miniboes wrote:That's a very good reason to land in prison, and I guess it did you good in a way by allowing you to make the leap to veganism! Was it Gary Yourofsky that made you want to go vegan? He's achieved a lot there right?
I just trust the world leaders realize that starting a world war might very well mean the end of our species, and are rational enough not to do so.
No, actually!
The Gary Yourofsky story is as follows - two vegan activists in Israel translated his "Greatest Speech" video and it went viral. Then he came to visit. I'm not sure what year it was, but I was oblivious to the person and this whole thing taking place.
My story's a bit different. I have a vegan friend, and she taught me a lot about what I used to put in my mouth. Being a rational person, I tried to justify my reasons for eating meat. It came to the point where my final cop-out was "But it tastes so good!". I realized that good taste was not a solid enough reason to continue eating meat. Plus, she's an amazing cook, and I never thought that "vegans eat grass all day".
WARNING: I may use very strong language, because pacifism is a passion of mine, and I really hate war.
In prison, I went on a hunger strike for 17 days, claiming that I'd rather die than fight for what is basically a pissing contest. Eventually, I was sent to the hospital to get transfusions so I won't die. After 17 days an a release from the army, I had to serve the rest of my sentence. To not damage my health I had to start off slow and the doctor told me to eat very little, very easily digestible food and chew a lot. So I did! When the time came, I looked at the plate of what most people call meat (seriously, even meat eaters complained about how it's probably not real meat), and declared that I'm vegan. So they had to give me special treatment and supply fresh veggies, since I declared I was raw.
I must mention that claiming veganism in prison is seriously the best incentive: If you claim that you're vegan and they catch you with meat, they add days to your sentence, the guards will treat you differently and everything goes to shit. So I
had to continue, even when it was very hard.
At the time, our biggest channel in Israel (Channel 2) started airing Big Brother. Where two of the contestants were vegans, having barely any knowledge about veganism (who'd remember in detail anything their friend told them?), that show was like my mentor. Any argument, Tal (one of the vegans) would have an answer for. So I watched and I watched. Other inmates would ask me stuff, and pick on me, and being (at the time) a very fresh vegan, I didn't know what to respond with. She helped me a lot. AND SHE WON! Though, that was after I got out.
Some of the stuff I did (like pretending to be raw, by actually going raw) was morally questionable, because if you look at it from a third perspective, I went vegan to just say I'm vegan, for the status. But two months after watching Big Brother, and not eating one dish that had any animal protein in it, I realized I don't really need animal protein to be healthy. So it's been 7 months and I'm feeling great!
Now I'm vegan for the right reasons, I'm a very big advocate for animal rights. Being a pacifist and eating meat and dairy would be hypocritical.
Can't wait to hear more from you!
