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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2004)
COMMENTARY 4 • T he C lackamas P rint M ay 12, Y ja To eat or not to eat, meat is the questio Meat-eating causes health issues for humans and animals Hilliary Ferguson T he C lackamas P rint Somewheré along the journey from pre civilized society to booming Western civiliza tion, we have lost our respect for the other inhabitants of this world; we have become egocentric, believing that everything else that exists is merely for our use— a. horrifying Judeo-Christian tradition. It’s not so much the actual meat-eating that has lured so many into vegetarianism; it’s the double-standard of Americans that human lives are inherently more important than animals. This simply isn’t true. From a religious standpoint, every living thing has come from one creator—simply because we are able dominate the land does not mean we should. Take this into consideration: if, say, a cougar came to Oregon City (land that first belonged to wildlife) 'and killed a person, that cougar would either be killed or tracked down and relocated with the painful use of tran quilizers. Why shouldn’t the cougar be able to eat people, if humans, are able to eat every thing else? Is this the ci jcle of life or the totem pole of life, wherein humans are entitled to consume everything? The cougar, which kills out of instinct and hunger, is punished—but the people who go to the grocery store to get steak are rewarded with a 15 percent discount It’s a sick double standard. Additionally, people who decide to eat meat should go and kill it themselves. What sort of respect can one have for already slaughtered and shrink-wrapped meat? News flash—méat doesn’t just magically come ground and packaged. The conditions that these animals live in are grotesque at best. Then, their lives are ended in the most vicious ways possible. Imagine watching a friend hav ing his or her throat slashed before bleeding to death. Imagine a child being born and immediately removed from its parents to be thrust into a small cage until its untimely and violent death. Let’s take it back to the beginning. Eating meat is not required for a healthy lifestyle. Thousands of people lead perfectly healthy and happy lives without the meat. In fact, after not eating meat for years, the human body becomes incapable of digesting the stuff. The human body will reject meat—it won’t reject without the meat Similarly, food is just as delicious without meat in it. M o re over, there are soy substitutes which are just <as tasty, but without t h e blood- shed. If the cook is good, it won’t make any difference whether meat is included. Meat eating is a form of frivolity of which- Americans are all too accustomed. If humans were made to hunt their own meat, perhaps they would learn to respect the animals’ sacri fice. The deaths of thousands of animals a year are taken for granted by millions around the world. Perhaps the plain problem is America’s lack of respect for life in general. Just look at Iraq. Lives of unintelligent anime small price to pay for food Cory Price Co E ditor - in -C hief The vegetarians of this world are lost and misguided, and frankly, they are miss ing out on one of the greatest things since string cheese. Beef-—it’s what’s for dinner. First off, what is a vegetarian? There are so many different kinds of vegetarians, vegan to chicken-atarians. There is no clear definition of the varieties. One person may be protesting against h u ma ne treatments; others base their decision on the “ c u t e - ness” of the ani- m a 1 . Bottom line: there glF is no right or r wrong defini- â°n- F Unlike vege tarians, carnivores know who they are.' A person either eats meat or doesn’t. No silly questions, because it is black and white. The health benefit of beef is humongoUs; beef contains essential vitamins and nutrients that a person doesn’t get on a meatless diet. One such element is called Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). CLA has been Not all inventions are as useful as their creators like to think A purposes could be exploited by similar gadgets, such as: ♦The WC Checkout— A shopping cart T he C lackamas P rint shaped Sensor attached to the side of super market express line that berates any self-impor A German inventor recently fashioned a tant customer who tries to purchase more than device so completely and utterly needless that his allotted twelve items as if those waiting the David Hasselhoff-loving German public behind him won’t mind. ♦The WC Hang-It-Up— A device wired to has responded with—that’s right—an insatiate k bullhorn, mounted to the driver’s side front desire to purchase it. Alex Benkhardt, who I’m musing was dhor, that monitors surrounding vehicles, tar raised with at least 10 older sistas, invented get) any driver on a cell phone—who subse what he dubbed the “WC Ghost,” an apparatus quently weaves in and out of freeway lanes at that rests under the rim of a toilet seat and 45 iniles per hour—and blasts Hanson’s scolds men who choose to tend ro their busi “Mmmbop” at unnecessary decibel levels in her ness whilst standing. According tfr Reuters,'if direction (Editors’ note: We’re not sure what the toilet seat is lifted, a stern female voice this results in exacdy, but we’re convinced it’s worthy punishment). interjects with: ♦The WC Cassinator—A contraption worn “Hello, what are you up to >then? Put the seat back down right away. You are definitfily not to by men that, when any woman, regardless of her pee standing up ... you will.make a righj'mess...” actual size, complains about her weight (or “fat” ,9r>ai&Uthcr slang for “chub”), immediately sends No. 1 am not making this-Up. It was once believed that ihe typical boufL waves to her brain, flooding it with pictures of geois had no interest in a product so entirely Mama Cass, thus causing some sort of some- useless as the one Benkhardt has fostered, but MtongTOtyPth^JMgfcur. no doubt altering the that outdated and obviously untested theory cranially irivaded womans self-image (if not, at has been put to rest in recent years, thanks to least allowing tor the advantageously equipped the advent of commodities such as -reality tele- male ro escape before she recovers). possibilities are without bounds and vision, green ketchup, the Atkins diet and should be explored. If channeled correctly, the Britney Spears. My intent, however, is not to place the WC efforts of inventors could lead to machines one Ghost in the same category as the aforemen day acting on our behalf, thwarting the evil tioned detriments. While the others have no crimes of the socially unjust. Many countless discernible redeeming qualities, the WC Ghost good deeds could be done and preventable holds potential. Yes, the popularity of its appli wrongs righted. With such untapped potential, cation is bothersome, but the technology why choose to focus on the echoing of half- housed within shows irrefutable promise. baked bathroom rules? Besides, men with poor aim will have poor Instead of enforcing feminine bathroom eti quette, it is my belief that many more useful aim when the seat is down, too. Joel Gaynor MP T he C lackamas P rint 19600 S Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 . (503) 657-6958 ext. 2309 The Clackamas Print is a weekly student publication and is distributed every Wednesday except during finals week. Co Editors-in-Chief: Cyndee Mady and Cory Price Ext. 2576 (Mady) or ext. 2447 (Price) Copy Editor: Katie Funk News Editor: Karlin Johnson Opinion Editor: Ben Maras Feature Editor: Karen Hill A&E Editor: Isaiah Creel Sports Editor: Nie Delzell Photo Editor: Jesse Lamond Sports Copy Editor: Frank Jordan Staff Writers: Robb Egan, Joel Gaynor, Hilliary Ferguson, Jessica LeClaire, Bethany Monroe, Jeff Sorensen, Jennifer Trank proven in laboratory studies to several kinds of cancer, as well as I the risk of heart disease. One spe is that CLA also prevents diabetes i Vitamin Bl 2, like CLA, is found n beef. Better known as Folic at helps promote healthy skin. Stud also shown that Bl2 helps to cardiovascular disease, a leading Americans. Lean beef is the . key facto, humans who plan to cat Remember, the leaner the be greater the benefits are for tl sumer. Take the Atkins diet for j Many Americans are fooled into t that thev can loose weight by cat pounds of bacon a day. But equals artery-clogged badness. 1 may taste good, but it is not hcali aside all that health informal: second and learn why it is moral to eat a cow. Cows are raised for one reasot eaten. They aren’t exposed a | lifestyle full of glitz and glamoui are raised in a pasture, being fatti while they wait to enter the slaughti Why is that immoral? All tl know about is what two feet in their noses is nothing. A cow’s 1( that of a hand of blackjack. B cows in the pasture? They folic other around aimlessly, with no pa destination. Is it moral to kill a cow for being Yes! Without a ■doubt. Kill the i feed me the beef? We cannot be i about our feelings for the beef, bee craving for meat—it is instilled in a Follow the natural human instin beef. It is good for the human boi use.our brains and think about it. Il hard, but I have faith in everyone the right decision. Vote yes for ’ba Student spouts war stats, calls editor 1 wanted you io actually read some of the truth behind the war, not just the falsities you write aboui. 1 want these stats put in,the paper, please Andv \\ he li i CCC Student * Over 40b,BOO kids have up to date immunizations. * School ^attendance is up 80% from thi levels before the war. g < >ver I ;5(schools have Been renovated and rid of the weapons stored so education can occut. *Theporfol I bin QMt wa* renovated so gram can be oil loaded tiotrf'ships faster. | The country has Jis first 2- billiou-barrel export of oil >:> August. * Over L5 milhbn people bate clean dunking watci for the first time eVer in Iraq. I The count™ now receives two rimes the electrical power it did heforc the war. ■ . -/ a . * the hospita open arid fully staffed, pared tó .35n/> before the * Elections are faking p! every major city, and councils are in place. * Sewer .and water lint installed every major cit .* Over 60,000 polio patrolling the streets, *■ Over 100,000 Iraqi defense' police are sei the' country. s * Over, 80,000 Iraqi si are patrolling the street by side with U.S. soldier * Over 400,000 people ha phones' for the first time et * Students are taught sanitation and hand-w techniques to preven spread of germs. H An interim constituí been signed. ‘ Liirls are allowed t> sch< ml. * Textbooks that don’t non Saddam are in schoi the fust time in 30 u. InjarmattM fiuttd via < m lt.ni’ard. Just one more week for letters! E-mail letters to dnefed-u cljckanias edit or bring them oi py disk to RR135 by this Friday at 1 p.m. Please include yot name and phone number .aid limit all letters to 250 worth " SuhitiisMims %uitne propertv ot The Cluikamas Print uid an-' editing on the grounds ol length, clarity, content and 'inn. Production assistants: Michaele Cooper, Brian Hill, Sharon James, James Tombe Photographers: Truman Anderson, Angela Gerhart. Adviser: Linda Vogt Department assistant: Pat Lichen Goals: The Clackamas Print' report the news in aß'feöncst, urf professional manrier.U he op::, expressed do tW necessarily nft of the student jody, (Jllegc adm its faculty or TAe Prittt. E-mail1 to chiefed@clackamas.edu. The Clackamas ft’
