Community Organizing Pt. 2

After hearing the guest speakers in class, I realized two big things about community organizing that will help me as I move forward with my issue.  The first is that it takes a lot of work, and a lot of time, to make real change in a community.  The woman who spoke about her bike and street projects explained that it took her three years to get the word out about her ideas and convince local government to give her proposals a try.  The man who spoke about getting clean air, soil, and water rights for Columbus, is still working hard to get awareness out about the issues so he can hopefully get his proposed bill of rights to pass in the next election.  However, although it takes a lot of hard work and time, it is clear that it is very rewarding.

The other thing I took away from the guest speakers in class, is that truly anyone can make a big difference in a community.  These two speakers were just normal citizens like me, with a whole lot of passion for their causes.  It was really inspiring and encouraging to see that I can make a difference in a community even if I am just a student.

As for my own issue and community organizing, I would like to really work on spreading awareness.  I think one of the biggest reasons people do not care about the harsh realities of slaughterhouses is because they do not know about them.  Secondly, I think it would be really significant if Ohio State had “Mindful Mondays” where the dining halls did not serve meat.  Even just one campus doing this for one day a week could make a huge difference in helping these poor animals, as well as spreading awareness about the issue.

Take Care, Earth

There are a million issues in this world that I would love to solve, but unfortunately that is unreachable.  However, the three issues I would like to explore for our second semester projects are unclean water, inhumane treatment at slaughterhouses, and elephant poaching.  All of these have a huge impact on people, profit, and the planet.

Unclean water is something I am passionate about because I have seen it first hand.  Over this past summer, I went on a mission trip to Guatemala.  It was a very eye-opening experience,  In these types of areas none of the people are getting sanitary water, if they even have running water at all.  In fact, one out of five deaths of children under five is due to a water-related disease.  I saw it abroad but there are people fighting this same issue in local areas around Columbus as well.  Unclean water is so clearly affecting people’s health and even causing deaths in children and adults.  Not only is this affecting people, but the planet as well.  Some of this unclean water is coming from lakes and streams that are polluted by chemicals and trash from people.  This pollution is detrimental to the organisms living in and around these water sources.  Certain fish and marine life are dying or being harmed from the unclean water, which affects the entire food chain.  The problem then lies with the profit pillar, it is very expensive to filter water and economically the businesses do not want to put in the extra money.  You cannot just up and provide clean water for people without it upsetting the whole economy.  In order to find a solution, we have to try our best to be Justice-Orientated Citizen’s and really look at why there is a problem and how to long-term fix it.

A big issue lies around slaughterhouses and the inhumane way they treat the animals.  I have recently seen a lot of videos and pictures of the way they are treating the animals and it breaks my heart.  The process is simply cruel to the animals.  The reason they do this is because of the profit pillar, they want to produce their product in the cheapest and most economically efficient way possible- getting as much product in the fastest and cheapest way possible.  This has caused them to completely disregard treating the animals in a humane manner.  Most people do not know or want to know how the meat they are eating got to their plate, if they did they may not want to eat it.  This should be a red flag that something is clearly wrong with the process and the people deserve to know where their food is coming from.  The planet- the animals suffering- are obviously most affected. Some are drugged, made sick, or genetically modified making it unhealthy for humans to consume.  This issue is clearly effecting the people and the planet all for the benefit of the profit.

Elephant poaching is a very important issue to me.  Elephants are quickly decreasing in number due to the mass amount that are being killed for their ivory tusks. People will hunt and kill thousands of these creatures so that they can sell the ivory for a lot of money, even though it is illegal.  The ivory is carved into jewelry and ornaments that are then sold for profit.  As for the people pillar, people enjoy these marketable ivory items and choose not to think about a species becoming extinct because of the necklace they just bought.  Economically, the ivory trade is one that brings a lot of money into exchange.  But are money and pretty figurines worth losing a beautiful species?

The issue that I have decided to go into more depth with is the inhumane treatment of animals in slaughterhouses and farm factories.  I researched the topic and found myself in tears after reading and watching videos of this issue.  I found that after being transported on long journeys where they are treated like things rather than living beings- they are shoved in tiny filthy areas with thousands of others with insufficient food and water or ever see the sun.  This goes for animals that are killed for their meat and also animals who are kept for their milk, eggs, or otherwise.  The animals who are being slaughtered are being so by being ground up alive, gassed, or even thrown into garbage bags alive and left to die in a dumpster.  Some babies who are not healthy enough are thrown on concrete floors and left to die a painful death.  Some animals are hit with metal rods and slammed around for no reason.  One small way that we could combat this is to initiate mindful mondays where only vegan food is served at traditions dining at the university.  I think I will focus on awareness and easy solutions when I address this issue.  I think one of my biggest challenges will be a personal cognitive dissonance- as I am not a vegetarian or vegan but do not agree with the way the animals are being treated in these places.  I also think it will be hard to not come off as another annoying crazy environment freak.  If people do not educate themselves on the issue, they will not care or see the problem.