Got Milk?

So did anyone else hear about the letter PETA wrote to Ben and Jerry's ice cream company? Totally ridiculous. The letter asked the company to use HUMAN breast milk instead of cow's milk in its ice cream.

I love cows as much as the next person, but this is a little extreme. In a press release, PETA makes the claim that dairy cows are horribly abused and the milking process is unnatural and painful. However, they neglect to provide any concrete facts or eye witness accounts of this abuse. It seems to me that PETA just likes news coverage and aims to shock the public into donating money.

I don't know about you, but I definitely prefer my Ben and Jerry's with cow's milk.

Site Visit and Interview

This past Tuesday I attended the first For the Sake of Animals (FSA) meeting of the year at Squires. The first thing I noticed about the group was how friendly and welcoming everybody was. It wasn't a large meeting, there were only about eight people there including myself, but the small atmosphere was actually very comfortable and personable. Everyone immediately introduced themselves and seemed genuinely interested in wanting to get to know me. They asked where I was from, what I did for fun, whether or not I was a vegan (I'm not), and so on. Even though I was the only non-vegan and the only freshman, I didn't feel awkward at all talking to the group. They were all very welcoming.

After the meeting I met with the girl I was interviewing, and I was happy to see that she was enthusiastic about giving her opinions. I didn't feel like I was holding her back from something more important; it seemed that she really wanted to be there and answer my questions. Some other members of the group even stayed back to listen and give me their own opinions to the questions after the formal interview was over. I got a lot of great input that I plan to use as I get to know this particular community better.

I'm really looking forward to working with this group as the year goes on. There are a lot of great activities planned that I can't wait to get involved in. And who knows, I might even give the vegan thing a try............maybe.

Course Goals

1.) I want to be able to write better conclusions. Usually by the end of my papers I don't have any ideas left and my conclusions can be kind of bland and wordy.

2.) Another goal I have is to be able to write descriptively without being too wordy.

3.) The last goal I have is to become more organized throughout the writing process. Usually I don't prepare first and second drafts; I usually just write one and edit it along the way. I would like to improve my writing by creating multiple drafts and thorougly editing them.

Interview Questions

1. How long have you been interested in animal rights?

2. Some critics question animal rights supporters because there are so many human rights issues they feel need to be addressed. So why do you choose to support animal rights?

3. How do you feel about zoos and circuses that claim to be "educating" people about wildlife?

4. What specific animal rights issues are you most concerned about?

5. How long do you think it will take for animals to be treated better by society?

6. What laws should be put in place to help animals?

7. What specific things have you done to help the animal rights movement?

8. How do you feel about PETA and their radical views?

9. What is the most important thing people can do to help animals?

Better Late Than Never...

Oops, I didn't realize we had to post our observations on our blogs for today. I'll do that now...

I observed two girls on my floor for this assignment. It was on Sunday night, at about 8:00. Wearing workout clothes, their hair in ponytails, they were sitting and working on homework on a couch in the center of our hall in West AJ. I sat down across from them and started "typing on my laptop" while I observed them. The first thing I noted was that it seemed like the girls knew each other from other circumstances besides school because most of the 20 minutes or so that I observed them they were laughing and talking, not really paying attention to their work. Most of the time, the atmosphere was filled with their laughter except for the few brief periods of silence when they were writing or flipping through text books. They mostly talked about the football game, what they did the past weekend, and how much homework they had. The taller of the two girls made fun of the shorter girls tan lines and they each commented that they should go tanning together. They glanced at me, and after a brief awkward eye contact and even more awkward silence, they continued to talk and I got my things and headed back to my dorm.

Class Reflections

In class on Friday, my group and I discussed our answers to the various questions in the reading. We talked a lot about how we know things are essentially true. Mainly we said that books, authority figures, and even the media validate statements and make them true. We all agreed that subjects like math only have one "truth" or right answer that cannot be altered. However, we said that in many other areas, truth can be changed according to the situation and differing opinions.

I think the fact that truth can be discussed and that there are different answers to different questions in the world makes life interesting. Knowing that there could be another answer and another possibility causes life to stray off of the everyday, normal path.

I also think that these points can relate to my community, supporters of animal rights. Strict supporters of animal rights could think that the only truth is that no one should eat meat, wear fur, or etc. People that do not support animal rights could find that statement to be completely false and think that animals are meant for human use. It is all a matter of opinion. I am looking forward to hearing the opinions of others on this topic.

Narrowing It Down

So far I have narrowed it down to two communities that I am particularly interested in for this project: long distance runners and supporters of animal rights. There is an off campus group called Blacksburg Striders that focuses on long distance running that I could research. On campus, however, there is an animal rights group called For the Sake of Animals that I am interested in learning more about. FSA has the potential to be a good community for this project because there are a lot of animal rights issues that I could research and explore further. I'll have to make a decision by tomorrow!!