Don’t You Care About People?
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Jasmin Singer in Grazing in the Grassroots, Media Mavens, Video
A few years after Lisa Shannon saw an episode of Oprah, opening her eyes and heart about the war on women in the Congo, she, herself, was a guest on Oprah. After learning about the atrocities that all too often go unspoken and largely unknown, or just too far away to do anything about — brutal rape; rampant murder; sex trafficking; the list goes on… — Shannon realized she couldn’t not do something, so she started the Run for Congo Women. It was that activism and relentless determination and passion that led to her Oprah appearance.
Did I mention that Lisa Shannon is vegan?
Today, Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, writes about Shannon in “From ‘Oprah’ to Building a Sisterhood in Congo.” The piece, which begins by telling a harrowing and truly unbelievable story about a woman whose leg was chopped off by extremist Hutu militiamen after her husband was murdered in front of her and their children (the story actually gets worse, if you can believe it), goes on to say:
In a land where so many “responsible” leaders eschew responsibility, Lisa has gone out of her way to assume responsibility and try to make a difference. Along with an unbelievable cast of plucky Congolese survivors such as Generose, she evokes hope.
At a recent Let Live Foundation talk, Shannon discussed her veganism and how it informs the work she does for Congolese women. This video is not to be missed. You can — and should! — watch it below.
Lisa Shannon is, to say the absolute least, a model for those who wish to create social change. She is not only making a significant difference by way of shedding light on the travesties happening to women today and implementing the groundwork for it to change, but she’s also a living, breathing example of the fact that social change has intersections everywhere, and part of the natural spectrum of standing up for various marginalized, oppressed groups includes not contributing to animal cruelty.
In response to those who have passed by me, or any other animal activist for that matter, during a protest and yelled “don’t you care about people?!” the answer is yes, yes I do. It is not one or the other.
Change One Mile at a Time: Lisa Shannon and the Run for Congo Women from Let Live Foundation on Vimeo.
3 Responses to “Don’t You Care About People?”
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Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan
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michelle
04. Feb, 2010
thanks for posting this & bringing more light to the issue. us vegans rock!
Lisa Rimmert
04. Feb, 2010
I am very much in love with this video. Thank you!
Cheryl
24. Feb, 2010
Lisa, (even if you never read this)
I am home with the flu, but I feel so revitalized and actually catalyzed by hearing this discussion. I…absolutely praise the light you shed on how relative these issues of violence/violent death can actually seem to people, and how, as soon as someone decides to view someone else as an “animal,” a generic life-form devoid of personality or connections, then that being actually loses protection of their right to life (on both small and industrial scales, and everywhere in between), and the reality that the bulk of what we all value dearest is by no means any sort of pedigree but something we, as animals, all have in common, is completely buried. That’s difficult to dig up even as I write this. That something so fundamental gets lost in some (I think intentionally) skewed translation that ends up as, “Oh, yeah, a lot of crazy stuff happens over there,” or (relating to slaughter on non-human animals), “Well, it’s all in a day’s work,” or, “It’s just a cow,” or even, “Yeah, it’s sad, but it’s just a part of life,” is mind-blowing, apart from the fact that it makes money or, like you said, gives us that easy out to neither feel nor act. The mind-blowing part is how petty the reasons behind the choices not to change are, and we are at least half aware of that and ashamed at the same time, so we ignore it and it gets bigger, whether we’re talking factory farming or genocide. The point is, we all have bodies that experience exactly what happens to us, and if we are all mindful of that and act for the sake of that, then our goals won’t get lost in translation from dream to reality. I do also agree with your decision to keep focused on one issue at a time, but I definitely applaud the parallel you drew between the two problems because I think that sliding scale of what’s permissible and why is really the root of these problems. Thank you so much for talking about all of this. And I will be supporting your group.