i know i am

VOTE MCKINNEY! VOTE MCKINNEY! VOTE MCKINNEY! VOTE MCKINNEY! VOTE MCKINNEY!

Vegan

At the core of my heart is my commitment to the non-human people of this world. To work toward a goal of harm reduction and walking lightly, I live as a vegan. To me, being vegan includes not ingesting the bodies or secretions of non-human animals. I do not wear things that are made from the bodies of animals. It also means that I do not participate in the various events that feature non-consenting animals including zoos, rodeos and aquariums.

My deep commitment to our furred, feathered and fined sisters and brothers is rooted in many things.

For one, I am a Jew. In Ashkenazi culture, we are taught to think about WHO we are eating or wearing. For example, we are meant not to eat the body of an animal along with her secretions. For me, being vegan is what kosher principles are all about: just because something is available to me to eat does not justify uncritical consumption. And my privilege as a human in this world does not justify my using other animals’ bodies at my whim.

I am a feminist. I believe in looking critically at the way female people are treated in society. I want to tease out misogynistic saturation in my life. When I think about the consumption of bodily secretions I know that these are female bodies from which milk and eggs are sucked. I know how raw, bloody and full of pus my own nipples would be if I had metal suction cups forcing liquid from them for hours on end. My own menstrual cycles let me feel the pain of those whose bodies are starved so they will be shocked into an unnatural egg cycle. I am left horrified. I wonder if this abuse of female bodies would be appropriate in a feminist, non-patriarchal society.

I am human. I know that no person can kill animal after animal on an assembly line without suffering irreversible psychological damage.

Pure logic. If we were not stuffing non-human animals full of grain and corn, those foods could be fed to the millions of people who are hungry around the world. I refuse to exercise my first-world privilege by eating flesh because I know that a cow or chicken has a relatively small body compared with the amount of grain s/he must eat.

I have been criticized before that I am exerting my privilege as a first-worlder by being vegan. This weak argument often sounds like “Some people don’t GET to eat meat” or “it’s so white to be vegetarian, people with culture eat meat”. Just because endless consumption is available to me as an american DOES NOT mean that I must participate and more importantly, to participate creates a world of suffering from humans to non-human animals to the environment as a whole. There are cultures throughout history and across the world that encourage their people to think critically about what they use, take and eat. Jewish, Rasta, Buddist, Hindu and Muslim cultures all ask you to think about what you are eating.

Please do not censor your comments. I want to have a space where we can speak openly about each others’ thoughts and beliefs.

On race construction

found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/herzogbr/2228668286/

Please consider an earlier post on this blog "On Whiteness" for more

Other Blogs

Comrades-
I have added more links under "sites we dig" and I recommend that you check out:

http://jwablog.jwa.org/
http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/
http://vegansofcolor.wordpress.com/
http://www.shalomveg.com/

I think their names speak for themselves- I am loving this blog thing- please add more links to "sites we dig" or put them in the comments here and I'll put them up for you.

love,
Comrade AJ

Inspirational Revolutionaries

<---Kola Boof
poet, novelist, womanist, embracer of true matriarchal African relgion


Emma Goldman ---->
anarchist, healer, began revolutionary work in her LATE TEENS!!, inspiration, founded the ACLU **BISEXUAL JEW**




Look these womyn up, read their works and about them. They are our sisters and ancestors we shall continue and support their work!

love,
The Anarchist Jew ;)

Event!- Seder in the Streets! Sun, April 6

Comrades-

This looks like a lot of fun- it is a celebration of Purim. It's hosted by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice: http://www.jfrej.org/. Please lemme know if you want to go because I do!!

Join us as we return to our roots:
Ancient Egypt & the Lower East Side

A raucous event tying together the struggle for Domestic Workers Rights & Housing Justice, Lower East Side Jewish history, & the holiday of Passover.

What: Music! Food! Justice! Fun for all ages!

Performance & Passover Sing-Along with Chana Rothman! check her out: http://www.chanarothman.com/bio.html

When: April 6, 2008 2-4pm
Where: Seward Park, entrance located at East Broadway and Canal St. [F train to East Broadway]

RSVP: alana@jfrej.org 212.647.8966 x 11 or click here

love,

Comrade AJ

She has many thoughts - a topic for 3/19

Comrades and prospective lovers-

This will be why I find, when arguing, the word and concept of "natural", a thoroughly unconvincing and useless argument. When discussing the habits of human culture, or, more specifically, to explain the way things "ought" to be and why; people often invoke this absolutely indefinable thing called "nature".

Many times I have been told that human consumption of flesh is “natural thing” that us people do because we have "evolved" this way. Along the very same lines, a perfectly convinced person will tell me that hetero sex, and the way we are meant to do it is also, "natural." People become quite offended if I suggest that a womon is not “naturally” nurturing or, that the category of “womon” is not a naturally-explainable concept.

Let us try to define "natural"--> is it how we interpret the way animals live and behave? Is it what the people who paid the scientists would like us to believe so that they can make monetary and branding profit? Science is the stuuu-dddy of nature, right? Well, from the beginning, this religion of science is skewed in its own favor. If you believe that humans engage in friendships, but other animals are incapable of friendship based on some pre-conceived prejudices, will a scientist be able to see other animals’ relationships with any clarity?? If one believes that there are (only) two sexes in all species, can one find a third?

So often, though, the descrepincies are painfully obvious. I am told that one bunny humps another bunny because he wants to mate and make bunnies with his own sperms. When the bunny doing the humping has a vagina, we say that she is asserting dominance. Convienently different explainations of the same behavior made on the basis of gender, to support the patriarchy.

We construct the definition of intellect based on our very own bodies and lives. We prove human habits and cultures scientifically to give give the power structures more power. These power structures are the systems that we are brainwashed into the systems habit and fear called religion, science, the state, and other human cultural traditions/habits.

Ah, the convenient self-affirming system of money. Long live the free market!!

Firstly, how dare we as human beings with our own awingly varied cultures, even begin to imagine that we could understand something as alien to us as another species’ culture? How could we begin to define the relationships that animals have?

Because they are not like us and by some cruelty, their lives are in our control? This gives us the right to enslave, experiment on, murder and eat the bodies of other animals?

(Too often, when "natural" proves to be an unusable argument, the dear debater will turn to an argument involving a "god" that they themselves never worshiped.)

Much love,

Comrade Anarchist Jew

A bulletin I forgot to repost. On Bullshit science and neo-eugenics.

"People shouldn't have kids unless they can afford them".

It may be sorta true. But I'm tired of hearing this.

People should have kids when they deem themselves ready, should be the replacement.

Hmmm.

If people "waited until they had money" to have kids the third world would be extinct. And people of color would've made up like .5% of the American population by 1960. Because when people say "overpopulation" they don't mean whites or the elite, do they?

So only wealthy people should have kids then? Very similar to Margaret Sanger's approach, but just the newer version.

Abortion is an undeniable right that is necessary whether in capitalism or not. But what would make it MORE necessary in capitalism?

-The fact that undesirable candidates should not produce offspring. Kids need two parents, one male one female to be "stable". Yet, patriarchy produces shitty fathers for very logical reasons whom even if they are in the home are not "really there". (most of you know what I mean). While most children whether they are rich or poor never spend any reasonable amount of time with their fathers, then what difference does it make in the first place? Even married mom's are single mom's when it comes to raising children.

-Being "married" before having kids is certainly an easier solution but it is designed to of course leave black women and non-straight people in general out of the suitable "parent" category.

-Wait until you have a "house" to have kids. Newsflash. Most people whom are low income, rent their homes.

-In order to "plan" to have kids you have to be suburban, married, parents must be stabilly employed, you must have a mini-van etc., is this the new way of saying "whites are more fit to have children"? And that poor women "cannot afford them" so should not have them until they "can"? And if people are born into their class, doesn't this mean NEVER?

-With all the crazy fucked up and mentally unstable people across the board, it is clear that your social status has nothing to do with your effectiveness as a parent.

I am confused/torn on this issue of . But me and peeps discussed it at dinner and I thought this was worth bringing up.

On an unconnected note:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/570880

Not only are black women naturally "stronger" and built for sexual exploitation and labor, but science has now confirmed that our vagina's/reproductive organs are "naturally" stronger too. What other conclusion could POSSIBLY come from this article (It is meant for doctors, not patients whom now have internalized this idea making it alllll the more dangerous).

ALIEN Germs

I sicky.

I have a stomach ache out of this world and a sore throat. I must have caught wind of some form of extraterrestrial bacteria. I am leaving work early. I hope I can come, I really do, but I think the best thing to do is go home and rest.

k. gonna go wallow in germs

~S

Event- Volunteer at city shelter!!

Comrades- I volunteer in the rabbit room at Animal Care and Control in Brooklyn every Saturday and I invite you to come with me. I usually leave around 10 and return around 3 although this is flexible. Domestic animals have no choices in their lives and over 50% of the animals that end up in nyc city the shelters are euthanized because there are not enough adopters. There are many opportunities at the the shelter to interact with animals that are just desperate for some attention. Please seriously consider joining me.

-Comrade AJ

On Whiteness- topic for 2/28/o8

On whiteness:

No one identifies as white. Whiteness is the absence of culture, the bleaching a person’s lineage. Whiteness is privilege – the reward bestowed upon Americans for discarding the language and customs of our ancestors. To be white is to be assimilated. But assimilated into what? It could easily be argued that American culture is pop culture; branded, copywriten, marketed and sold to us. So what does it mean to be white? It means to be void of any roots, to be distinguished from those with a sense of ethnic history and, to have privilege over those with history.

When my ancestors came to this country, they believed it was important to discard the old world and embrace the new. Unhappily there was no new culture and unfortunately I cannot go back to the dolers-out of whiteness and say “actually, I’d really like my peoples’ culture and language back. I would rather have a sense of history than have white privilege”. Because, as much as I think of myself as a Jew and non-white, it is peoples’ perception and the way that I am treated in the world that matters.

I feel that when a person does identify as white, it becomes very dangerous. This is because of the definition that I have given above. A white-identified person will define themselves in terms of what they are NOT as well as claim a right to privilege. Therefore, a person who identifies with an empty non-culture is inherently problematic.

Another symptom of whiteness is acculturation. Various people raised in this white non-culture often acculturate other cultures. White people who lock their hair are one obvious example. A person with no sense of history is hungry for what people with a sense of ethnicity have and so they seek it in superficial ways.

-Comrade AJ

And the Band Plays On...

Last night was the 20th (and possibly final) democratic primary debate with Obama and Clinton. There have been a variety of opinions in the blogosphere over who won. Many give the edge to Obama.

There was an uncomfortable moment in the debate where Obama was asked about receiving an endorsement by Rev. Louis Farrakhan. In Clinton's response she went for the jugular. She painted a portrait when she received the support of the Independent party in NY, which she said was an anti-semitic organization. In her effort to paint herself as a champion against discrimination, she said she rejected any support from them and refused to be associated with any organization with anti-semetic ties.

However, the truth often takes a different shape then with the past is rewritten.

I found this post on a message board:

HILLARY'S BIG LIE, ANTI-SEMITISM, AND INDEPENDENTS

Most of America has discovered and reassessed the little-known ugly truths about Hillary Clinton. Nevertheless, Mrs. Clinton's passive-aggressive campaign tactics seems to know no bounds despite the electorate's growing rejection of her integrity.

Tuesday night's debate in Ohio revealed another big lie spoken by Mrs. Clinton in clever tones. Regarding the topic of U.S. support for Israel, the conversation spilled over into allegations and issues of anti-Semitism in Senator Barack Obama's campaign via Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's past and recent statements.

Though Mr. Obama credibly and concisely refuted any association with anti-Semitism, and minister Farrakhan's verbal support for him, Mrs. Clinton used the issue as an opportunity to rewrite and distort history with a straight-out lie. The full backstory reveals the facts.

The U.S. Senator for New York is no genuine friend of democracy, inclusion, and Independents. Mrs. Clinton's record of blocking and bashing Independent activists in New York City is well documented. Though she spins her campaign and rhetoric across America to have the appearance of being a proponent of populist and democratic values, New York City's Black Independent voters know the real deal better than most.

Ask members of the New York City Independence Party, Independence Party of New York (IPNY), the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), and especially 1992 presidential candidate and Independent activist Lenora Fulani. In 2005, Clinton engineered a bogus bigot-bating campaign to have Dr. Fulani eliminated as an executive member of the IPNY State Executive Committee. Though never substantially confirmed or affirmed by anyone, especially Fulani's many Jewish friends and supporters, Senator Clinton hyped the claim that the New York City Independent activist was an anti-Semite to the state's Jewish voters. Fulani's longtime political mentor and CUIP's veteran political strategist Fred Newman, also Jewish, knew better.

As one of New York State's leading national representatives, including her network of state and national political resources, Senator Clinton forced IPNY chairman Frank MacKay and vice chairman Thomas Connolly to dump Dr. Fulani from her executive post before the state IPNY organization was allowed to endorse Clinton's senatorial campaign. The demonization and attempted termination of Fulani, including the effort to disband New York City's five-county Independent organizations, effectively was designed to disenfranchise the thousands of very active and mostly Black New York City Independents Fulani represents. Divide, conquer, and win election was Mrs. Clinton's mission then, as it is now in 2008.

Lenora Fulani and several complainants filed a Voting Rights Act violation case with the New York State Supreme Court and the U.S. Justice Department. Senator Hillary Clinton and former New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, now governor, were also named in the complaint. New York State's Supreme Court decided in Fulani's favor, and upheld New York City Independents' right to fair and equal representation as voters within the state. New York State Supreme Court Judge Emily Jane Goodman stated, "While the Court is not going to speculate on the motive for bringing this Petition now...it appears to be more political than philosophical."

The Big Apple's Independents now have more empowered representation within local and state governance. Lenora Fulani's potential run for New York City mayor in 2009 will strategically enhance that empowerment. The memory of history and facts, no matter how hidden for present day campaign purposes, have a way of focusing avid and aware voters. New York City's Independents remember all too well. The once likeable First Lady Clinton of the 1990s is definitely not a truly democratic or electable presidential candidate for 2008.

Another fact, Independents are under no illusion that real change doesn't mean adding a new flavor to the same recipe of political campaign lies, or sustaining a deceptive political dynasty. Change also means having had enough of Clintonian and Bush politics, and politricks. Voters in most states and New York City are affirming a political paradigm shift that can't be delayed by more lies.

Most have discovered, as of February 2008, this newest deception from a passive-aggressive liar is another reason that justifies the much deserved demise of presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

Dennis Moore, Chairperson, District of Columbia Independents for Citizen Control Party dennis@DCIndependents.org www.DCIndependents.org Washington, D.C. RELATED TEXT AND

Long post, but there are plenty of sides to every story. I don't take one post at face value. However hearing the side of the Independents raises in interesting issue. More so, because we are New Yorkers and I don't even remember hearing about this story.


-Sheryl