I have a former brother-in-law who is an animal rights activist. Despite my liberal blood, this guy always got on my nerves, being very self-righteous and haughty in his “love for God’s gifts” (saying this even though he hasn’t been inside a synagogue in 30 years). Whenever the family would go out to eat, I purposefully sat next to him and ordered steak. Tacky, I know, but it always gave me and my ex-husband a laugh, watching my brother-in-law cringe as I chewed loudly and let the juices roll off my chin.
What pissed me off was that throughout all my in-law’s throwing red paint on rich ladies’ furs and leathers, I always felt some disingenuousness from him and his friends. All the screaming and yelling for the poor minks and foxes made me wonder how much they really cared about humans or the things that other humans care about. By “things”, I mean the animals that most people care about, like their house pet. So the other day, when my partner pointed out to me that the media hadn’t interviewed a one person from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - http://www.peta.org/ )or similar such groups about this pet food scare, I was not surprised. I checked out their website today and their “front cover story” was “PETA exposes chinchilla cruelty”. You have to scroll down to the middle of the page to see the linked article on the U.S. Senate’s upcoming hearings on the pet food scandal. Where are the lists of dangerous pet foods? Where is the letter writing campaign against the company that may have caused all this? Where is the outrage for Fido? Where is the campaign to get cat/dog kidney donors?
I see the same problem with the anti-Imus campaign. I am glad that Black organizations, such as the NAACP (www.naacp.org/) and National Action Network’s (http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/) Al Sharpton took the lead on this issue and forced CBS and MSNBC to respond properly to this moron’s tacky and cruel behavior. But where were the women’s groups, eh? Why didn’t the National Organization for Women (www.now.org) appear on the Sunday morning scream fests? Did anyone notice there were a few White gals on that team too? Weren’t they insulted and offended? Were they any less “hoes” (ever watch those gangsta rap videos? There are white and Latino women in them too)? Are the Black Rutger’s players more Black than female?
This is the problem with our long-standing liberal organizations and is a point of weakness that the conservatives successfully exploit regularly. We pigeonhole ourselves into one small, albeit important, issue or segment and never reach out when there are naturally occurring allies. Groups such as PETA should have shown leadership in this pet food scare and shown “John and June Q. Public” that they care about Fluffy too. The NOW President or chapter head in New Jersey should have appeared next to Reverend Sharpton demanding with similar strength for Imus’s firing.
These are given opportunities lost by us liberals while we adhere to artificial lines of influence. We need to form coalitions where they naturally exist and learn how to work together; identify how are separate strengths can build power. And these bonds are going to be vital not only to win the White House in ’08 but to run it effectively without making Hillary, Barak, or John fall all over each other trying to figure out who to please first.
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