Say it Ain't So, Arnie!

(Is there an apostrophe in 'aint'???)

Anyhoo... just saw this reported on the Animal Place blog. I'm off to go call Arnold! Fellow Californians, please join me. This would be disastrous for animal rescue organizations, as well as an unnecessary burden on everyday people who are already having a hard enough time putting food on the table in these tough times. We already know that animal relinquishments to shelters are skyrocketing due to this darn economy; I can only imagine how much worse it might get if caring for our companion animals becomes even more costly.

CA: Don't tax vet bills

Governor Schwarzenegger wants to define taking your sick, diseased, distressed animal to a vet as a "luxury" item, imposing a 10.5% tax on veterinary medical services.

Since when is being a responsible guardian considered a "luxury"?

There are 15 million dogs and cats in California and dog and cat guardians spend nearly 2.75 billion dollars on veterinary services. Animal Place is no stranger to vet bills - we spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to provide optimal care to all the animals at the sanctuary. This isn't a luxury, these costs are a necessity for us and for the millions of people who choose to welcome animals into their homes.

We appreciate that times are tough, that we need to look at creative ways to stimulate our state's economy. But taxing necessary medical care for the 15 + million animals in the state is not only unfair, it's cruel. With unemployment rising, people should not have to make a difficult choice between what might be an affordable medical procedure for their companion and killing/relinquishing their animal because of the extra taxation.

You can help:

Please make a brief, polite phone call to Governor Schwarzenegger at 916-445-2841 and urge him to remove the Fido Fine from the budget proposal. When you call, please select your language choice, then press 5 to leave your opinion on a current issue, then press 1 to select the issue of extending the sales tax to veterinary services, and then press 2 to oppose this proposal. After calling, please send a follow-up email to your state legislators and urge them to reject the Governor’s proposal.

Contact your representative; tell them to remove the Fido fine from the budget proposal. (You can find out who your legislator is here.)

California, what were you thinking???

Prior to the election, I really didn't think there was much chance of Prop 8 (the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage) passing. California seems like such a liberal place, and everyone I know seemed to be planning to vote 'no'. But apparently I was living in a little bubble of liberal naiveté, because it did pass after all, and that makes me sad to be a Californian right now.

I don't understand how anyone could believe that writing discrimination into our constitution could be a good idea?

And I really, really don't understand why these protect-the-sanctity-of-marriage types even give a crap about gay people getting married. I mean really, how can they justify wasting the time, energy, and expense of waging war against gay people when there is so much suffering in the world - so many serious problems that demand our attention and action?

This story, which ran in October in the Sacramento Bee, makes me sick. (This is just an excerpt; you can find the entire story here if you want to feel even more ill.)

Pam and Rick Patterson have always followed teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and tried to live within their means.

He drives a 10-year-old Honda Civic to his job at Intel. She is a stay-at home mom who makes most of the family meals and bakes her own bread. The couple, who have five sons between the ages of 3 and 12, live in a comfortable but modest three-bedroom home in Folsom.

It's a traditional lifestyle they believe is now at risk. That's why the Pattersons recently made a huge financial sacrifice – they withdrew $50,000 from their savings and donated it to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, the ballot measure that seeks to ban same-sex marriage.

"It was a decision we made very prayerfully and carefully," said Pam Patterson, 48. "Was it an easy decision? No. But it was a clear decision, one that had so much potential to benefit our children and their children."

The Pattersons, who have been married 14 years, say there were thinking about their children's future when they decided to tap into their savings to contribute. And they also said no one pressured them into giving.

They were reluctant to talk about their donation – not even their families knew how much they contributed – and agreed to do so only because it is listed on public campaign documents.

"The amount may surprise people," said Rick Patterson. "But people who know us, know how much the family means to us."

Um, hello? Can we step back for a moment and think about what that $50,000 could have accomplished had the Pattersons not opted to spend it promoting hatred and bigotry?

• $50,000 would purchase and deliver insecticide-treated bed nets to 5,000 families in the poorest parts of the world, protecting them from malaria, a preventable disease that infects more than 500 million people a year and kills more than a million— one person dies about every 30 seconds.
• $50,000 would cover the feeding, shelter, and medical needs for 21 cows, 21 goats, 21 sheep, 21 pigs, 21 turkeys, 21 ducks, 21 geese, 21 rabbits, and 21 chickens (that's 189 animals total) at Farm Sanctuary for one year.
• $50,000 would buy laptop computers for 50 college freshmen through the Harlem Children Zone's program to improve the lives of underserved African American children.

Okay, your turn. What would you do if you had $50,000 to donate to charity?

{Sniff.}

As the mother of a non-Caucasian child, Obama's election affects me in a more personal way than it would have a few years ago (pre-Carlos). To know that my child will grow up able to take for granted a person of color's ability to do and be anything he wants - that is a priceless gift.

Two things have made me tear up today. First, this quote - I don't know who said it, but I love it -

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Barack could run, and Barack ran so our children could fly."

And second, this photo -

The looks on all three of those faces say more to me than any words ever could.
(Image taken from Yes We Can (hold babies), discovered via elle, phd.)

How sad that the non-white children of our country have had to wait for so long to see this day, and how wonderful that the day has finally arrived.

While I marvel at the historic implications of Obama's success, and find myself intermittently caught up in the euphoria and sense of overwhelming hope that I see on faces all around the world, these moments of happiness are tempered by fear. Fear that the problems are too large, or that Obama, despite his best intentions, is too entrenched in politics-as-usual to effect the kind of massive change we need to turn this country around.

But I'm making a conscious effort to focus on my hope that his election will harness all of this positive energy and give us all a push in the right direction. This is not the end of the struggle - only the beginning - an opportunity to begin to truly effect change. Obama and his budding administration can't do it alone - we all need to stay engaged to push for the changes we so desperately need to turn this country - and this planet - around. If we play our cards right, maybe there's still a chance that the world we pass on to our kids can be a better one than what was left to us. That's something I wasn't so optimistic about a week ago.

Have you seen this yet?

GirlieGirl Army Rocks

One of the great vegan blogs, GirlieGirl Army, has an excellent post today - check out the full entry, I'm just going to re-post my favorite bit here but there's more you should see...

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said ‘I do’ to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the ‘Keating 5′?

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.