Vegetarian cuisine an animal cruelty reminder

In response to your article “Festival promotes businesses offering holistic, healthy life” (April 30), it was very exciting to read that businesses such as Ethical Planet, which is identified as a “vegan general store,” have made it into the mainstream. This success is part of an international trend toward more socially-conscious and ethical fare.

For example, the number of vegetarian restaurants in the U.S. has doubled in the past decade, and shows no signs of slowing. It’s no surprise that as more people find out about the abuses involved in the meat industry and other animal-based industries, the less they choose to support those companies. On today’s factory farms, chickens have their beaks seared off with a hot blade, pigs are crammed into tiny spaces that don’t even allow them turn around and cows are often skinned and dismembered while fully conscious. These kinds of abuses are standard in an industry that refuses to make even the most basic changes in the way they treat their animals. If these kinds of abuses were done to cats or dogs, they would be grounds for felony cruelty to animals charges. With so many vegetarian and vegan products widely available these days, there’s no excuse for continuing to support such cruelty.

Those who are interested in learning more about vegetarianism should visit www.peta2.com, where they can order a free vegetarian starter kit, as well as free stickers and a DVD.

– Ryan Huling

College Campaign Coordinator at peta2

Pot causes psychosis? What are you smoking?

There they go again. Reefer Madness is on the loose, (“Doctors: Pot triggers psychotic symptoms,” May 1, from The Associated Press).

Really? Who funded the study? Was it those who will not allow unbiased and objective investigations into the effects of marijuana to take place in the equivalent of the free marketplace of scientific studies? After all, there is much at stake, monetarily and otherwise, in a culture that profits from a “drink Bud, don’t smoke it” mentality.

Psychotic symptoms. Was it the kind that grips terrorists in hoods compelling them to become human bombs maiming and killing largely the innocent in the name of the normalcy known as institutionalized religion, or was it the kind that grips terrorists in suits and ties who order invasions of countries resulting in misery and destruction, also largely among the innocent in the name of the normalcy known as unbridled capitalism?

Was it the kind that builds prisons as the answer to the need for housing for the unfortunate in the name of the normalcy known as compassionate conservatism?

Was it the kind that subjects women all over the world to a lesser existence than the male species in the name of the normalcy known as the culture of business as usual?

Was it the kind that exploits and destroys the earth in the name of the normalcy known as the greenback dollar bill?

Should one be truly interested in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the role of marijuana in helping those in need of reality breakthroughs to a higher order of being, I suggest that you turn to the Web site of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) or read “Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered” by Dr. Lester Grinspoon.

And if one wishes a real life marijuana reality fix of another kind, I suggest reading my book, “Deep Spirit & Great Heart: Living in Marijuana Consciousness.”

– Louis Silverstein

Graduate School of Education ’70

Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences

Columbia College Chicago