Any difference between vegan activists & right-to-lifers?

[Guest guest]

I've been gone a bit lately because I've been feeling so darned

healthy. This health seems to be really fine and stayinf around and I

finally feel that, 2 years after the fact, this illness will be one of

my life's " stories " . yay.

So now I'm trying to catch up on life outside the walls of my house.

That means getting out more often into the VERY vegetarian/vegan

activist community of Sonoma/Marin Counties in Northern California.

Apparently we have one of the largest vegetarian activist (terrorist,

even) communities in the country and since I've been doing yoga daily,

the vast majority of people I'm seeing are either vegan or vegetarian

(and are also quite vocal about it..)

As I may have mentioned before, I'm not a reformer. I really don't

care what anybody does so long as it doesn't interfere with the lives

of others. I'm a real big fan of common courtesy. I detest making laws

for every little thing.

I think this reformer role may be changing, however, because ever

since this celiac thing, I seem to be getting royally pissed off by

people basically telling me I'm a jerk (in so many words,) for eating

meat. So I guess I do have an enemy now and that is anyone who trys to

tell me what to eat; And they're doing it all the time! I don't mind

that people are vegan and they shouldn't mind that I'm an omnivore. We

should all just eat in peace.

Ah. But as it turns out it DOES matter because they are speaking for

the innocents -- God's creatures who have no voice of their own..

To that end, I just wrote a letter to the editor of the Chronicle

newspaper here about the vegan activist groups and thought I'd share

it with you -- possibly the only friends I have left in the world :-)

The paper contained a rather pro-vegan activist article.

Note: I need to point out that the worst thing you can do to a San

Francisco area cutting edge liberal group like the vegans is to

compare them to a conservative group. Here's my letter:

" Dear Editor:

I realize that vegan/vegetarian activists probably feel they're the

voice of innocent animals when they proselytize and protest the eating

of meat, but how are these groups different from the right-to-lifers

who feel that they're the voice of unborn babies? It's all about

choice isn't it? Will someone please explain why, in the Bay Area,it's

fashionable to be a Vegan but a social deathwish to be a Moral

Majority type?

~Robin Reese "

FYI, here's the article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?

file=/c/a/2005/08/05/PNGILDVEHB1.DTL & type=printable