The Importance Of Language

I received a heartbreaking email today from a rescue group about an 8-year-old chowgirl named Chi Chi that stated:


PLEASE CAN SOMEONE FOSTER OR ADOPT THIS SENIOR SWEETHEART AND SAVE IT"S LIFE-WE ARE FULL-PLEASE HELP!!!

__________________________

My reply:

It is EXTREMELY important that we ALWAYS refer to these precious souls as him, her, he, she, or better yet by name--NOT "It". My car is an "it". My ballpoint pen is an "it".

Chi Chi, in stark contrast, is a very sweet girl, who has a mind, a soul, a heart that beats just as yours or mine does, lungs that breathe the same air as you and I.

But then, we live in a disposable society, where 650,000 plus Iraqis can be slaughtered, 3000 plus Americans dead plus tens of thousands physically and mentally scarred for life, so that multinational oil companies can continue to make incredible profits. Increasingly, life is becoming just another "it".

In the final analysis, changing the world, saving the millions of innocents cats and dogs that are murdered in this country every year because they are inconvenient, starts with changing hearts and minds, and one way of doing that is to always remember the importance of language.

Because if we use the language of the oppressors, then we become one with the oppressors.

TLC