Sharpton Joins Call for Boycott of KFC

[livinginphotographs]

NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton (news - web sites) has joined PETA in calling for a boycott of fast-food chain KFC, in a new TV and radio campaign.

Sharpton is urging the black community to join the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' boycott of the franchise, the animal protection group announced Thursday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050205/ap_on_re_us/sharpton_kfc

And if someone brings up Tawana Brawley, I'm going to throw tofu at them. Al Sharpton continues to do good things, even without the support of mainstream Dems.

[smbolisnch]

1. That's so great!

And at the risk of sounding stupid, who is Tawana Brawley? :shrug:

[livinginphotographs]

2. Never mind. Forget I said anything.

Just kidding. The anti-Sharpton people always bring her up whenever someone mentions the Reverend.

She was a woman who claimed she was brutally raped by white police officers in NYC in the 80's. Sharpton came to her defense, it turned out she was lying, and all the racist- and police brutality apologists came out of the woodwork to attack Sharpton, so relieved that they could go back into their little caves and pretend that police brutality doesn't exist.

So now, everytime Sharpton does anything, people always want to talk about Brawley or his "baggage." (You have to wonder how much "baggage" Sharpton would have if he was a white Republican, baggage such as DUIs, alcoholism, cocaine use, you get the idea).

[RebelOne]

3. Posters in LBN forum are already bashing Sharpton and PETA

That's all they need. Just one mention of PETA and the flaming begins.

[Lorien]

4. Many DUers are hopelessly insecure

they are similar to slave owners who believed the black man was put on earth to serve whites, or to medieval man who believed the Earth was the center of the universe. Any mention that a "lowly" animal deserves compassion is a threat; they believe that compassion is a scarce resource that should only be directed at them. Even when you point out that Native Americans eat meat BUT believe in honoring the animal they eat, protecting it during it's lifetime and offering prayers to it when it is killed-they find that quaint and somehow immoral; prayers only should be done for PEOPLE! I've heard many people say that animals were "put on this earth to serve us". Really? How does a flying squirrel "serve" us? How about a cockroach? They believe that a higher power put these animals for earth for them, but somehow that same higher power made a mistake by putting animals like rhinoceros on earth that aren't eaten or turned into coats. They can't see that life that exists has reasons for being that have nothing to do with us and our egos. They exist, and have a right to exist simply because they ARE.

[livinginphotographs]

5. Days like this make me want to leave DU.

And I'm not trying to call out the mods, but I'm really fucking sick and tired of the tolerance given to jerks who show up in these threads and do nothing but post Tasty Animals jokes. If I made a joke about blowing up Iraqis, the post would be deleted in a second, but I guess it's okay by DU standards to show complete and utter insensitivity to those of us who don't advocate cruelty.

Of course, I have my own suspicions that quite a few people in that thread are trolls. But that's just me.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

6. I dont even read those threads.

They know there's ... something wrong.
And when you know theres something wrong either
you do what you can about it, do what you can
to change, or else you go in denial and raise
a big duststorm about how there's not really
anything wrong, except with the kooks who suggested
there was something wrong in the first place.

Even a child knows, with a few simple facts.
I had a girl friend one time who babysat
and talked to kids.
"Do you know where that hamburger comes from?"
Shrug. "Hamburger stuff?"
"It comes from cows."
Looks at burger. "How?"
"Well, they get the cows and they put them in a
thing called a slaughterhouse. Have you heard of a
slaughterhouse?"
"I think so."
"Well, it's a big building made to kill cows and
pigs so people can eat the parts of their dead
bodies. They kill them, then they cut their body
up into pieces, and some of it they grind up in
a grinder so that you can eat that hamburger."
Looks at burger.
"You know cows? Those big peaceful animals with
the big brown eyes that go moo and eat grass?"
Nods, looking at burger.

Even a kid knows there's something wrong.
It's a moral challenge, like it or not.
Just as sure as the war in Iraq is a moral
challenge. Even more so because you can do a
lot more about what you eat than you can about
the war in Iraq.

On the other hand, it's also visceral. Or maybe
morality is at heart visceral. I went vegetarian
out of disgust when I realized the rotting death
I had in my stomach, what I'd chewed and chewed and
swallowed. My GF was vegetarian but didnt push it
on me. I was riding somewhere and gave a ride to
some hippie who turned me onto some acid ('71) and somehow
the conversation got around to meat. He said, "Oh, you
make your body a graveyard for burnt pieces of animal
corpse." I shook it off and a week or so later got
stoned and was making myself one of these deluxe
homemade hamburgers with everything. I polished it
off and was sitting there rubbing my tummy and the words of that
hippie came back. I could feel this ball of death rotting
in my stomach, and the pieces of corpse still in my
mouth. I tried to fight it off but couldnt. I got up,
vomitted it out, and never looked back. You know,
even a kid knows there's ... something wrong.

I never argue about it. My wife is vegan and I'm gradually
being veganized, down to shaving cream and toothpaste.
But you dont have to even argue with those folks for
them to get upset because, you know, they know. If you
would have run into me a couple years before my awakening,
I would have sounded just like them, mocking and braying.
I want peace out of the changes I make in my life. Out
of what I eat or dont eat, out of meditation, out of living
sober. I used to argue about everything. I dont argue that
much anymore. Attraction rather than promotion. Them that's
got ears will hear. Peace.

[livinginphotographs]

7. That sounds exactly like my story.

I don't even miss meat, simply because all I have to do is imagine how it got on my plate. I can't even wear leather now, because of the same thing. To me, it's no different than making a coat out of human skin. It's complete vile to me. I get nauseous just thinking about meat now, and sometimes have to leave the room when someone else is eating it, simply because the smell is so foul to me.

The only way you can continue to eat meat is either through ignorance (like the child who didn't realize how the burger got on his plate), or by simply disconnecting the part of your brain that processes the moral implications of what you are doing. And that's just a cop-out.

At this point, I don't preach. If someone asks, I'll be more than willing to help them make the change. But the most important thing to me is to be at peace with myself.

When I was a teenager, I was a compulsive shoplifter. I stole and stole and stole, and started feeling really bad about myself. I stopped not only because I was afraid of getting caught, but when you do immoral things, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself, "I am a piece of shit." Once you start living right, you no longer have to do that. It's the same as eating meat.

[curse10]

8. I love Al Sharpton

he says all the crazy things everyone else is afraid to say :D

[Dob Bole]

9. What can we do to help KFC peeps change their minds?

I fear that the boycott may not be very effective, since a lot of the people protesting might already be vegs anyway...

[livinginphotographs]

10. I'm not a PETA follower, so everything I hear is second-hand

But it seems quite a bit of PETA's work is done behind the scenes. The protestors make the company nervous by having the gall to show consumers where their fried chicken comes from, while PETA negotiates with the company to change their practices.

It's been pretty effective in the past with Burger King, but KFC's been on the hitlist so long for animal cruelty, they must really have their feet dug in.

Anyone with PETA connections want to chime in?

[Maru Kitteh]

11. Last I heard KFC was negotiating with PETA concerning their kill methods

Inert gas or oxygen dep as opposed to the stun baths which the chickens are very good at avoiding, so they end up getting plucked and boiled alive.

To tell you the truth I have a hard time reading up on all the information they have because I break down into shaking sobs when I see and read some of those things. So I have to take it in little bits at a time.