sunny spirit and a warm heart and a delightful candor.
Thanks for perking all of us up with your appreciation for and a description of the humans in your life. Humans can be as wonderful as every other species! (You knew that I would mention animals, right? they are my best friends as are you!)
________________________
Thanks for this feedback!
Mona McBrayer Benson: "Thank you for sharing. I needed to read something like this today."
Kat Kelly-Heinzelman: "Susie and Roy, thank you so very much; it is amazing to me how much you are always there for me...during my loss of my cousin, my husband and even my best friend in the whole world, but you both have been my constant and I can't begin to tell what that means to me. When I went to Goodreads this morning and saw the blog that Susie wrote, all I could do is cry...because I see I mean the same to you both. Thank God brought you both into my life when I needed it most and I will always be thankful and feel blessed to have you both. I love you guys so much. They are the best people, and it is so great to have them as friends."
________________________
Postscript ... on another note
I pray that "pig wrestling" (pigs do not wrestle...the teams of four humans--often kids in addition to adults--wrestle one pig) will become history at 4-H "fairs." Nothing fair about these events. Other money-makers should be explored....THIS summer. All around Indiana!
We are all worthy of blame.
How about people wrestling people in the mud...the mud that would not contain urine and feces and blood of frightened and wounded animals. Many other possibilities...and the many concerned folks who object would be more apt to attend.
Blissful, Willful Ignorance
And furthermore, we just read through a posting of how our "representatives" voted on the canned hunting bill in Indianapolis...not at all surprised at the legislators who are "supposed" to hate animals. They are Republicans of course and only responsive to those that got them there (with campaign funding and whatever other cash-flow) as these figureheads sit and tweet/twitter at the desks WE are paying for.
You'll also notice that the same bunch engages in "hunting" and "shooting" (nod to the NRA) all sorts of wildlife...even quail. And posts -- for their fawning constituents -- their rifles and their prey for smug, smiling photo ops. wow...just wow.
________________________
Paul Clifford Schrade: "Diabolically humorous the way we humans like to transform all the struggles going on inside ourselves to other life-forms outside ourselves and then claim ourselves the role of victor! Some of sadistic kind of compensation for what we can't resolve in ourselves. Psychological horseplay! Time we grew up and faced ourselves instead of taking it out our four-legged angels!!!"
Krista Carpenter: "I've heard of such a thing but it always felt like a myth."
Naida Austin: "I can hardly believe that they even came up with this concept a mere three years ago. Animal rights and welfare is a huge issue that I'm sure they couldn't miss; yet, they went forward with it. Even more unbelievable is how popular it is. It saddens me bcuz what does that teach their children? SMH....Susie is a wonderful writer/author. When I have the time to read her material, it's like art to me. I've told her from the moment I read her first article. Hey, Susie! Can I have a little bit of that brilliant mind of yours? How does it work? Do tell!!!"
Krista Lee Kochersperger Lee: "This is Indiana....I would guess every county fair has it....maybe not for long!!!"
Marian Patience Harvey: "I am working on another 'why boycott hog-wrestling' ...that's all it took in Putnam County, three years and finally a respectable, Christian couple wrote a letter and they finally stopped. I don't think it is any accident we have such a loving, just Pope...I am working on a letter to him as well, and I do trust he will address factory farming when the time is right. I get so impatient."
Kelly McBride: "In the past I have seen a few community fundraiser events with what they call 'family fun' chasing and catching pigs in the mud. Next time I see one and it's at a 'Christian' school or org I'm letting Pope Francis get on to it with a letter. He loves animals and if the Pope says 'No' it don't go! If they want to exploit for money, what's wrong with a willing participant and good old fashioned kissing booth with the towns top cheerleader or cutest girl. Susie & Roy, I'm so glad I found two people that feel the same way I do about animals. xox"
Basia Nawarro: "Disgusting Americans!"
Cannot literally believe that adults promote this for fair-attenders to view, many many of whom are children...who also are encouraged to participate in the matches. The photographs are heart-breaking to great numbers of us interested instead in reading the actual news of the day.
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
Tears welling in my eyes, a smile on my face at the same time? What a poignant and revelatory essay, Kat!
Read "Families That We Make" here: https://lighthousekat.wordpress.com/2...
Your paragraphs about Roy and me moved me beyond words at a time I sorely needed a kind nod my way…I love people appreciating Roy even more than I vainly loved what you wrote about me!
Kat, I wonder if you realize what a good turn you just did for me and all those whom you mentioned and those whom you included without specific names. I totally believe in inclusion…and you are a champion at that skill! Your grace and kindness and humor receive an A + from this old former English teacher who no longer capitalizes and punctuates because I am all worn out.
You are a tonic…a gin and tonic! We love you and feel that we have always been family…the three of us forever! Your losses have been mighty, and you have prevailed with a sunny spirit and a warm heart and a delightful candor.
Thanks for perking all of us up with your appreciation for and a description of the humans in your life. Humans can be as wonderful as every other species! (You knew that I would mention animals, right? they are my best friends as are you!)
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Thanks for this feedback!
Mona McBrayer Benson: "Thank you for sharing. I needed to read something like this today."
Kat Kelly-Heinzelman: "Susie and Roy, thank you so very much; it is amazing to me how much you are always there for me...during my loss of my cousin, my husband and even my best friend in the whole world, but you both have been my constant and I can't begin to tell what that means to me. When I went to Goodreads this morning and saw the blog that Susie wrote, all I could do is cry...because I see I mean the same to you both. Thank God brought you both into my life when I needed it most and I will always be thankful and feel blessed to have you both. I love you guys so much. They are the best people, and it is so great to have them as friends."
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Postscript ... on another note
I pray that "pig wrestling" (pigs do not wrestle...the teams of four humans--often kids in addition to adults--wrestle one pig) will become history at 4-H "fairs." Nothing fair about these events. Other money-makers should be explored....THIS summer. All around Indiana!
We are all worthy of blame.
How about people wrestling people in the mud...the mud that would not contain urine and feces and blood of frightened and wounded animals. Many other possibilities...and the many concerned folks who object would be more apt to attend.
Blissful, Willful Ignorance
And furthermore, we just read through a posting of how our "representatives" voted on the canned hunting bill in Indianapolis...not at all surprised at the legislators who are "supposed" to hate animals. They are Republicans of course and only responsive to those that got them there (with campaign funding and whatever other cash-flow) as these figureheads sit and tweet/twitter at the desks WE are paying for.
You'll also notice that the same bunch engages in "hunting" and "shooting" (nod to the NRA) all sorts of wildlife...even quail. And posts -- for their fawning constituents -- their rifles and their prey for smug, smiling photo ops. wow...just wow.
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Paul Clifford Schrade: "Diabolically humorous the way we humans like to transform all the struggles going on inside ourselves to other life-forms outside ourselves and then claim ourselves the role of victor! Some of sadistic kind of compensation for what we can't resolve in ourselves. Psychological horseplay! Time we grew up and faced ourselves instead of taking it out our four-legged angels!!!"
Krista Carpenter: "I've heard of such a thing but it always felt like a myth."
Naida Austin: "I can hardly believe that they even came up with this concept a mere three years ago. Animal rights and welfare is a huge issue that I'm sure they couldn't miss; yet, they went forward with it. Even more unbelievable is how popular it is. It saddens me bcuz what does that teach their children? SMH....Susie is a wonderful writer/author. When I have the time to read her material, it's like art to me. I've told her from the moment I read her first article. Hey, Susie! Can I have a little bit of that brilliant mind of yours? How does it work? Do tell!!!"
Krista Lee Kochersperger Lee: "This is Indiana....I would guess every county fair has it....maybe not for long!!!"
Marian Patience Harvey: "I am working on another 'why boycott hog-wrestling' ...that's all it took in Putnam County, three years and finally a respectable, Christian couple wrote a letter and they finally stopped. I don't think it is any accident we have such a loving, just Pope...I am working on a letter to him as well, and I do trust he will address factory farming when the time is right. I get so impatient."
Kelly McBride: "In the past I have seen a few community fundraiser events with what they call 'family fun' chasing and catching pigs in the mud. Next time I see one and it's at a 'Christian' school or org I'm letting Pope Francis get on to it with a letter. He loves animals and if the Pope says 'No' it don't go! If they want to exploit for money, what's wrong with a willing participant and good old fashioned kissing booth with the towns top cheerleader or cutest girl. Susie & Roy, I'm so glad I found two people that feel the same way I do about animals. xox"
Basia Nawarro: "Disgusting Americans!"
Cannot literally believe that adults promote this for fair-attenders to view, many many of whom are children...who also are encouraged to participate in the matches. The photographs are heart-breaking to great numbers of us interested instead in reading the actual news of the day.
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
April 30, 2015
Clap your hands
"If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands"....If you love all living beings, click SHARE! Help out. Put your heart where your mouth is - let's find shelter animals the homes they deserve.
Now, THAT IS RELIGION! No matter what the religion is named (and there are very many) humans seem to need a reason to live.
What better reason than to help out all of the living, all of the species, every chance we get. No more chit chat about whose religion is the best.
For instance: just click share, stop eating animals, and say HEY to a stranger, have someone over for supper, adopt a shelter animal, encourage kids to do the same in the lifetimes ahead of them. LOVE ONE ANOTHER - so easy and correct and what a wonderful earth we can all enjoy (most all of the time).
Let us not study war any more and let us learn about other cultures. What a terrific assignment!
And maybe walk away from Facebook more often than we do unless we wish to help make the entire world a much better and safer place and work toward that goal collectively?
Oh, and never ever believe the hype around any politician whatsoever, until they give signs they care about all of us instead of themselves and their own personal march to power, control, and money.
Have a great Thursday... and start clicking SHARE if you don't already...thanks so very much!
Postscript
Ignatz Ziller (my Facebook pal) and I agree: PRAISE DOG. There comes a time when we have just got to think our own thoughts...and Ignatz and I do that...PRAISE DOG!
The wonder of the world can be seen in those around us, in nature, and in the faces of every species. We all matter. Some call that God, and that is fine, but God truly is US, all of us and our natural surroundings and the good sense we may hopefully possess to honor all life in all of its forms. A-men, brother Ben!
________________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).
The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.
And you can download from iTunes.
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't
