Uhm, nice tattoo - combined with those glasses, its a very tough look.
I’m a vegan, meaning I abstain from eating animal products, wearing leather, stuff like that. Turns out, I’m a big fan of animals, and as a personal choice, I’ve decided to hang out with them rather than eat them. That’s my call; again, it’s a personal choice, and I’m not interested in preaching, protesting or PETA. (PETA – I’m sure you folks do good work, but frankly, I’m not paying attention.) I respect the folks that do work to make the world safer for animals, but I’m not handling any of the in-your-face portion of the vegan world load.
But when one of your non-vegan friends sends you a link about a knucklehead like Walter Bond (Walter – I’m sure you’re just misguided. Please don’t blow me up.), it just ruins your whole day and you have to say something. I’ve been a vegetarian for long enough to know that people who aren’t look at people who are differently, and I’ve been vegan long enough to know that people who are vegetarian look at people who are vegan and say, “Whoa. That’s pretty extreme.” I’m not saying anybody who thinks that way is wrong, but I’m not in a cult, I don’t throw red paint on people wearing fur (unless they ask me to, and then I purchase only the finest fire-engine-red with a satin finish), and I certainly don’t blow shit up.
I don’t want to be lumped in with this guy because we observe the same diet. One look at his
photo lets you know immediately why he’s the “Lone Wolf;” can you think of anybody you know that has a tattoo on their FACE? Mike Tyson was the first name that jumped to my mind, and I think we can all agree he’s not exactly a model citizen. (Mike Tyson – I saw your commercial for CenterStage, and you still look huge. Please don’t kick my ass. I’m sure Robin Givens just fell down some stairs…) And those are the worst eyeglass frames ever. He looks like Janine Melnitz in Ghostbusters.
I believe in Animal Rights. I believe animals deserve our respect, and in the case of animals we’ve spend hundreds (or thousands) of years domesticating, they deserve our care. If you want to have lunch at McDonalds, that’s your choice, but good luck convincing me that the Angus Snack Wrap doesn’t look like dog poo wrapped in construction paper.
All Christians don’t want to be grouped together with the crazy guy who shot a guy in church. All Muslims don’t want to be lumped in with the 9/11 terrorists. To a lesser extent, all Vegans don’t want to be lumped in with Mr. Neck Tattoo here. Blowing up stuff or killing people has never been a good way to make a point. It didn’t work for the KKK, it didn’t work for the British when they burned down the White House during the War of 1812, and it didn’t even work for Hitler, and he blew up tons of stuff and had tons of people murdered, so if you were thinking that it’s all relative to the amount of damage you do, well, I got ya there – unless your goal is to end up dead in a ditch covered in petrol and on fire during your honeymoon. So instead, lets try talking out our differences, preferably over some beer and fries – and that’s vegan, folks.
And unless absolutely necessary, don’t tattoo your face.
Edited by Jamie Insalaco
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Hi, I’m a tattooed vegan and I’ve gotta say I think this attack on people with facial or neck tattoos was totally unnecessary, uninformed and just plain nasty. Did it ever occur to you that people who choose to decorate THEIR bodies this way are people with feelings too? And maybe they don’t want to be lumped in with Mike Tyson or people who blow stuff up? Hmmmm Perhaps you might sit down over a beer and fries with a heavily modified person and work out your differences?
I don’t know about you, but I want to live in a world were people are free to express themselves, without being bullied and belittled.
I guess that if I am making an argument about tattoos, its that tattooing your face is a far cry from tattooing any other part of your body, but I get your point. (Ultimately, I’m NOT making an argument about tattoos.) As a non-tattooed vegan, I can’t really speak from a point of experience, and if you took my jokes to mean that I’m saying anyone who has tattoos on their face is crazy – well, that’s not what I meant. But I do see your point. This blog entry was hardly an attack on people with tattoos, but rather, an attack on an extremist who blows things up.
By the way: What’s a ‘heavily modified person?’ You mean like RoboCop?
I do agree about free expression… hence the post. If your argument is that people with tattooed faces don’t deserve to be bullied, fair enough. If you’re saying I’m bullying them… that might be a bit of a stretch. However, to anyone with a tattooed face: please accept my most sincere apology. You’ve made a choice I don’t understand, but that’s none of my business.
At the end of the day, as vegans, I think it’s more important to focus on what we have in common and to disassociate ourselves with people who blow stuff up in the name of veganism, and more than that, to call them out as the crazy people they are.
I also made reference to people with red glasses… I don’t think people with red glasses (fictional or otherwise) are necessarily going to blow anything up. If people with red glasses were offended by this post, I apologize to them, too.
Walter’s Final Statement to the Court at his Sentencing:
I’m here today because I burnt down the Sheepskin Factory in Glendale, CO, a business that sells pelts, furs and other dead animal skins. I know many people think I should feel remorse for what I’ve done. I guess this is the customary time where I’m suppose to grovel and beg for mercy. I assure you, if that’s how I felt, I would. But I am not sorry for anything I have done. Nor am I frightened by this court’s authority because any system of law that values the rights of the oppressor over the down trodden is an unjust system. And though this court has real and actual power, I question its morality. I doubt the court is interested in the precautions that I took to not harm any person or by-stander and even less concerned with the miserable lives that sheep, cows and mink had to endure, unto death, so that a Colorado business could profit from their confinement, enslavement, and murder.
Obviously, the owners and employees of the sheepskin factory do not care either or they would not be involved in such a sinister and macabre blood trade. So I will not waste my breath where it will only fall on deaf ears. That’s why I turned to illegal direct action to begin with, because you do not care. No matter how much we animal rights activists talk or reason with you, you do not care. Well, Mr. Livaditis (owner of the Sheepskin Factory), I don’t care about you. There is no common ground between people like you and me. I want you to know that no matter what this court sentences me to today, you have won nothing! Prison is no great hardship to me. In a society that values money over life, I consider it an honor to be a prisoner of war, the war against inter-species slavery and objectification! I also want you to know that I will never willingly pay you one dollar, not one! I hope your business fails and you choke to death on every penny you profit from animal murder! I hope you choke on it and burn in hell!
To my supporters, I wish to say thank you for standing behind me and showing this court and these animal exploiters that we support our own and that we as a movement are not going to apologize for having a sense of urgency. We are not going to put the interests of commerce over sentience! And we will never stop educating, agitating and confronting those responsible for the death of our Mother Earth and her Animal Nations. My vegan sisters and brothers, our lives are not our own. Selfishness is the way of gluttons, perverts and purveyors of injustice. It has been said all it takes for evil to conquer is for good people to do nothing. Conversely, all it takes to stop the enslavement, use, abuse and murder of other than human animals is the resolve to fight on their behalf!
Do what you can, do what you must, be vegan warriors and true animal defenders and never compromise with their murderers and profiteers. The Animal Liberation Front is the answer. Seldom has there been such a personally powerful and internationally effective movement in human history. You cannot join the A.L.F. but you can become the A.L.F. And it was the proudest and most powerful thing I have ever done. When you leave this courtroom today don’t be dismayed by my incarceration. All the ferocity and love in my heart still lives on. Every time someone liberates an animal and smashes their cage, it lives on! Every time an activist refuses to bow down to laws that protect murder, it lives on! And it lives on every time the night sky lights up ablaze with the ruins of another animal exploiters’ business!
That’s all Your Honor, I am ready to go to prison.
Still a knucklehead.
If we can convince people to stop buying fur, they will stop making it. Let’s go with peaceful protest and education instead of blowing things up.
Hi Jamie,
I respect your views, but sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.
If by “get your hands dirty” you mean grass roots political action, then I’m with you. Violence and/or blowing stuff up should never be an acceptable option.