May 19, 2008
Veggie Pride Parade Humanely Devours Manhattan
New York’s Veggie Pride Parade wound through downtown Manhattan yesterday, stretching from its defiant start in the Meat Packing District to its triumphant conclusion at the Washington Square Park. The event, intended to raise awareness about the benefits of a vegetarian and vegan diet, featured participants dressed in costumes like a seven-foot-tall pea pod, a giant carrot, and, according to the Times, “a giant pink replica of a human colon, replete with polyps and a sullied colostomy bag, [bringing] up the rear.”
Also on hand was infamous vigilante Bernard Goetz, who turned to vegetarianism not long after shooting four youths he says were trying to rob him on a subway in 1984. The parade was started by author Pamela Rice (“101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian”) and inspired by a similar event in Paris. Yesterday’s festivities culminated with awards for best costume; though it’s not yet clear who won, the smart money’s on the colon, which, fortunately or unfortunately, is not pictured below.
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A day late and a carrot short. These people are freaks. Not unsurprisingly most of them were unhealth looking--leaning towards overweight!
Only good thing is that the dosa man made a reappearance. He says that he'll be back with a license in 2 weeks. Hooray.
Sounds awesome. I think I'll go check out the rally and then have a burger.
The parade was fun!
You can't judge a lifestyle solely by the way some people look---after all there are overweight and waif thin people on both sides---the vegetarian/vegan side and the meat eater side. Plus, you have to take into account the various conditions people may be dealing with which is perhaps why they have decided to go veg in the first place...I'm just sayin'
An yes, the dosa man rocks!
For me to turn vegan they'll have to legislate it.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Vegans are just cranky people. They lack the "happy" enzyme that's available from succulent meat juices. They literally are a pale imitation of vegetarians, who I like.
I don't mind my veggies and even get vegetarian/ faux meat once in a while. What I cannot stand are these holier than thou militants who think they are better than me just because they are vegans. They are just like any other intolerant racist assholes. I would love to eat a juicy hamburger in front of them.
According to Swiss, plants are being & have rights too & thus should be protected by new legislation. Matter of time, before this nonsense makes across the Atlantic.
But at least it would confirm that vegan hands are stained with chlorophyll of living beings.
Apparently, Bernard Goetz is a member of this organization. 'nuff said.
In consuming meat, we cast votes for all its assorted ills: the leading chronic diseases; environmental destruction (deforestation, global warming, and water and land pollution); global food shortages caused by the inefficient use of grain, and the immoral exploitation of sentient creatures for our pleasure. Before that "meat" was a feces-contaminated rotting carcass offered on a menu, it was part of someone's life, savagely and tragically cut short for our pleasure. The habits underlying our exploitation of other animals are supported by a web of deleterious psychosocial processes common and inextricably linked to those that lead to racism, sexism and other forms of oppression. Excuses only camouflage defective and speciesist moral reasoning.
sonyactivision, what "happy" enzyme are you referring to? e coli? feces?
As for "dude69" (great name by the way, how's middle school going for you?), no one cares if you eat a hamburger in front of them. when i see someone eating meat, i don't think "man, i wish i could change that person," i think, "one bite closer to a heart attack." so good luck with that.
meat eaters are not only actively endangering the environment, but engaged in the killing of innocent sentient beings. I don't care much about health as such. I don't eat meat exclusively because of murder and the environment. I, though, like to make lots of luv, get drunk, snort, and blunt myself. Pills are also, recreationally ok. I love life, and if you really love life, you don't kill animals to eat them. period.
it is my FIRM believe that most meat eaters feel that there is something wrong in what they are doing. A tingly feeling that 'while I like my hamburger I know there is something wrong in here'. And I know, cause I used to eat LOTS of meat. I even dare to say that meat tastes good. Yet, it is not about me me me. That is sooooo W's administration. The me me me. I need this, I need that, I must have this, I must have that, me me me. Nasty nasty stuff. Gross, crass, bland, moronic. 'Cause I like, I deserve it'. Ha.
You that are still eating meat, or animal products, have to face it: you do it because you can... because you are a lazy bastard, a narcissistic self-entitled prick, because you can get away with it, because you can get away with not thinking about it, because we vegans are simplistic moralist pacifist and don't really organize to let you wassup, because you are in the majority...
but one day you will all understand, and probably be forced to admit it. it will not be nice, but it will be the right thing to do. you will be like the thousands of people who had to give up their own personal slaves.
For now, enjoy your hamburger. You probably don't know that there is a vegan looking, thinking 'that moderfoker is a real arsehole, disgusting, self-entitled dick. Ha. I get the last laugh.
Go Vegan! Let live and get drunk! Mnx
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Goetz
Vegans piss me off only because of their 'superiority' BS. "Oh no, you're killing animals who have souls, blah, blah, blah." They're pretty much the same as smokers who have kicked the habit and are now the biggest assholes to other smokers. I have never smoked tobacco, and never will, but I don't feel the need to pester people about it.
Get over yourselves, vegans. When the economy falls apart and the transportation of goods is halted, we carnivores/omnivores will need something to satiate us and we won't have any problems with roasting you on a spit.
As a vegetarian I'm all for the parade and I appreciate the intentions of radical groups like PETA because in the end we're all rooting for the same team here, but dressing up like a Lima bean, posing as a broccoli florette or wearing a panel of grass on your head isn't going to make people take you seriously. People already think vegetarians and vegans are rebel aliens on furlough from Neptune and stuff like this isn't helping.
The parade wasn't so much to convert omnivores as it was to develop veg*n community. As vegans and vegetarians, we're often isolated and rejected by the mainstream (see the vitriol in the comments above). We need positive, fun, shared experiences to help sustain and grow our community.
Besides, kids aren't put off by silly costumes - they like them. It's fun. And well, kids are the future. The kids are where it's at. They're not as interested in your Very Serious Stuff.
Obviously, though, you're right that some part of the parade was to help foster awareness amongst the omnis, and that's why some parade participants leafletted along the way. The leaflets promoted vegetarianism and veganism for a variety of Very Serious Reasons. You know, Very Serious Reasons like: animal rights, animal welfare, human health, climate change, farm workers' rights, rural farmers' economic stability, and peace.
Thanks for using some of my photos, Gothamist!
I suppose. And everything you've said is healthy and positive. I guess I just don't care as much about being around like minded individuals. I've found just about the only thing I'll have in common with them is that I don't eat meat, other than that there's nothing. I appreciate a celebration of belief and a little preaching to the choir and truly every single thing counts, every drop in the bucket is important as all we need is one mind changed and that’s a success. I guess it just looked goofy to me that’s all. Looked like the cast from a Fruit of the Loom commercial on a field trip. Going the wacky way can sometimes be just as excluding as going the "Very Serious Stuff" way. Its not unlike ENFORCING freedom or democracy. It never works.
There is something sordidly wrong with the vegan community. How it is possible that we allow ourselves to be bullied like that? It is just beyond belief. There needs to be radical -perhaps violent- action. So the type of clowns that we read at the top know that not only are we are not letting ourselves being bullied, but that we are aggressively militant about what is a deeply felt moral position.
I've been struggling with this idea for years, because I am a fairly libertarian person. But it is clear that if you really hold a moral position about something as fundamental as life and murder, you should not be out there just 'educating' people and hoping they get it. We should be demanding and struggling with the meat-eating community by the smartest best-organized politically savvy ways. PETA, under this view, is not radical enough.
Slavery is the most apt metaphor for the situation of animal; and a bloody civil war was fought over it in this country. I am not advocating a civil war (dah!) but I AM advocating for making meat-eaters jittery about their choices. Meat is not only murder, meat is death.
organize, break the law, hide, live. mnx
So, what's the vegan stance on lions that tear apart gazelles to survive? I'm just wondering if they consider that 'meat is death'.
read carefully dear howboutdemcowboys:
...meat is not only murder, meat is death...organize, break the law, hide, live...
Vegans care not about lions and gazelles,
1- because it is a stupid analogy... because you don't need meat to survive, and I am the living proof of it.
2- most importantly, because you are not a lion, but you could end up being gazelled!!!
My point is that meat eaters should be made to think twice before they bite their next stupid hammurder or fois gross. And there is only one way of doing that, it seems, and let's leave it at that.
You people (meat-eaters) just don't think about this. You don't have a position about meat-eating (most of you, in any case); you just do it cause you are numb, dumb and lazy. You improvise positions about this when and if needed. But it should not be like that...only fear of being hunted while hunting will make people think twice, think in something larger than 'I like a nice juicy hamburger!'
I am...as a challenged...prepared to argue about this passionately...provided that if I am correct any of you end up your murderous rants. Argue about it, think about it, defend your positions, you'll loose for sure, but with honor.
mnx
Actually, mnx, you win. Because there sure as hell isn't any way for you to loose... unless it's your belt after eating a soy burrito.
No, scratch that, you're probably thinner than your argument and would lose any battle that put us up against each other.
So, tighten up your belt - at least as tight as your ass seems to be - and keep eating your vegetables and soy products. We alpha humans will need something to gnaw on when global warming destroys all plant life.
baby, i am 220pnds, go to the gym 4 times per week and practice martial arts (ckm)...so believe me, as far as vegans go, i could kick your arse. but i am not physically violent, so let's leave it at that.
however, how easy you ran away from my gentlemanly duel!!! ha ha ha. my point is very very simple: get serious and think about choices, don't improvise moral positions and above all: intellectual honestly, mostly if it concerns the life of others.
sincerely. mnx
baby, i am 220pnds, go to the gym 4 times per week and practice martial arts (ckm)...so believe me, as far as vegans go, i could kick your arse. but i am not physically violent, so let's leave it at that.
however, how easy you ran away from my gentlemanly duel!!! ha ha ha. my point is very very simple: get serious and think about choices, don't improvise moral positions and above all: intellectual honestly, mostly if it concerns the life of others.
sincerely. mnx
yadda yadda...meat. yadda yadda...vegetables. who cares.
all i want to know is: how did i not know about a costume parade until after it took place? was this another secret parade??
advertise people!!
Fucking militant groups! Your soy lifestyle has singlehandedly wiped out the rainforest with a countless toll of plant and animal life for what? One species: the soybean plant! Enjoy your tofu, morons.
First they came for the cows, but I wasn't a cow, and said nothing.
Then they came for the chickens.....
Then, Soylent Green.
Sorry, I just couldn't resist, and it's late & I'm really busy so I couldn't look up a more literal paraphrase.
Dadoc
The "soy lifestyle" has wiped out the rainforest? HUH? Please, please, please get a clue. Reducing or ideally, eliminating consumption of animal products is the most powerful thing someone can do for the environment (plus your health, alleviating poverty and extending the circle of compassion).
FYI: Forests are destroyed to clear the way for
grazing livestock. To support a meat-centered diet it takes 3 1/2 acres of land and 4,000 gallons of water for a day's worth of food, to
support a vegetarian diet (lacto-ovo) it takes 1 1/2 acres of land and 1,200 gallons of water for a day's worth of food and to support a VEGAN diet, 1/6 of an acre and 400 gallons of water for a day's worth of food! Also, the animal agriculture causes toxic ground pollution due to chemicals, pesticides and run-off waste.
And by the way - as a vegan, I actually rarely eat tofu. There are thousands of grains, legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables out there that support a healthy lifestyle and can be prepared for delicious and satisfying meals.
OK, I have to say something about "we alpha humans will need something to gnaw on when global warming destroys all plant life"...what do you think livestock eats? (Anyway, global climate change will wipe us out before plant life, but go on deluding yourself there.)
And what is an alpha human? We're so alpha with our flimsy fingernails, dull teeth, alkaline saliva and long small intestine we need to go after beautiful, empathetic and sentient creatures for sustenance?
All that artery-clogging flesh you're eating has clearly blocked some vital blood flow to your brain.
Vegans attack!!!!
This bunch of morons don't deserve any kind of mercy.
You 'don't-eat-tofu' (sonyactivision) arse: soybeans are mostly grown for soybean oil for food and as a bio-diesel; not for my tofu, but for your doritos, and oreos and whatever other nasty stuff you eat, cause it is evident you don't eat healthy cause you are not thinking right or are morally blind.
Give yourself a break, go vegan or keep being a moron. As a moron you could even get to be President!!! As a vegan you can get to do the right thing AND get laid.
Mnx
And this is why no one listens to vegans. Most of you are a bunch of holier-than-thou douches who believe your way is the only way. Even Moby relaxed his militant stance once he realized just how big of an ass he had become.
howboutdemcowboys:
glad you came back! listen, we are not holier-than-thou. we have a moral position that requires militantism...you might agree that in something as profound as taking the life out of other sentient being to eat it, when you can eat beans, tofu, seitan, pasta, rice, etc, is something that should not be a matter of relativism (I have my position, you have yours...and let's leave it at that). this should be discussed aggressively, and the very fact that many meat-eaters attack us as holier than thou is a tacit acknowledgment of the moral threat we pose to you.
the grown-up thing will be for you to be open to discuss this, and be willing to change when you see how out of bounds meat-eating should be. I, for one, am not a purist...I will be willing to eat road kill for example, or to eat cheese if the goat or cows are house-animals, for example. So I have nothing holy on me, on the contrary.
I used to love meat. But it is not about what I like. I have sometimes felt like stabbing someone in the subway!!!! But, we are living in civilization, and morality rules. It is about doing what is right. The mature thing, the difficult thing, is to change one's views and to muster the courage to do it in a fulfilling way.
To put it bluntly: either you are right or I am right on this one. Open up and argue intelligently and we should see where to go from there.
Mnx.
This has nothing to do with food, does it? It's really a social psychosis about defending animals that simply wouldn't exist if people didn't raise them for their meat. You want to see cows dissappear? Stop drinking their milk and eating their meat. They make shitty pets ( even shittier than militant vegans )and they only produce noxious gasses and manure (just like militant vegans). Same for most of the livestock category. As to "feces and E Coli", eaten any bagged spinach lately? As to the rainforest, the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso is now the world's largest single source of soy. Don't split hairs about how much of that soy is diverted to biofuels either as the Brazilians prefer sugarcane for their biofuels...How stupid do you people have to be?
This kind of compartmentalization and justification of a twisted nature ethic is interesting but dangerous. The mountains are not here to have the tops of them lopped off to extract coal. The forests are not here to be slashed down and cleared for grazing livestock, paper production and so forth. And animals do not belong in battery cages, pinned into gestation and veal crates...are not here to have machines hooked up to them pulling out pussy secretions to pour over cereal - or to be killed, skinned, trapped, hunted, fished, used for entertainment, breeded, experimented on or for any other reason but their own - which is simply to live a life free from torment, abuse and exploitation. The pursuit of power through the destruction of nature and the subjugation of humans and non-humans is a product of patriarchy and extreme bigotry. So I choose a lifstyle as free from cruelty as possible. And yes, perhaps that is subscribing to a form of social psychosis - but as Frank Zappa said, without deviation from the norm, there can be no progress. Bring it on!
(By the way, cows are very sweet and make lovely companions. This cow in particular is incredible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH_c7JljsaM)
In the words of some wise folks...
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men. ~Alice Walker
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures. ~Albert Einstein
sonyactivision:
you are so fucking dumb it is laughable. you don't make ANY sense at all. your sentences do not follow any kind of logic. your punctuation sucks; your ideas are impossible to follow (cause there are no ideas in there!). ha ha ha.
you are beyond salvation...even if you turned into a block of tofu you would keep on being dumb.
i'm not even signing this...dumb dumb dumb....
Monxo, I actually have nothing against vegans and vegetarians. I dated a vegetarian for a while, and when she and I were together, I did not eat meat. When I was not in her presence, I did eat meat, and she had no problem with that.
My problem is when someone thinks they are superior to me for one reason or another. And that's what I'm getting from this. It feels like I'm at the end of someone's nose while they're looking down it. Just because I eat meat does not make me inferior or stupid or mean or cruel or lazy or whatever.
This issue also reminds me a bit of the abortion debate. It's something that is never going to be answered to everyone's liking.
Vegcityrobyn, please come down off that high horse before you fall and hurt yourself. Without every having seen you, I can see you as a 20-something college student, who believes everything their professor has told them and completely ignores the fact that without certain things (paper production, the use of animals in farming and just about every other area where human strength was not enough, a cure for polio from animal testing, mass communication which started on the back of a pony, production of plastics to make Frank Zappa albums) we would not be here today typing on computers to debate this topic. I understand your passion, but please just try to balance your hubris with a little humility. People are more likely to listen when you're not shouting at them and calling them names.
Let monxo "shout and call names". These people are hysterically self-divulgent, much like that 'colon costume', when I see these shitbags, all I see is bowel.
Wow...I graduated college in '94, business school in '05 and worked in Wall Street for about 12 years. Perhaps I know a thing or two about the role exploitation and slavery has played in economic development? Anyway, I guess I'm not jaded if I'm coming across that starry-eyed; thanks.
In my collegiate-esque opinion it all comes down to choices, and one can either make compassionate choices or not. Given what I've seen and researched - the health, environmental and dehumanizing implications of the current "use" of animals, it's maddening to me that a vegan lifestyle and animal-rights ethic is seen as subversive and twisted. So I do not see myself as superior; I'm trying to debunk some prevalent myths and misconceptions. Perhaps that's your personal definition of being looked down upon?
Interesting expression too that you've chosen - telling me to get off my "high horse" - with its patriarchal, abusive and militaristic origins. It first appeared around the 1700s likely from noblemen literally looking down from enormous horses bred to accommodate the considerable weight of a knight's full body armor.
And with that I've said all I'd like to say. This has been entertaining; be well.
Right then, sod off you sad vegan tosser.
great closing statement from the anti-vegan front. you've really articulated your point sonyactivision!
I enjoyed viewing the photos. Put a big smile on my face and makes me miss New York even more. I was sent the link by an old friend who participated in the Veggie Pride Parade. I thought the parade was marvelous -- exercising the great concern for our health and our environment in such a "fun", "light-hearted" way.
You can't always judge a person by a photo, a first impression. These are some of the most serious, movers-and-shakers around town. My friend serves as Chairman of the Environment Committee and leads Emergency Preparedness efforts in association with New York University.
Besides, the more we learn along the way, the better choices we can make for a brighter and healthier future. It's always nice to hear the knowledge and opinions of everyone.