Pets

Pets have no privacy
As we monitor their every function
We assume they do not value
Such as we do
But did your “loyal companion”
Ever go in the other room to eat a biscuit

Pets are selectively bred
Features of face
Pointy ears
Perky tails
Fluffy fur
Yet all so pliable

Pets are disposable
Yet they are given greater care
Than battered women with no where to go
Spend Thousands on a surgery for a poodle
While a person ides of an easily preventable disease

Throw Fluffy away
And replace with Buffy
He chewed the carpet
She destroyed my plants
Put a bullet in its head
And replace, perpetuate the cycle

Chicken Little

How does one combine ethical business practice with animals? While business ethics dictates fair trade; an exchange of equal value, complications arise when the variable of the merchandise is introduced. Have you ever seen the mail orders for chicks and ducklings that seem to become so prevalent around Easter time? Have you ever received such a package? Often there is at least one dead creature, withered and crushed into the straw at the bottom of the box. Once freed, the fragile little birds rush to the water dish and heat lamp… if you had the foresight to provide them. The stronger animals survive given the right care, but the weaker ones drop off, going “gimpy.” There is very little you can do for them as they flop and wobble, unable to fully support their own weight. Hobbling, wings splayed for balance, their eyes retreat behind nictitating membranes. And how do you put a chick out of its misery? Bullets and drugs are worth more than the animal, so you tonk it with a shovel…
Profit for what price? Not very long ago it was human beings being treated in this fashion as the slave ships crossed the Atlantic. Are we any more justified?

From Wolf to Chiauau

While mankind has certainly exerted control over animals for personal benefit, such as agriculture, where do pets fit in? Do we have a propensity for dominations or have such practices stem from emotional attachment? Indeed, why do we keep pets and how have they evolved to fill emotional voids in our lives? We have altered animals so much via domestication that for a goodly percentage, survival is impossible without a caregiver. Such alterations then surely give mankind a responsibility care for such creatures. How did we ever from wolf to chiauau? And yet we use and abuse animals, maltreating them until they are no more than a carcass to be consume and cast away. While the ethics of meat consumption is another issue, animals should not be maltreated as they are. Our abuse of creatures is merely a symptom of the sickness so society.

The Turkey Says "EAT HAM!"

On celebrating the holiday of Thanksgiving, we now must question just what it is we really are celebrating. Is it the fact that the pilgrims survived? Or has it just become another excuse for gluttony and the fulfillment of selfish desires. And just what does turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce have to do with it aside from being the traditional meal. Is there no deeper meaning behind it all? We’ve done the same thing to Christmas, although the original spirit behind that holiday is less obscured. It’s so disgustingly superficially so see all of the cheesy decorations that have evolved, and people seem to be traveling a parallel route.

On the Road of Life...

On Profit

Does our society profit at the expense of others or do we have a system of relatively fair trade? Is there moderation of extortionism? Have we deviated from original intents?
While it seems perfectly legitimate that one should have the potential of profit from one's labors, it is only right that input should have a great equivalence to output. However, the prospect of trade is no longer as simplistic as it once was. Items and produce are rarely exchanged first or second hand. Through a vast network, America receives cheap plastic trinket from China, motor vehicles from Japan, coffee from South America and sugar from Mauritius.
Mauritius: an island predominated by sugar cane plantations, yet they are unable to process their own produce. Mauritian sugar packets I observed were stamped with "Processed in Orlando, Florida, USA." as is dictated by international debt policies. Did not the 13 Colonies become an independent nation, The United States of America, for no less? While there is some profit to be made selling the raw goods, the finished product holds higher monetary value. What gives international powers the right to limit the original producer to the export of raw materials? In this manner one observes the control exerted so that one entity profits more than the others. Because of these behaviors the globe has been divided into first, second and third worlds based on so-called "economic progress."

Public vs. Private

If the entirety of our societal structure is based on the economic infrastructure, not only must we reexamine and redefine our values s a society, but one must question the feasibility of individual progress. How do we reach the top? It is really open to everyone? In principle perhaps. But when your third grade teacher told the class that anyone can become president someday, did you really believe them? Such encouragement seems to serve as a ploy-
“If you work hard enough…”
“Well, if you work hard enough at the right job…”
“If you don’t have anyone holding you back…”
“If you have the right connections…”
The list of criteria is potentially endless. When we are expected to better ourselves by hard work and perseverance it no longer becomes “if you work hard enough…” My mother has been working hard her whole life, but as her labors do not amount to anything terribly valuable to society, she is at poverty level. Thousands of people work full time and are hardly able to support themselves and their dependents. They work plenty hard… Ultimately, value is not placed on one’s work ethic so much as one’s ambition. Society lies when they place the emphasis on the quality of “doing a good job.” It is better to uncover inequality so it can be rectified, unless of course it is more advantageous to leave the status quo undisturbed. In the name of equality it is assumed that the standards must always be risen and never taken down. But if there is no cap, as the base rises, everything is pushed upwards. A minute percentage at the top controls the vast majority of wealth. Would they sacrifice that power in the name of equality? Should they? That would go against everything a capitalistic “Democratic Republic” stands for. Downright unpatriotic. Yet the general public is still placated by our title, which denotes equality… “liberty and justice for all…” On the other hand, how can equality ever really be achieve as there is no utopian society?