Try Being Positive?

This week someone on Facebook's Catholic Vegetarian accused me of being negative because I said that the Catholic church does nothing for animals. I backed this up by mentioning that I never heard a sermon on the suffering of animals in all the masses I attended and I'm 83. (The Blessing of Animals on the feast of St. Francis does not apply to my contention.)

I also mentioned that there are no encyclicals on the compassionate treatment of animals. Then somewhere along the line I recalled that the church follows the teachings of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas regarding animals instead of the compassionate teachings of Pythogoras. The church has been following the "utility" principal of Aquinas, which said that animals are made for our use. This certainly opens up the possibility for a lot of cruelty to animals and, sadly, you don't have to look too far to find proliferations of the cruel Confined Animal Farm Operations (CAFOs) the world over.

One of the people on this site took the time to look for the Jesse Ramieriz article on "Rethinking Aquinas" that I recommended. Easy to find by his name on the internet. I also loved his post about inviting Jesus to breakfast. He didn't think it would be proper to make Him bacon and eggs. How true.

Both products cost pigs and chickens a great deal of pain.

So this critical person gave me no reason to be positive when a billion Catholics have no teachings on compassion to animals.

TRY BEING POSITIVE IN MATTERS OF GOVERNMENT.

Someone wrote a post recently that is generally on this topic. Truth be told I have a very hard time being positive at what transpires in government on the state and federal level as well. Recently, I received a Wildlife newsletter from New York and they mentioned that Governor Cuomo is a hunter and is doing whatever he can to promote hunting. I believe he even mentioned that President Obama spoke of the "rich" heritage of hunting. Not my idea of a compassionate president.

Somewhere I read that the state is using its resources on this hunting pastime that comparatively few indulge in. And of course, there is nothing compassionate about killing defenseless animals. The notion that in the case of deer - numbers are being kept down because of hunting - is without merit. If anything, this causes more births.

I hoped you watched CBS 60 Minutes this past Sunday. A whole segment dealt with political slush funds. Supposedly political money is not supposed to be used to hire family members and friends, but, of course, the people who make the laws made sure that there were loopholes placed in the law and the political slush fund is alive and well. One legislator tried to introduce a correction in this regard and there were no co-sponsors. What a great Congress we have.

THE SIGNING OF CARE2 PETITIONS.

I am always happy to sign petitions that I believe in. Each day I will sign anywhere from 10 to 30. Many of these I find on CARE2, which today I found at Martha Rosenberg's post. Whether the petition "chart" is found on other posts is a real possibility. At any rate, once the important identifying data is in, one just has to go from petition to petition and click. The following involves states and for once I am glad I didn't find any negative petitions regarding the state of Ohio. But here are some states that were mentioned:

l. Idaho: Demand Federal Protection of Wolves and Coyotes in Idaho and Worldwide. (I am sorry if there is a serious problem here but my reading of the petition does not reveal this.)

2. Wisconsin: Tell Wisconsin Hunting Wolves with Dogs is a form of Dog-fighting.

3. Florida: Lions Are Not Taco Meat.

4. N.Carolina: NC Police -- Investigate and Prosecute Person Who Beat, Shot, and Dragged Dog. (Of course, this type of cruelty is found in all the states.)