Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, issued a national Call to Action for Americans with his letter, "
An Open Letter: How Can America Win This Election?" In it, he asks us to blog, video, tweet, FB or otherwise use the internet communication devices and services to express our individual view of how America could be, and how we can all put citizenship over partisanship.
I'd like add my voice now and it chimes in with Ghandi's:
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man."
In my version of America, our Animals would be our Friends and Companions rather than Possessions. I assert that each individual creature who lives and breathes can not be a possession. It can only be itself. S/He has the right to both give and receive love & kindness to and from those around them. S/He, if adopted into a human family, as the right to expect love, kindness, fresh food & fresh water, shelter, grooming, consideration, empathy, attention, fun, health benefits, and a full enjoyable life from their human(s). I think they also have the right to a voice. I genuinely think that each family who chooses to adopt an Animal Companion into their family must have at least one member of the human group go learn Animal Communication so there's an open line for conversation. Animals should be treated with respect and their lives honored every bit as much as a human respects and honors other human's rights.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the basic rights of humans, according to the US Constitution. Perhaps we should spell out that Life, Respect, and 2 Way Communication are the basic rights of Animals and make it a World Constitution, adoptable by every nation. Only Great Nations with a high set of moral progress could stand forward and adopt this idea *and* ensure those rights+ for each Animal Companion.
Atrocities against Animals and Children should be met with disciplines twice or thrice as harsh as those against other adult humans. Those who are helpless should indeed be more entitled to protection.
Where I understand that most Christians don't believe an Animal has a soul, it still matters that we treat them as though they do. What if Animals are really Guardian Angels incarnate? What if they're here to test Christians and their goodness?
I say that if there's a light in their eyes, they have a soul, because only a soul can emit such a strong light. If you don't believe an Animal has a soul, look into their eyes. Go on, really look! There's something special inside each and every one of them. It's the same thing you see when you look into the eyes of a human. It's the same light.
In my version of America's future, and the whole of the World's future, the light is honored, respected, and loved, no matter what shape the body takes.
