As I see it . . .

On February 1, 2009

So, what does it say about us as human beings that we tolerate brutality? Why isn't it so abhorent to us that we stand up in outrage? Think about that.

I think I know why. Because it's who we are. At least in part. It's our darker natures. We all know it's there. Some of us just want to deny it. Doesn't mean it isn't there. What is it about human beings that we possess that evil? Even if it's just an evil borne out of stupidity or ignorance. It's evil because it fails to see the offense to all things good and right in life.

Many among us deny our animal natures. I'm not sure but do they really believe that humans aren't animals? Or, do they believe that somehow by virtue of our divine intelligence that we on a higher plane? I'm sorry, but there's something very twisted about humanity. That Jekyll and Hyde thing. If human beings do not house evil within by virtue of our genetic code, then explain the tremendous tendency toward violence and how the only living creature among hundreds of thousands of species capable of cruelty are humans.

Darwin said it so well: "Man, for all his noble qualities, his god-like intellect, still bears within his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." Couldn't agree more, except for the fact that it's offensive to animals.

I think it has a lot to do with fear. Others argue that it has to do with intelligence, or the lack thereof, asserting that only ignorant, uneducated people are capable of brutality. What of the man in Mexico that stands at the slaughterhouse shoot all day, every day, with a knife in his hand hacking away at a stream of frightened, anxious animals, stabbing away until he succeeds in severing each animal's spinal cord? Is he evil? Is he stupid, ignorant, incapable of getting how phenomally disgusting his job is? But then, what about those who escorted jews to the incinerators of Aucshwitz? What about those who butchered human innocents in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

Horses are sublime. My God, only someone devoid of a soul isn't moved by the very sight of a horse running free. Such a person is incapable of understanding or appreciating poetry or the truly divine in life. So, who could kill such a creature? It's an offense against God herself. It's a crime against all that is beautiful and holy. We are taught that God gave us her son as a gift. I believe that God gave us horses as a test. I believe she might've said 'Here is something exquisitely beautiful, graceful, elegant yet powerful; a creature without even the slightest hint of malice. A creature that isn't a carnivore, a predator, and does not harm another single creature in order to survive. Here is a creature that, if you pay attention, will teach you more than you know. Here is a creature that will submit to you, work for you, die for you and never voice even a whimper of protest. What will you do with this creature?" Choice.

Like the obelisk in "2001: A Space Odyssey," horses are a measuring stick. When humanity was "civilized" enough to uncover the obelisk buried on the moon, it sent out a beacon informing an intelligence source far away that we had arrived at that point. And then again when we reached Jupiter. I believe that when we reach the level that we are able to say "We will not allow the abuse of these creatures; we will not tolerate brutality against them," then a beacon will be sent out to some superior intelligence that we have arrived at that point when we are no longer doomed to remain a small and petty species upon this remote outpost in space. We will have arrived at a place where there truly will be hope that the greatness of humanity will one day triumph. What will your part be?

For the horses . . .

Margo Dockendorf

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