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- Path: sparky!uunet!gossip.pyramid.com!pyramid!unify!dbrus!ceb
- From: ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan)
- Newsgroups: rec.gardens
- Subject: Re: Christmas tree alternative?
- Message-ID: <yiic4gx@Unify.Com>
- Date: 19 Nov 92 21:56:48 GMT
- References: <1992Nov17.092118.5813@athena.cs.uga.edu>
- Sender: news@Unify.Com (news admin)
- Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization
- Lines: 55
-
- In article <1992Nov17.092118.5813@athena.cs.uga.edu> maxfield@athena.cs.uga.edu (Joan C. Maxfield) writes:
- >
- >OK, I know this is going to sound REALLY odd, but:
- > Does anyone have any ideas for 'alternate' types of christmas
- >trees? ... Daniel, is my fiance...He is a vegetarian. Can you see
- >where this is going? Daniel doesn't want to "kill a poor innocent
- >tree just so we can hang stuff on it"
-
- 1. Tell him the tree is guilty. If he objects, ask him what he thinks the
- tree is innocent of. His anthropomorphizing is ridiculous; help him to real-
- ize it.
-
- 2. Tell him he's a fine one to be worried about killing vegetation for human
- use. Unlike omnivores, 100% of a vegetarian's diet comes from plants that
- s/he kills solely for human use. If he's that concerned about equal rights
- for plants, suggest that he stop killing innocent plants just so he can eat
- them.
-
- >... He suggests one of those little 2 foot tall K-mart jobs ...
-
- Tell him that what's unjust for a 6-foot blue spruce is unjust for a 2-foot
- weed (or lettuce leaves, for that matter). If he can stomach killing itty-
- bitty innocent little baby trees that never got old enough to do whatever he
- thinks trees can be guilty of, why does he balk at trees old enough to have a
- disreputable past?
-
- > ... Or he wants to buy a live (with root ball) tree. This is all fine and
- > good, except we live in an apartment. I suppose we could donate it some
- > where after.
-
- Tell him that the live tree is an excellent idea (it is), and you will accept
- the tree if he takes care of it, and he finds a post-Christmas home for it.
- He has the silly objection, let him do the work. Make it absolutely clear
- that you will toss the living tree into the trash, where it will die of
- thirst and starvation (and probably wondering what it was guilty of), if he
- doesn't find a home for it by a certain date.
-
- If he protests that he's not antropomorphizing plants, ask him:
- Does he eat innocent little alfalfa sprouts *while they are still alive*?
- Does he realize that the living remains of those poor little innocent sprouts
- are attacked by powerful gastric juices and they probably die agonizing deaths
- because he can't be bothered to kill them humanely first? Does he eat
- grains -- the the innocent little unborn babies of innocent plants? Does he
- dessicate all the moisture out of the little innocent living bodies of the
- innocent little unborn plant babies, then grind those innocent little bodies
- into flour and make bread out of them, or boil those innocent little bodies
- until they're soft and mushy and eat them? Yecch! Give me a tough old
- chicken any day -- at least it's probably guilty of fornication, seeing as
- there's no marriage among chickens legally recognized in US courts.
-
-
- Carrie ceb@rechenau.unify.com x6244
- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | "Never" is about six months. -- Charlie Gibbs |
- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-