“Journalism is the first rough draft of history.”
I heard this quote for the first time the other day, a quote that a little digging revealed is kind of a chestnut among journalists but it was the first time I’d heard it. It is often attributed to a long-ago publisher of the Washington Post, now thought to have originated with a New Republic book reviewer. Regardless of the originator, this quote has been going through my head ever since because it is so perfectly salient, putting a fine point to the importance of vegans creating a solid, strong foundation for…
Tucker, a former bow tie enthusiast, got in a snit about it. Ivanka, an author, huffed about it. Donald, a former reality show host and failed lifestyle magazine mogul, railed against it. Behind all that bluster, though, is a fair question: When did it get to the point where a person can’t say or do whatever they feel like without pushback? Can’t folks just live their best lives without an angry mob of liberal snowflakes getting all up in their feelings about it?
The answer is no. No, they can’t, at least not without getting cancelled.
Even if you’re not the sporty type and you don’t want to sign up for a new streaming service to watch puppies and kittens do their cute thing, you can still enjoy the great flavors of the day vegan-style and any ol’ time. Grab a bowl, a spot on the couch and dig in!
My grandparents were lucky. As a result, I am lucky. All four managed to either be the first of their families born in the U.S. or escaped the shtetls of Europe at young ages. I am alive today because of this stroke of good fortune, because my grandparents and their parents managed to dodge the pogroms in which so many of their extended families were starved to death or slaughtered.
Probably in no small part due to being raised with the understanding instilled in Jewish people of how profoundly unjust and cruel it is to oppress those who are different…
Dear omnivores of the world,
Happy New Year! Is it too late after January 1 to say that? I hope not. 2020 was a doozy and 2021 is shaping up to be, um…memorable, but, hey, it’s still a fresh year and in the spirit of new beginnings, there’s a little something I’d like to get some clarity on.
I just have to ask: What is it about you and your obsession with deserted islands with chickens and a single hungry vegan on it? Or sometimes it’s pigs instead of chickens, but either way, it’s weird already.
One of the things…
So much has been written about how 2020 knocked us all for a loop with the coronavirus pandemic, nothing that I could contribute much to, but it has also exposed multiple points of entry for building a more compassionate and sustainable world. I thought I would explore just four of these areas of opportunity and what this could mean for the animals and a future with less needless cruelty.
At present, it is impossible to get a vaccine or take a medication that is entirely cruelty-free because even if the final products do not contain animal-derived ingredients, they have all…
As someone who likes getting the word out about new plant-based food options on social media, I have learned the hard way that it’s wise to preface your shares with a litany of disclaimers. A variety of disclaimers that will preemptively reply to every spoken and unspoken question and acknowledge every possible concern. A list of disclaimers to address issues that not even the most neurotic person should have to conjure up even if they had a personal customer service agent at their beck and call. …
Pandemic or Not, Our Flawed World Means that Our Choices Are Also Imperfect
I’ll just get this out of the way right from the get-go: On the last day of February in 2019, my husband was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. There is no way to spruce up how this news landed. Sitting in that examination room, it is no exaggeration to say that I felt like the floor could have swallowed me up whole. This man — the father of my son, the guy who makes my fanciful ideas a reality and takes my turbulent…
December 3, 2020
Hey, kid —
It’s 1995 and you’re a new vegan. Way to go! High fives all around. You could probably wear fewer butterfly clips and should definitely stop plucking your eyebrows to death but, hey, it’s 1995 and you’re on a good path. (Otherwise.)
What’s interesting is that you will only realize that things are kind of rough for vegans in retrospect, from me sitting at my laptop and writing this in 2020 (don’t freaking ask me about this year), because in 1995, you’re so full of zeal and you also don’t have the foresight to know…
Marla Rose is a Chicago-area writer and co-founder of VeganStreet.com and VeganStreetMedia.com.