Vegan Challenge - Day 18
I realized something while reviewing a comment…. Honey Wheat bread…cannot be vegan. Unless it is made with non bee derived “honey,” which I seriously doubt. While it was very nice of ABC to reply to me, I am now suspicious. I will email the very nice lady back and inform her of their snafu and see what can be done to confirm their vegan choices.
I was talking to Grim today, per the usual, and one long and twisty chat window later I was inspired. At the end of the October Vegan Challenge I am going to write an article about my experience(s) and submit it to the Blount County Voice; there has got to be a place for veganism in the Blount County media and I’m gonna find it. If there is room for this :
First of all, I love KFC’s mashed potato bowls. They have chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, cheese and gravy all in one bowl. Those are all my favorite foods, so I love them all mixed together.
…there is room for me.
I truly feel blessed to live in a time and place where I have the luxury of refusing to eat certain things. I live in a land where there are 5 massive grocery stores within a short distance of my house. I can go to these places in air conditioned comfort and walk past things because I don’t want them or I don’t need them. It’s astonishing the things we take for granted. Everyday miracles like clean, running water…an abundance of food that can be good or bad for you and a bunch of us get to choose what, when and how much to eat…
At the risk of sounding like a bleeding heart liberal, the reality of our world is this: approximately 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five. (src: The Hunger Site)
Burma. Darfur. Cambodia. Tibet. The United States. I don’t know what to do some days.
you absolutely should submit to the blount county voice; that’s a wonderful idea!
ugh, isn’t it overwhelming sometimes how much there is to do and how much is ignored because it’s comfortable? i just wanted to share with you this really amazing thing that hanson is doing, and i think you would appreciate it because every little bit helps.
http://www.hanson.net/site/hanson/page/21
and i’m gonna post more about it from an interview they did with absolutepunk.net:
Let’s talk about The Walk that you’re doing right now. Not literally right now, but the walk that you’re doing in every city on this tour. For those that don’t know for the readers and the listeners of the site, why did you get involved with that?
T: We have to rewind just a bit. In the process of making this record, one of the things that happened was we were really impacted by guys in our hometown. We recorded the record in Tulsa, it’s like the first record in a decade that we’ve done that consistently. We were inspired by some people that were in this little technology company. They developed this medical technology and they spent a lot of money doing it and they said that it was a thing that was going to help average Americans but it was also going to be a thing that could save lives. It would let them be in contact with doctors using cell phones or using the Internet. It was a really simple but amazing thing. They were going to donate it to a hospital in Africa because there’s this issue where people can’t get to a doctor or they have to travel three days and wait in line and then not get an appointment and not get seen. They were just going to give it away! And there was this light that clicked and these issues, AIDS and issues with poverty that surrounded. Oh my god, there’s this idea that hasn’t hit home yet and that’s that everybody has something. We all have something. It’s not even like that Red product idea of consuming products in a good way. It’s actually that we all have something to put to use. So we spent a little time in Africa during the record, more from the point of view that we just had to go. We just need to go and we recorded the song “Great Divide” and with an African children’s choir and we left with this basic mission of, “OK. We’re going to start by using what we have. We’re going to put out the Great Divide.” It’s a charity single, goes directly to a hospital that focuses on mother-child transmission of AIDS.
I: It helped reduce the mother-child transmission rate 33%.
T: Today, our goal is to inspire people and motivate people that everybody has something to use. We need to focus on moving away from awareness and moving into action, a state of action and looking for clear, tangible ways that we can do things to help each other. Not from a point of view of just raising money in a huge bank or trying to send money to a hut, but looking for tangible things to do that allow you to make a difference. Tom’s Shoes is this great company and every time you buy one of their shoes, they take a second pair of shoes and they give it away to a kid in poverty. We basically met with Blake, who started the company and just brainstormed. We decided to stage walks in every city, walk a mile as part of the tour, as a way to galvanize our fans.
I: We walk a mile barefoot in urban cities.
Z: Let’s take a moment to see what it’s like to not have shoes. And you walk down downtown areas with no shoes on and you think it’d be nice to have a pair of shoes.
T: Obviously it’s a bit of an extreme example but, for us, it was a tangible way to get people to take action in something and be a part of spreading the message and the idea in a real way. It’s this weird thing where people are always bombarded with messages.
I: People our age are really frustrated with it.
T: There’s this divide of our age where people are comfortable being passive and there are consumers. We just feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, go to college, get a good job, wake up at 65 and retire. And then there’s this group that is feeling this tension of kind of, “Wow, I see how much resources there are and I’m not comfortable just standing by. I’m not comfortable having so much energy to make a difference and not engage.” Our message with the walks is…everybody walks. You’re taking this one mile and there’s 300-400 kids filling the street and people are walking by wondering what the heck is going on. They’re all holding their shoes up in the air. You finish it and you’re like, “Great. This was kind of mundane, we just walked.” But today we unified behind a simple action and tomorrow what will we do? If you buy a pair of Tom’s shoes, you know a result. It’s just lots of those clear steps and it’s actually pretty amazing because…
Z: Small things. That’s like saying, “Once a year, I’m going to give my charitable donation to the local charity or to the food bank.”
T: Which is good.
Z: Which is good, but it’s like saying maybe you could make a bit of changes in the way you live your life with the shoes you buy or the t-shirt you buy or the this or the that. Just adding little things to your life or just changing it slightly the way you live it could enrich your life and other peoples’.
I: I’m just think that there are a gazillion ideas like at Tom’s Shoes, that there are people that can come up with that in their place of passion that they have and come up with a way to create a similar kind of compassion.
Z: Companies, the new companies starting, the young entrepreneurs, making the act of giving a part of their success of their companies. Not charity, but companies that say, “The success of my company is based also on giving back and making something impactful out of what we do.”
T: It’s kind of crazy to think about it. If you raise money for something, you’re raising money to go and do something with it. To buy goods, to buy medicine, to drill wells for water…or—you could go directly to drills water, go to the person that makes shoes, the person that makes drugs and say, “We’re just going to raise money and buy it from you,” or you can justify a way or a reason to make that a part of what you’re doing and make that part of your success. And that’s what Tom’s is saying. And that’s what we’re saying with “Great Divide.”
Z: I think in the more selfish way, it makes people proud to be a part of being with you. You know I didn’t just buy something I needed, I’m making a difference with what I do.
T: It’s our job to try and relay the message, put it into…
I: We don’t want to be soapbox teachers. We don’t want to…that’s not what it’s about. We’re not saying, “Hey everybody needs do this.” We’re just saying that there are other ways to tackle problems and we think that you can see in Tom’s Shoes and other people who have that similar idea that there is a way to be a part of their lives and a part of their success. We just hope that we can encourage other people to have similar ideas. Be a part of the generation that saved another generation.
*hand to forehead* I so missed that. I did think about it that day at Atlanta Bread though. BTW best clinical experience since I was in the NICU… I worked a few hours at the homeless clinic this week, I found it interesting in numerous ways.