So first for the history lesson. I started this blog for work intially, based on a series of conversations that I had with a young vegetarian on the east coast. Now Megan would argue that she isn't on the east coast, but she's a lot closer to it than I am, so east coast it is. I met her because of some volunteer work I do with teens, and responded to a blog she wrote, and then I commented on a blog she had about animal agriculture. That started an eight month back and forth correspondence on animals and farms.
Megan has never been to a farm, although she lives in a largely agricultural area. The city she lives in is only about 15,000 people. But she and I exchanged thoughts and ideas on "factory" farming and anything else that happens on the farm. To Megan's credit, she came to the table with an open mind, and was willing to talk. Understand that for the first 6 months, I didn't know anything about Megan other than the size of her home town and her first name. Meagn would ask questions, and occassionally, post requests for questions for her farmers friends on the PETA board. A few others farmers chimed in after the story was picked up by a local paper, but in large, it was a conversation between Megan and I. At one point I printed out our back and forth conversation, it was 72 pages long.
I'll admit to wondering what she thought of the talks more than once. At one point she even asked me,"Why the interest in me?" My response was that she had allowed me to see what went into the thought process of an animal rights person, and I appreciated it.
As time went on, the length between responses got longer, and it has probably been nearly two years since we last talked.
So last night, I was pleased to cross paths with Ms. Megan on FaceBook. We got caught up on school and such, and then I asked the question that I wanted to ask for quite some time.
"What was the thing that you learned during our conversations that you didn't know before?"
Megan,"one thing I learned? hmm... well... I think I probably learned more about other activists than about cows XP I learned that..... it seemed most ar activists just jumped to conclusions and didn't really want to learn on their own about how animals are really treated.... sometimes peta can be a little biased... maybe exaggerate a little :P and it seemed to me that most activists don't understand that. i didn't understand that either."
Megan took some heat for even talking to farmers on the peta page. But she was cool with it, way beyond her years, cool with it. In all, she's a pretty cool kid.
Megan is a young lady, she's still in high school. She's kind of fallin out with the whole AR movement. Life gets in the way some times. Veiws do change. But she took the time to ask questions, and I for one am really glad we talked. I consider her my friend. Thanks Megan.
Oh, and yes, Agvocacy Matters.
