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March 17, 2006
Pat Showalter and her goats
Pat Showalter is the Washington state goat herder who made a passionalte appeal against NAIS on Coast to Coast Wednesday night. Pat is a grandmother, artist, goat milk soap maker, educator -- and now a committed activist.
When I see her standing on God's green earth tending to these beautiful animals , I am reminded of something Helen Keller wrote in her extraordinary autobiography:
"...I hastened to the green nook, where we have a little cottage....We knew that beyond the border of our Eden men were making history by the sweat of their brows, but we little heeded these things. These things would pass away; here were lakes and woods and broad daisy-starred fields and sweet-breathed meadows , and they shall endure forever. [snip]In the country, one sees only Nature's fair works, and one's soul is not saddened by the cruel struggle for mere existence that goes on in the crowded city....The sun and the air are God's free gifts to all, we say; but are they so? In yonder city's dingy alleys the sun shines not, and the air is foul....Oh, would that men would leave the city, its splendour and its tumult and its gold, and return to the wood and field and simple, honest living! Then would their children grow stately as noble trees, and their thoughts sweet and pure as wayside flowers. It is impossible not to think of all this when I return to the country after a year of work in town.
What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more, to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes, or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!"
For now, at least, we can still return to the innocence of God's green earth, fresh and free and wholesome. That's what we're fighting to preserve -- a place of solace from the filth of our cities and the deadening oppression of our own technology. I am fighting to preserve Pat and her goats from the staring glare of the State and its voracious desire to number, monitor, and subjugate her, her goats, and ultimately every living thing on earth.
Agree with me? Go to http://www.NoNAIS.org and take a stand against the mandatory numbering of farms and animals.
- Katherine Albrecht
Posted by Katherine Albrecht at March 17, 2006 6:39 PM