It's not a typo. American culture as a whole is missing something, and those who know me are probably sick of hearing about it every Thanksgiving -- fasting. We've got the feasting part down, but what about fasting? Fasting is an exercise that helps us focus on things that really matter, and what better day of the year to be mindful of important things than Thanksgiving?
I blew it this time, because I should have written this entry a few days ago, not this morning, but next year, consider fasting for 24 hours before your Thanksgiving meal; an easy way to do it is to stop eating when it gets dark Wednesday night and make sure you don't start your family feast until after dark on Thursday. During your fast, every time you feel your hunger gnawing at you, remember the people around the world who live with that feeling every day, but who can't just walk to the refrigerator or drive to a fast food restaurant to quench it. Have you ever not known where your next meal would come from, or when? If you've ever been hungry and without money, you know that it's more than just hunger, there's also a panic that sets in, that however unpleasant, is something all of us should probably have to experience at least once to know how it feels.
I learned this principle while living in Jerusalem; Jews and Muslims alike have fasting as an integral component of their religious rituals. Think about this: if you want to be especially mindful of the things for which you're thankful, which is more conducive to that state of mind, indulging in those things, or going without them? We have so much in this country; even the poor in America live like kings compared to people in some of the places I've visited. Sure, the economy's in trouble, but you're reading this on a computer that's connected to the Internet -- over 5 billion people don't have access to this thing that we can't live without. A short fast can give us a minute insight into a fraction of their experience.
A few months ago I wrote an entry about mandatory spay/neuter laws and how I supported them, and I still support them, at least in theory, but there is one problem that deserves to be mentioned, and that is what occurs when MSN legislation is passed and there is no system in place for people to get their animals sterilized cheaply and easily. And unfortunately, that's what seems to happen in just about every instance where MSN exists.
When MSN is passed, people are less likely to license their animals, and low income families and individuals frequently have their pets confiscated and are unable to retrieve them because they can't afford the fines or the cost of the surgery. The number of animals killed in shelters increases. Clearly, while spay/neuter means fewer animals, the way we mandate it has a lot of bearing on how effective it will be.
My state has a bill on the table for spay/neuter assistance, and that's a great start, but when the state funding runs out, the nonprofit sector needs to be prepared to partner with local law enforcement to provide low-cost or even free spay/neuter in order to increase pet retention. Simply confiscating pets and destroying them in shelters isn't helping the situation; people need animals in their lives, and when you take them away, they will get more. When you return a sterilized animal to the home where you found it, people don't need to produce or purchase more pets.
So if I were writing a mandatory spay/neuter bill, this would be the gist of it:
Just some ideas. There has to be a way we can do this legislatively without forcing people to go underground. Affording it, now that's another story, but I suspect that the more money we put into spay/neuter, the more we save in the long run. It might even be worthwhile to pay people in low income areas to spay and neuter their pets.
