Something
sinister happened on 24 March 2017 in Arkansas: the “meat industry” sold –or should I say
“bought”—state legislators into passing an Ag-Gag law. This is the seventh state that has made it
illegal to expose malpractices and abuses toward farmed animals.
If one of, say,
Tyson Foods employees speaks up against inequities towards man or beast in the confines
of their vast domain, that person can be sued, ruined, for telling the truth.
Requiem for Freedom
of Speech. “This was Arkansas’ fourth attempt at an Ag-Gag bill,” reported
foodwhistleblower.org. “This time, with little fuss or fanfare, corporate
lobbyists succeeded in sneaking this bill past national scrutiny.”
How is this a
Democracy if, according to the 2017 Remington Research Polling Report, 80% of
Arkansans believe that those disclosing unethical behavior should not face
legal punishment. The correct term for
how the USA is governed is “Plutocracy.”
Obtuse minds may
dismiss the importance of this attack on Freedom of Speech and the Will of The
People because the victims are “only animals” and, also, outcasts who work in
slaughterhouses (or should I say “food processing plants” lest Johnny takes
offense and sues me). We are supposed to hush about factory farm workers and owners caught
on camera kicking and beating animals, impaling them with spiked clubs, playing
kickball with chickens and piglets ... sickening stuff.
Freedom of
Speech, is what made this country what it is. But the pendulum reached the top
and now it’s time to swing back.
Criminalizing
the honest reporting of the relentless abuses commited every second of the day
and night in the business of raising and slaughtering sentient beings like you
and me is a dangerous reversal of our principles.
Can we judge
slavers or Nazis for their deeds, or their passive bystanders in view of our
present apathy? Not according to Jewish philosopher Theodor Adorno, “Auschwitz begins
whenever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: ‘They’re only animals.’”
It is not about
the physical attributes of the life that suffers and bleeds and dies unnoticed;
what they all have in common is that they suffer, bleed, and die, and no one
gives a damn. They are voiceless, helpless.
It may be the
human slaves still brutalized around the world, the children and women still
sold like chattel, the elderly, the mentally or physically impaired, or the creature
on your plate or in your sandwich. Voiceless, helpless.
As we
criminalize whisleblowing against unethical practices toward farmed,
slaughtered animals we must ponder, what other “animals” will be deprived of the
tremendous benefit of having others raise their voices in their behalf.
Ag-Gag is just
the beginning, and we the irrelevant people without lobbyists should insist
that it be repealed in Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina,
and Utah. As should States that still
enjoy Freedom of Speech guard against it
being taken.
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