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Our Quotation Section
Comments by TGD - 19 Apr 2010

In Reference to: Thomas A. Edison

Maynard, you lost me. So if I have become baffled by your email( listed below) or am clearly not understanding you, you need to clarify.

I don't grasp how your analogies compare to an inventor torturing animals.

If Edison had invented the Zamboni machine would you be more outraged ? Is it because electricity is such a big deal that I am thinking you are defending him?

I am answering numerically in response to your positions given at the bottom of this email.

1. You should never vote for a person or political party that goes against your moral/ethical grain. Some people decide to vote or choose the lesser of two evils. But when choosing between the lesser of 2 evils you are still choosing evil. There is no negating that fact.

2. I think people should make conscious buying decisions. but I can't , as one person, make that happen.

It is important to put thought into your purchases.

Be it to buying only American made products(good luck with that)- buying from companies that are green-buy from companies that do not test on animals, conscionable investing( yes there is such a thing), making sure diamonds purchased adhere to the Kimberley process, etc. etc.

( We cannot live life in this world without running into the evils of it on a daily basis. And it lies behind everything. Again- the *love* of money seems to be the main theme that is behind all of it.)

And yes- I have boycotted certain restaurants. At this point, I rarely eat out.

3. I don't watch tv shows that I personally find offensive- but I cannot control what others do.

I visit internet sites that interest me - but I have no way to be certain for sure- of who the website support or what traffic comes through.

Traffic is a very broad term when it comes to the internet. It can mean just general viewers to the site or luring a specific demographic their way.

4. As for employers? Well, I got sick of the corporate world and now work for myself. I can't see stepping all over others in a frantic rush to get up the corporate ladder- that is just not me.

However, for some people that rat race is par for the course, and they accept it. I am not going to judge them. I only know that it is not right for ME.

Since humans ARE NOT PERFECT, and never meant to be- that line of reasoning you present, is not applicable here.

I am not looking for perfection in people.

While I find I am most comfortable with people who have the same values as me, I also learn from others who are different. I am interested in their mindset, culture, why they do what they do- why they see things as right or good- or wrong and bad.

Besides, as similar as my friends and I are- we don't agree on every single thing. It can make things interesting or it can cause conflict. It is all in how you handle it- or how important certain issues are that come up.

As for food service, I assume you mean the fact that we are among people that do eat animals.

My attitude toward that is- if we can convert people to not eating meat, fine.

All you can do is offer information and present both the health and moral issues to eating meat.

(If someone does not give a hoot about their health or animals- you are never going to reach them. )

You cannot force your beliefs on people. You can just give out what you know and when people are ready to accept that info, they will make the change. Or maybe they won't change at all.

I do not walk around hating meat eaters because I understand how complex the food issue is.

Many meat eaters dearly love their pets and other animals- yes wildlife and livestock!. We could call them hypocrites to love domestic animals yet eat other animals but it is far deeper than that.

I bet most meat eaters if they had to hunt for their hamburger meat and shoot a cow, would never be able to do so.

These are not evil people- they just have not seen the real gritty picture of what the meat trade is like.

I also know meat eaters that have risked their lives to save animals. Meat eating is actually not a black and white issue( though it may seem so to those of us on the board).

America and the planet as a whole, has a long history of being meat eaters.

I think many people would change if given more exposure to the horrors of factory farming. Or how toxic meat is and what it does to ones' body.

But meat eating, for many, is still a hard habit to break.

You must also consider that America is a giant melting pot and so, those who have descended from various cultures, often have very beloved cultural traditions with their food.

Beloved traditions are hard to give up. Eating with family is a very treasured, beloved and often memorable facet of people's lives, so yes, people have problems breaking away from that.

Nobody is saying that Edison did not come up with an invention that was revolutionary and extremely useful. But at what cost?

I, personally, am not comfortable with the way he went about it. Genius does not always accompany compassion :-(

( Teddy Roosevelt is another person I find interesting, yet puzzling. Loved animals- yet a mega trophy hunter and a conservationist. How perplexing!)

With Edison( and others of his ilk) every single one of those animals he killed in his quest to perfect his invention had the right to live. They also did not deserve to feel fear, pain, pre-death terror or death, period.

I am sorry if you cannot relate to what I am saying.

I am one of those people who feel the ends never justify the means when it comes to murdering animals on behalf of mankind.

The Nazi's also truly believed the ends justified the means when they initiated a massive genocide.

I have a congenital defect and no, I would not be happy if someone told me that if a certain amount of animals were tortured/killed in a lab this year, I would be relieved of such.

I would rather remain the way I am than have their blood on my hands.

It is immoral to inflict pain,suffering,terror and death on one sentient being in order to relief the pain,suffering and death of another.

In doing this, we are simply playing swap here, but stating that an animal life is unworthy while a human's life is worthy.

I do not feel that way.

I feel all of us are God's creations and in his/her eyes- we are equal and all deserving of the right to live.

( In truth the only innocent things on earth are animals and I feel sure they deserve to go to heaven before us lowly, arrogant, war mongering, earth destroying humans)

Edison had no conscience when he employed the use of innocent animals in his quest for greatness.

This also applies to all medicine or inventions in which the innocent suffered for the end result.( We can include some human victims here as well-Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is ONE example)

Every time I take medicine or need a vaccine or need a medical procedure- I think of all the animals that lived in hell, so that I can take that pill, injection or surgery and it makes me cringe.

I think you need to clarify your stance.

Edison using animals was like the Russians sending a dog into space knowing the dog was never coming back( despite lying to the public).

Was that right? Is it right for the military to use domestic and livestock animals for target practice and also for trauma training?

Vivisection is NEVER RIGHT no matter what medical advances might come out of it.

How about we choose the truly guilty and use the death row prisoners for that sort of thing, since they are going to be killed anyway?

No- it would never happen. Why? Because it would be deemed inhumane. Inhumane to a human prisoner- but not an innocent animal. Go figure.

You may posit that we have gained much from such practices.....but I ask you at what cost? In God's eyes, I think he is disappointed at this kind of *progress*.

For the so called most intelligent species- I think we have made a mess of this world, mostly due to our lack of morality and extreme arrogance. God, clearly, must be appalled.