Elsewhere…
I’ve posted a few new (or, rather, old) texts, one of which I seem to have forgotten to publish back when I wrote it, on my archive. From the sadly defunct Impact Press, I’ve posted my 2005 book reviews of The Voltairine de Cleyre Reader and Normon Solomon’s War Made Easy. De Cleyre was a 19th century feminist anarchist; Solomon writes about media and militarism. From 2003, I’ve posted my meditation on that year’s World Social Forum, at which I often felt literally sickened by the implications of the “power to the people” mentality that I myself used to so thoughtlessly embrace.
I wrote that piece, which is more of a reflection than a closely argued essay, while in the process of crashing in the aftermath of a long period of hyper-activism during which I had been very productive but did not take good enough care of myself. I’d been traveling incessantly on behalf of Global Hunger Alliance and the sanctuary, sharing animal care responsibilities at the sanctuary, and doing freelance writing and editing to help keep the household in groceries. Over time, I became less and less productive. GHA ran out of money and I was too exhausted and over-scheduled to raise the money to keep the project going. Plus I was broke myself and needed to get a real job. So, even though I knew what I needed to do to make this piece more suitable for publication, I just couldn’t summon up the energy to do it.
So, the answer to the question, “Does the author of Aftershock really know what it’s like to be demoralized, depressed, and on the brink of burnout?” is an adamant yes. In any case, the essay is entitled “Trickle-Down Environmentalism versus Ecosystemic Empathy.” I’ve developed some of its ideas elsewhere but they are most alive for me in this piece, in which I express some of the outraged anguish I felt watching water-bottle-carrying environmental justice activists walk right past thirsty dogs without offering them a drink.
Also, I’ve reposted two of the reports that I authored for the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center over the summer — In Defense of Actual Animals: Beyond the Welfare-Abolition Impasse and Strategic Analysis of Animal Welfare Legislation: A Guide for the Perplexed — on the sanctuary’s blog. We’ve gotten good feedback on those papers but would like to see them reach more deeply into the movement. So, I’m asking the animal advocates among SuperWeed readers to help us out by linking to that post or forwarding the documents themselves to organizations and activists who are or ought to be engaged with the questions they address. Thanks!
