Like so many thousands of other people, I was beyond saddened by the senseless, pointless killing of Cecil the Lion. The lion population continues to plummet, lions that are still in the wild are getting smaller (because trophy hunters are killing the biggest), and communities are deprived of the significant, long-term economic prosperity living lions bring. Plus, who in the hell wants to live in a world without lions in the wild?!<\/p>\n
But the pushback against those of us that expressed our sadness was immediate: on my own social media, I got chastised by a vegan friend who felt my outrage was misplaced and misguided. I saw another friend reprimanded by someone who said she should be more upset about the soldiers killed in Chattanooga. I saw anti-choice\/forced-birth activists go after people upset about Cecile. I saw people rebuked by others who said it was insulting that they were talking about a lion in Africa \u201cinstead of\u201d #blacklives matter.<\/p>\n
How did it make me feel when someone tried to hijack sadness about Cecil? Angry. In fact, it made me instantly double-down, to post MORE about Cecil and related issues, not less. It did not make me want to start posting about the aforementioned causes at all – and many of those causes are ones I support and frequently post about (but NOT the anti-choice\/forced-birth folks).<\/p>\n
As an activist regarding various causes since the 1980s, I know that pushing a cause always inspires \u201cbut why aren\u2019t you protesting such-and-such\u201d pushback. Always. But these days, it seems fashionable to try to hijack someone else\u2019s cause. The most recent example are the people that rushed the stage when Bernie Sanders tried to speak in Seattle. They demanded the crowd give 4 1\/2 minutes of silence for Michael Brown, the young man killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri last year. I cringed, just like I cringe when someone demands I bow my head in prayer (I\u2019m an atheist – I will NOT do it) or demands I put my hand over my heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance – which I will NEVER do. The #blacklivesmatter activists refused to let Sanders speak at all. It wasn\u2019t enough for them to get their message out – they wanted to shut down the event and not allow any other message to be said. And as a result, they turned away some potentially really great allies.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not vegan, but I\u2019m happy to significantly reduce the amount of meat in my diet – I know now, through the education efforts of others, that a plant-based diet is healthy, and that meat is not raised in a healthy manner in the USA or a lot of other places – and I’m happy to hear about delicious<\/i> vegan recipes – but if you\u2019re going to belittle my compassion for another animal-related cause, I\u2019m going to turn away from you. I\u2019m going to unfollow you on Facebook and turn down your invitations to get together. I am horrified by the murders in Tennessee – but I\u2019m going to stop communicating with you if you badger me about that every time I post about the murders in Charleston or Lafayette, saying, \u201cBut why don\u2019t you care about OUR TROOPS and Islamic terrorism?!?!?\u201d I am horrified by the systematic racism in law enforcement and the denial about that racism, and I\u2019m trying to promote ways to improve that as a part of my professional, daily consulting work – I want to be an advocate in every<\/i> way, not just on the weekends and on social media – but I will not support shouting down allies or demands to adhere to a particular script. <\/p>\n