First They Ignore You...

Mahatma Gandhi's little stroll to the sea to protest Britain's occupation of India started, not with a step or even an idea, but with a conviction; namely, that people must be self-governed. From convictions come ideas, and from ideas come first steps. When asked how the process, from conviction to that first step and finally to the shore, bore itself out, Gandhi remarked, "First they ignore you. Then they mock you. Then they get angry. And then you win."

The opposition to California's Proposition 2 (The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act) is angry. After losses in Arizona, Oregon, and Florida, they realize that the inevitable march to end the cruelest and most inhumane treatment of farm animals in this country has begun. Tens of millions of dollars are being spent to thwart this progress, but much like Gandhi on his way to the sea, once justice is on the march, even armies cannot stop it. It is true that a lie gets half way around the world before the truth has even got its shoes on, but as the tortoise and the hare show, it's not who starts first (or who spends the most money), but who gets to the finish line that matters.

The conviction that underlies the effort to pass Proposition 2 is simple: no animals should be prevented from engaging in even the most basic movement. It's that simple. This is a mainstream, modest, simple call to reduce the suffering of millions of farm animals who live destitute and degrading lives every day in California. We Californians are better than that. We humans are better than that. And the factory farms know it. And that's why they're mad.

First they ignore you. Then they mock you. Then they get angry. And then you win. Vote with a conscience. Vote "Yes" on Proposition 2.