My First Vegan Thanksgiving

*The following was originally a letter to Sean, one of the amazing people on the Climate March who influenced me to become vegan. I realized after I finished the letter that it was great blog material. Enjoy!

Dear Sean,

Well, I did it. I survived my first family Thanksgiving as a vegan. Sometimes it was annoying. There were lots of head-smacking moments. But, overall, I found the experience to be rewarding.

Just for fun, I wanted to share the ridiculous moments with you. I think I'm going to keep an ongoing record of these. Some of them are just too good to be true.

1. (A few days before Thanksgiving)
Grandma: "I have no idea how to cook vegan!"
Neither do I. I've been using this thing called the world wide web to help. 

2. Grandpa: "Why did you go vegan? I don't understand."
Me: "I decided I didn't want to exploit animals anymore."
Grandpa: *shakes head and laughs* "People gotta eat, Faith."
That's funny. I haven't stopped eating. 

Our Car-Centered Society

The 1986 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, which was also a cross-country march seeking to change the world, lost one marcher to a vehicular collision. The Great March for Climate Action has gone for seven months without incident, but that awesome track record came to an end on Friday, Sept. 26. While walking along Route 65 out of Maumee and toward Toledo, a pick-up truck operated by a sleeping driver struck me head on. Unlike the unfortunate Peace Marcher in 1986, I can live to tell the tale.

Free Write: Mount Hope Cemetery, Beautiful & Historic

In high school, I took the crazy route and decided to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma student. IB is a rigorous academic program available in many schools in America and around the world. For those of you who have never heard of it, the best and simplest way I can describe it to you is Advanced Placement on drugs.

At the end of a long two years in this program, our school’s IB coordinator, and also the senior year history teacher, took me and the other five diploma students on a relaxed field trip. This field trip was to Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester. That might sound creepy to those of you who haven’t been there, but the place is full of history, which is appropriate for a field trip coordinated by a history teacher. Mount Hope is the resting place of Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Rochester, and Susan B. Anthony, to name a few. To see a more complete list of “notable burials,” click here.

 Frederick Douglass's grave

Harsh Facts & Ecofriendly Economics: Save Vanishing Species

Harsh Facts of the Week

Motor vehicles are responsible for about one third of the world’s oil use. However, they account for almost two thirds of America’s oil use.

In the United States, 10,000 gallons of gasoline are burned in a single second.

In the state of California alone, the amount of gasoline vapors wafting out of gas station pumps totals 15,811 gallons a day. 

On average, 1,143 gallons of gasoline are used per household per year. (If the vapors lost from Californian gas stations could somehow be saved, they could fulfill this annual usage for about fourteen households). 

Americans now use motor vehicles for more than ninety percent of their daily trips. Keep in mind that a quarter of all car journeys are less than two miles.

An average person travels more than 9,000 miles a year by car, compared with less than 4,000 miles from four decades ago.

Children who live near streets used by more than 20,000 cars a day were six times more likely to develop cancer than those who lived in neighborhoods where traffic was less than 500 vehicles each day.

We live in a fast paced world, and for most of us, using a car is inevitable. However, we have also become so accustomed to this fast method of transportation that for many of us, walking or biking to a destination that is only a mile or two away seems like quite a lengthy and strenuous trip.

I will be going to college in a very bike-friendly city. I plan on bringing my car with me to college, but I have vowed to myself that I will only drive it when it’s absolutely necessary. For the rest of the time, I will be joining the hordes of walkers and bike riders in order to transport myself around campus, the city, and local attractions, such as the lake.

Where can you substitute a walk or a bike ride in your daily schedule? Have you been lacking in exercise lately? This could be the perfect opportunity for you to work off some fat, enjoy the outdoors, reduce your carbon emissions, and generally feel good about yourself. 

To learn seventeen ways to make your car more fuel efficient, check out this past edition of “EcofriendlyEconomics.”

Freewrite: Animals in our Lives

This freewrite is a continuation of the topic I broached on in Monday's post: animal homelessness and cruelty, in honor of my rescue dog, Buddy, who passed away on May 20th.

My first dog was a black Labrador retriever named Sheba. I was a year old when we adopted her. To this day, it’s safe to say that Sheba taught me more and had a greater influence on my life than most humans. I have yet to meet a dog, or a person, with her level of patience, wisdom, and inner peace. Sheba was so happy to be alive and to be part of our family, and her paw prints are still in mine and my parents’ hearts today. I’ll never forget her and her endless devotion and unconditional love.

    Dogs are incredible creatures, and every day, they earn their title as man’s best friend. They give us a love, a trust, and a loyalty that is impossible to find in a human companion. That’s why Monday’s “Harsh Facts” break my heart. Dogs, cats, and other pets have so much to give to us, and too often we neglect them and give them nothing back. We abuse them, we abandon them, we over breed them, and due to the high volume of homeless animals in the United States and around the world, we euthanize them because our shelters are too full.

Harsh Facts, Ecofriendly Economics: Go Green in the Garden

Harsh Facts of the Week

Currently, no government institution or animal organization has the legal responsibility to tabulate national statistics in regards to shelter animals. While many shelters understand the value of keeping statistics, no national reporting structure exists to make compiling national statistics on these figures easy or even completely possible. These statistics are estimates made from the data available.

$2 billion of taxpayer money is used to capture, house, and kill homeless animals annually.

About five to seven million companion animals are admitted into shelters across the nation each year, and three to four million of them are euthanized (60% of dogs and 70% of cats). In 2008, approximately 3.7 million animals were euthanized in the nation’s shelters.

After being lost, less than 2% of cats and about 15 to 20% of dogs are reunited with their owners.

While virtually impossible to determine exactly how many stray animals live in the United States, estimates for stray cats alone range up to 70 million. 

The average number of litters a fertile cat can produce is one to two a year, with four to six kittens in a litter. For dogs, one litter a year is healthy, with about four to six puppies in a litter. In puppy mills, females are typically bred twice a year, and at this rate they burn out by age five and are put to death shortly after.

99% of puppies sold in pet stores come from puppy mills. 500,000 puppies are born in mills and sold in pet stores every year. 

Most dogs that are used to produce puppies in mills live their entire lives in cages.

Today, we put our dog, Buddy, to sleep. He was old and in poor health. But he was in worse health when we adopted him from a local shelter, and because of us, he lived a longer, happier life than he would have. Today, he passed away with contentment and was surrounded by a loving family.

I am a strong advocate of adopting dogs from shelters over purchasing puppies from pet stores. Rescuing dogs is endlessly rewarding because in most cases you're giving them a second chance at life. Our other rescue dog, Rosie, is now a certified therapy dog due to my mom's love, patience, and hard work. When you purchase your four-legged friend from a pet shop, you are most likely using your consumer power to inadvertently support puppy mills and the atrocious business they conduct.

When it comes time for you to acquire a new companion, thoroughly consider where you're buying your new friend from, and spend your money wisely. In honor of Buddy, I will write on this topic more thoroughly later this week.