From a vigil on June 11, 2017
Jackie is a great kid, but small. He's always been small, and I've always been his best friend. He's really shy, and he can't see very well, so he kind of stays pressed against my side as much as he can. I take care of him, and make sure no one bullies him. I make sure he eats, even when he doesn't feel like it. Sometimes I don't feel like it either. Lately I haven't really felt all that good. Something has been filling me with a dread I can't explain. I don't sleep well anymore, and I cry sometimes. Jackie nuzzles my face with his soft lovely snout when I cry, and I hear his voice in my head saying, "Don't cry, Krystal; it's going to be alright," while he presses against my side to make me feel safer too. I guess we help each other.
We're on our way to something new. I can smell something in the air that makes me think we are going to a great place with air that smells like the color green and doesn't make my eyes burn. We've been in this moving thing for so many hours, though, and I am so tired. I threw up three times, once on the snout of a little girl I know who can't walk very well and shakes her head a lot. I feel scared but I know that this place we're going to is going to be terrific. I told Jackie that and he said, "of course it is, Krystal. everything's going to be alright now. When we get there we can get a drink of water and take a nap and maybe snuggle."
"Oh, Jackie, I love you," I said, pushing my snout to his face. I nibbled his snout a little and said, "Look, we've stopped and the back door is opening. We made it!"
We're on our way to something new. I can smell something in the air that makes me think we are going to a great place with air that smells like the color green and doesn't make my eyes burn. We've been in this moving thing for so many hours, though, and I am so tired. I threw up three times, once on the snout of a little girl I know who can't walk very well and shakes her head a lot. I feel scared but I know that this place we're going to is going to be terrific. I told Jackie that and he said, "of course it is, Krystal. everything's going to be alright now. When we get there we can get a drink of water and take a nap and maybe snuggle."
"Oh, Jackie, I love you," I said, pushing my snout to his face. I nibbled his snout a little and said, "Look, we've stopped and the back door is opening. We made it!"
Why We Bear Witness
by Roxanne Kirtright
“When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to help.” Leo Tolstoy
Bearing witness is a tradition of facing a truth, often a difficult or hideous truth, in the face of a culture that prefers not to take notice. It is brutal but essential, difficult but inspiring, hazardous to your health and necessary for your soul.
Bearing witness to the atrocities of animal agriculture is a vital component of animal activism. When you witness something, you become a part of it. You become a legal witness to it, able to testify in a court of law. You become a moral witness, able to testify to friends and family and strangers, things that you have seen for yourself. You become a witness with a mandate, someone who is energized to work as hard and as smart as you can to affect positive change for the ones you have seen suffering. It is a life changing experience, one you can use to great effect, and one you can share.
The dictionary says that to bear witness is to show that something is true. There is a great responsibility in this. We become responsible for the truths that we witness. We become responsible to show others that this thing that we have seen is, in fact, true.
In witnessing atrocities, we become representatives of this truth, keepers of this truth. We become obligated in a deep way to take this truth into the world and share it. In doing this, we are able to take a hidden thing and bring it to light; those responsible for these purposefully hidden things, exposed, will be forced to address this change. This is how powerful the act of bearing witness is. By witnessing a thing- you are able to expose it.
Why go through all of this? It is so heavy, so awful! What a terrible burden!
Yes, it is all of those things. And much more.
Bearing witness is transformational. Bearing witness to the atrocities of animal agriculture will help end animal agriculture. People who participate in vigils and other associated work come away changed. It is very stressful, and that stress takes a toll and must be addressed. Please see the section on Emotional Self Care, and always ask for help when you need it. But bearing witness is much more than a burden. It is a mandate you will never let go of. It is a reason to push through your sorrows and fears. It is the thing inside you that will not allow you to fail or even consider it. You will transform the pain into action. You will be galvanized in a way that no other kind of action or experience can produce. Bearing witness turns a caring person into an activist, and an activist into a Super Activist.
Bearing witness is a tradition of facing a truth, often a difficult or hideous truth, in the face of a culture that prefers not to take notice. It is brutal but essential, difficult but inspiring, hazardous to your health and necessary for your soul.
Bearing witness to the atrocities of animal agriculture is a vital component of animal activism. When you witness something, you become a part of it. You become a legal witness to it, able to testify in a court of law. You become a moral witness, able to testify to friends and family and strangers, things that you have seen for yourself. You become a witness with a mandate, someone who is energized to work as hard and as smart as you can to affect positive change for the ones you have seen suffering. It is a life changing experience, one you can use to great effect, and one you can share.
The dictionary says that to bear witness is to show that something is true. There is a great responsibility in this. We become responsible for the truths that we witness. We become responsible to show others that this thing that we have seen is, in fact, true.
In witnessing atrocities, we become representatives of this truth, keepers of this truth. We become obligated in a deep way to take this truth into the world and share it. In doing this, we are able to take a hidden thing and bring it to light; those responsible for these purposefully hidden things, exposed, will be forced to address this change. This is how powerful the act of bearing witness is. By witnessing a thing- you are able to expose it.
Why go through all of this? It is so heavy, so awful! What a terrible burden!
Yes, it is all of those things. And much more.
Bearing witness is transformational. Bearing witness to the atrocities of animal agriculture will help end animal agriculture. People who participate in vigils and other associated work come away changed. It is very stressful, and that stress takes a toll and must be addressed. Please see the section on Emotional Self Care, and always ask for help when you need it. But bearing witness is much more than a burden. It is a mandate you will never let go of. It is a reason to push through your sorrows and fears. It is the thing inside you that will not allow you to fail or even consider it. You will transform the pain into action. You will be galvanized in a way that no other kind of action or experience can produce. Bearing witness turns a caring person into an activist, and an activist into a Super Activist.
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