So too was the thoroughbred filly, Eight Bells, sacrificed to the god Mamon on the altar of Churchill Downs. The courageous young female horse was entered into a cruel contest of speed and endurance against 19 colts brimming with at least testosterone. Perhaps an equine vet in a moment of tearful candor will admit that the 400 year breeding of these magnificent animals has reached the edge of the envelope. Thoroughbreds carry 1000 pounds, in addition to an enraged primate on their backs, on ankles the size of a human's. The pounding their slender limbs take while running at thirty miles an hour or more simply cannot be supported by skeletons attached to muscles unnaturally enlarged by man's craven ingenuity. Many racers also die of cardiac arrest. On average there are two breakdowns a day in the United States while racing. As a ratio of fatal injuries to competitions the death rate exceeds human prizefighting, motorsports and greyhound racing. Whipped on by a jockey whose only goal was winning, Eight Bells was game true to her breed but came second and lame, more a victim of her owners' greed than the brutal physics of the racetrack.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The Malaise
You may remember Jimmy Carter's speech about a pervasive malaise that infects American society if you are too old to be a member of the digital generation. That televised speech and the Iranian hostage crisis cost him a second term as president. I think Carter had a point, just like Senator Obama has about racism. But typically Carter's meaning was distorted by corporate mass media and his political enemies. I believe when using the term "malaise" he was referring to the crass materialism and spiritual alienation which pervades our society. The symptoms are many, but once the premise is accepted easy to discern. This week we had two major examples of irrational human greed overriding compassion for our fellow creatures. While penned in a wire cage waiting for their relocation, six sea lions captured by federal wildlife authorities at the base of Bonneville Dam were shot to death. Such a wanton and senseless act of destruction has shocked many residents of Stump Town which takes pride in its image as a progressive city that embraces an ecological ethic. The vandal or vandals who perpetrated the outrageous act may have accomplished what wildlife advocates could not. The capture program has been suspended while a criminal investigation is underway. Killing a protected marine mammal could result in a stiff penalty of jail time and up to a $20,000 fine. In the meantime the seals are preparing to migrate south away from the greedy humans who refuse to share the salmon that remain.
So too was the thoroughbred filly, Eight Bells, sacrificed to the god Mamon on the altar of Churchill Downs. The courageous young female horse was entered into a cruel contest of speed and endurance against 19 colts brimming with at least testosterone. Perhaps an equine vet in a moment of tearful candor will admit that the 400 year breeding of these magnificent animals has reached the edge of the envelope. Thoroughbreds carry 1000 pounds, in addition to an enraged primate on their backs, on ankles the size of a human's. The pounding their slender limbs take while running at thirty miles an hour or more simply cannot be supported by skeletons attached to muscles unnaturally enlarged by man's craven ingenuity. Many racers also die of cardiac arrest. On average there are two breakdowns a day in the United States while racing. As a ratio of fatal injuries to competitions the death rate exceeds human prizefighting, motorsports and greyhound racing. Whipped on by a jockey whose only goal was winning, Eight Bells was game true to her breed but came second and lame, more a victim of her owners' greed than the brutal physics of the racetrack.
So too was the thoroughbred filly, Eight Bells, sacrificed to the god Mamon on the altar of Churchill Downs. The courageous young female horse was entered into a cruel contest of speed and endurance against 19 colts brimming with at least testosterone. Perhaps an equine vet in a moment of tearful candor will admit that the 400 year breeding of these magnificent animals has reached the edge of the envelope. Thoroughbreds carry 1000 pounds, in addition to an enraged primate on their backs, on ankles the size of a human's. The pounding their slender limbs take while running at thirty miles an hour or more simply cannot be supported by skeletons attached to muscles unnaturally enlarged by man's craven ingenuity. Many racers also die of cardiac arrest. On average there are two breakdowns a day in the United States while racing. As a ratio of fatal injuries to competitions the death rate exceeds human prizefighting, motorsports and greyhound racing. Whipped on by a jockey whose only goal was winning, Eight Bells was game true to her breed but came second and lame, more a victim of her owners' greed than the brutal physics of the racetrack.