Willie Nelson

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Illinois State Senate Committee to Consider Ban
on Cruel Double-Deck Horse Transports

Illinois State Rep. Sacia trying to legalize horse slaughter, AGAIN!

Dear Humanitarian:

On Wednesday, May 14 the Illinois General Assembly’s Senate Agriculture and Conservation Committee will consider HB 4162, sponsored by State Senator John Cullerton (D). This bill, which successfully passed out of the House in February, amends the Humane Care for Animals Act so that “no person may transport any equidae in a vehicle or trailer containing 2 or more levels, one on top of the other.”

The bill is a result of a horrific accident involving horses in Illinois. A double-deck tractor trailer carrying 59 Belgian draft horses through Wadsworth, IL in October 2007 “blew through a stop light at Route 41 and Wadsworth Road and struck another vehicle,” according to local police on the scene of the accident. The severe crash resulted in more than five hours of suffering for the horses before authorities could free them from the mangled truck. Sadly, nine horses died on the scene, with another six dying later because of injuries they sustained.

Accidents such as this one are not uncommon. Only one year earlier, a double-deck truck hauling 41 horses to slaughter crashed on its way to the Cavel International facility in DeKalb, Ill. This tragic incident resulted in the death of 16 horses. Similar scenarios have occurred elsewhere in the United States.

Illinois has become the leader in protecting equines from abuse and neglect. Last year, the state’s General Assembly overwhelmingly passed legislation banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Unfortunately, although horses can no longer be slaughtered in Illinois, the middlemen working for Cavel - known as “killer buyers” - continue to buy horses across the country.

The horses are then shipped to Mexico and Canada for slaughter, often passing through Illinois en route to the Cavel plant in Canada or to plants in Mexico. The preferred method of transporting horses to slaughter remains the double-deck truck, a two-tiered trailer designed for other livestock such as cattle and hogs. Use of theses conveyances to transport horses is cruel and dangerous.

The State of Illinois has made clear its intolerance of the horse slaughter industry by shutting down its sole plant. H.B. 4162 will ensure the companies still buying horses and shipping them through Illinois to slaughter in Canada and Mexico can no longer use the horribly inhumane double-deckers to haul these animals.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please contact members of the Senate Agriculture & Conservation Committee first thing Monday morning (see below for contact information), urging them to support HB 4162, sponsored by Senator Cullerton, and many of his colleagues. You may want to mention the following facts:

* Double-deck trailers are designed for livestock such as cattle and hogs, not horses.
* The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has “reviewed limited data within the scientific literature that suggest increased rates of injury associated with the use of double-decked conveyances for transporting horses.?
* According to the AVMA, “sources, such as the National Agriculture Safety Database and various manufacturers producing trailers specifically for horse transport recommend heights of 7 to 8 ft as being necessary for the safe and comfortable transport of horses (i.e., adequate headroom for the horses to stand comfortably with their heads in normal position); it appears difficult, if not impossible, to meet such recommendations via the use of currently configured double-deck trailers, particularly for taller horses.”
* The US Department of Agriculture is currently in the process of prohibiting the use of double-deckers entirely, as part of their Equine Transport to Slaughter policy.

Additionally, State Representative Jim Sacia (R) - the leading opponent in the Illinois legislature to ending horse slaughter - is still working to undermine the will of the people of Illinois and the Illinois General Assembly. Several months ago he introduced a bill that would legalize horse slaughter again and despite its unpopularity he continues to push for its consideration by the House Drivers Education and Safety Committee (which already rejected his misguided proposal once this year). Please remind each member of the committee (see below for contact information) that the Illinois General Assembly banned horse slaughter by an overwhelming majority just last year, and urge them to reject any bill or amendment offered by Representative Sacia, AGAIN!

* Representative Sacia is telling his colleagues that since the Illinois ban, horse abuse and neglect have increased even though he has NO evidence to support this claim. He is giving them false information presented by the “Horse Welfare Coalition” which was founded and is currently run by the slaughterhouses themselves.
* Make sure each office knows that ending horse slaughter has only been good for the horses and the state ban is important. There is no evidence that abuse and neglect increase, but there is documentation from Illinois that abuse decreased after the plant was temporarily closed several years ago.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Heyde of AWI at (703) 836-4300. Be sure to bookmark http://www.awionline.org/legislation/horse_slaughter/whats_new.htm for updates on this hearing and other horse slaughter campaign information.

Please share this eAlert with friends, family and coworkers, and urge them to weigh in with the Illinois state legislature to ensure that horses continue to receive the protection they deserve. As always, thank you for your help!

Sincerely,
Chris Heyde
Deputy Director of Government and Legal Affairs
www.awionline.org
www.compassionindex.org

Illinois General Assembly
House Drivers Education & Safety Committee

Please contact the members of this committee and ask them to oppose HB 4489 or any other measure sponsored by Representative Jim Sacia to legalize the slaughter of horses in Illinois. For a full list of the Committee, click here:

http://www.ilga.gov/house/committees/members.asp?CommitteeID=531&GA=95

Illinois General Assembly
Senate Agriculture & Conservation Committee

Please contact the members of this committee and ask them to support HB 4162, sponsored by Senator John Cullerton, to ban the transport of horses on double-deck trailers. For a full list of the Committee, click here: http://www.ilga.gov/senate/committees/members.asp?CommitteeID=379

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Peter Theis offers us another version of “A Peaceful Solution” in his own unique style. He displays a strong commitment to the purpose of arriving at a peaceful resolution and participating in a peaceful revolution.

Part of this commitment shows in his willingness to work from a place that acknowledges the degree to which we have all been manipulated. Peter Theis invites us to discover this in our own exploration of education rather than just telling us how it is from an authoritarian viewpoint.

For many people, learning about how even our thinking has been controlled by those who would be our masters leads to an infuriated frustration erupting in violent retribution. Notice how such a rebellion produces conditions ripe for those who would be our masters to invoke the need for increased oppression.

If this becomes our only resort then we fall into the same patterns that produced our current disastrous situation. This indicates the need to look beyond the current social relations and power structures to apprehend the mindset that created the apparent inevitability of such conditions in the first place.

To take this exercise seriously is to discover that we ourselves often harbor exactly the mindset that produced our current snafu. It is only by discovering and resolving our personal destructive, hateful and violent mindsets that true peace will be allowed to grow.

Today We The People of the United States have worked ourselves into a state that even Orwell and Huxley did not envision. Routine analysis of personal body fluids are now commonly accepted privacy invasions unimagined by even the most grim of past futurists.

The totalitarian governments we were warned about in the past were pale and simple things compared to the complex interlocking controls now in place. And yet we still individually each retain the power to wake up and take control of our own lives.

We can choose peace.

By choosing peace in all things,, on all paths, in any event we disarm those who would control us. By arriving at this peaceful resolution we prepare ourselves to reject violent means regardless of how expedient they seem at the time. By joining the peaceful revolution we secure our future even as we witness the failure of the plans of those who choose conflict.

By choosing peace we can save America.

By saving America in this way we also save the world, we save every existing life form, and we save the environments that create positive conditions for our survival and growth.

Peter Theis offers some excellent advice and clues about where to look for answers. He provides this with no expectations and as freely as he shares his music. If you can honor this open effort to make a positive difference then you owe it to yourself to become as completely informed as possible.

And if you have the time, check out his band, Los Topes (Speed Bumps).

* * * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

What I feel we need to do in order to make our world a peaceful place to live is to FIRST, recognize we are all being manipulated and controlled; SECOND, inform ourselves and dialog with others; THIRD, organize toward making healthy positive actions that are focused on the SOURCES of the problems, not the symptoms.

If you doubt we are all being manipulated and controlled, or you just don’t know where to begin to inform yourself, or you are informed and want to learn more, I have some links I highly recommend looking into. First, if you have not read John Taylor Gatto’s book “The Underground History of American Education,” I highly recommend it. You can read it for free here:

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

That book shows how supremely wealthy and powerful people like the Rockefellers and Morgans and Rothschilds, etc, put more money into education than governments did! Why? So that they could program people to not think critically and to quickly respond to authority — sit fixed in your desk, don’t speak unless you raise your hand, listen to the teacher who, like a general speaking to his soldiers, tells you what and how to think and believe.

Then, when you get out in the work world, the same process is repeated, and when you come home after work, you’ve got the TV to continue the programming. Not to mention how the “web” of the internet is watching us all like Orwell’s “Big Brother.” So, if you haven’t read Orwell’s book “1984″ or Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” or you haven’t read them recently, read them again. And again.

Second, I would recommend looking at the information on these websites:

freedocumentaries.org
democracynow.org
infowars.org
zcommunications.org/zmag

Like Paulo Freire talked about in his book “Pedagogy Of The Oppressed,” perhaps the most effective way to generate peace in our world is through DIALOG. When we are watching TV our brains are at essentially the same wavelengths as when we are sleeping — we are in a subconscious state — and therefore, literally, we are being programmed.

Watch people who watch TV, they look hypnotized because they ARE hypnotized. This is not any kind of dialog at all, this is a monologue. So, in order for us to really see and understand what’s going on, we have to look each other in the eyes and talk about what really matters with open minds and hearts.

Turn off the TV and start talking with each other. And always listen, never assume, question everything, and look for the most healthy ways of being.

Once are well informed and begin to dialog, we can then act move beyond the divisions that are conquering us so that we can unite and activate our creative imaginations toward creating a peaceful world.

We have all we need to achieve these things and more.

Peace!

Peter Theis

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Emmanuel, also known on YouTube as ParadiseEarth1, gives us a simple and direct video of “A Peaceful Solution” using a simple acoustic guitar accompaniment. His revised lyrics move the later part of the song into the past tense.

He imagines a time when we will look back and remember a peaceful bloodless revolution that saved America. Emmanuel sings that “We’ve saved America” and the starting point was “an aspiration from our hearts.”

In his statement Emmanuel mentions meeting other people who share his realization that our current system demands conflict which produces needless death, pain and suffering.

Only by reaching out and seeking like minded individuals will we be able to effect meaning change. Finding this community equates to finding our strength. We need only to recognize that most of the people on this planet would rather live in peace.

The few who would rather use bullying tactics than pull their own weight are merely freeloaders. However, these freeloaders are also the most violent and deadly remorseless beings in existence.

We have all met with bullies in our lives. All it takes is for a group of people to stand up against them together. This display of unity alone dissuades bullies from pursuing their predatory behavior.

Further, as production and transportation costs increase during global climate changes, we must band together for mutual benefit. In this situation freeloading behavior cannot be tolerated. Bullies will be quickly shunned and ostracized from groups of people who all individually contribute to the general well being of the group.

These groups will find it convenient and practical to network with similar groups and from these alliances a new system will be created. I say this not as wishful thinking but to recognize and acknowledge the necessary requirements of future human organization.

Those who think that things can continue as they always have will discover these assumptions unsupported by reality. Things physically cannot continue as they always have.

The human race can no longer afford the wastefulness of extractive exploitation of resources and the destruction of lifestyles in harmony with the environment. The time when the peaceful resolution manifests is at hand.

The peaceful revolution has begun and you can be part of it. Be part of the peaceful revolution and live to see a future worth living.

A Peaceful Solution — By: Willie & Amy Nelson. Revised Contribution By
ParadiseEarth1.

There is a peaceful solution.
Called a peace revolution.
Take back America.

It’s a war and we’re in it,
And I know we can win it.
Take back America.

It is a dream an aspiration from our hearts
Wake up believing a time and place to start

So get ready to receive it,
Walk the dream never quit it
Take back America

Senseless war is now over
Lessons learned for the better
Took back America

It is a dream an aspiration from our hearts
Wake up believing a time and place to start

There was a peaceful solution
A bloodless revolution
That saved America
We’ve saved America

* * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

This is privilege to be able to contribute to this worthwhile project, an essential step to providing future generation with a harmonious environment as humanity head towards fulfilling our destiny – thank you for the opportunity.

My hope is rising each time I meet people who by now have realized that the way the current system have evolved will always end up with certain degree of conflict, and the best way to avoid the next major war that could be terminal fought with 21st armaments rely on our capacity as thinking species to finally view ourselves as one unit sharing a small fragile planet with limited natural resources.

This capacity of realizing peaceful and loving consciousness will ultimately be the Peaceful Solution that will bring everlasting peace and harmony to all.

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Louise D’Arcy sings “A Peaceful Solution” in an emotional style pleading “Stop using all those bombs” and “Stop killing all our sons.” Her addition of these lyrics offer explicit suggestions as well as reminding us “Wars never saved no one” and that this message has been “sung before.”

Not only has this message been “sung before” but this message now strengthens an online community dispersed around the world. Musicians, videographers and activist video editors have revealed their common bond in peace and found mutual support.

This coming together of like-minded individuals coalescing around the idea of peace presents a clear alternative and proves the lie behind current government policies. More and more people feel the need to take control of their lives, communities and country.

These social networks also provide pathways for people to engage in commerce and organize to make their wishes manifest. Our strength lies in our numbers, our weakness has been imaginary differences and physical distances.

All petty and imaginary differences have become dwarfed by contemporary events. The Internet has largely overcome physical distances. Now we are relearning our common bonds.

In this unity around a peaceful resolution grows the seed of a peaceful revolution. No need to believe the lies that all change requires violence. Look around and see natural growth inevitably produces change.

Louise D’Arcy is one of those who has matured to understand the necessity of peace in our lifetime. She has lent her voice and talent to the cause of peace. She has helped the cause of peace to go forward.

The economy, climate and oil situations are still developing and we cannot see where they will lead. Now more that ever, the future of humanity and much of what we treasure in the natural world lies completely at our mercy.

Events conspire to force us to see the need in coming together in like-minded communities to prepare and support each other. Even as these communities form so will networks develop between them.

Farmers will grow non-food crops for oil and save the corn for human consumption. Eventually the wasteful practice of converting corn to methanol will no longer be pursued as its negative results become incontrovertible and unsupportable.

Biodiesel makes sense. Biofuel distilled from corn does not.

As conscious communities prosper and individuals take responsibility for managing domesticated animals’ reproduction rates the epidemic in animal cruelty will subside. Once people see the need for change, the absolute necessity for change and the inevitability of change issues that seem so implacable today will become resolved as a matter of course.

We will learn to live in harmony with the rest of life because that is the only pathway to future survival. Those who insist in living otherwise will perish.

I look forward to seeing more growth in the peaceful revolution.

A Peaceful Solution
(Willie Nelson Cover)
(Additional lyrics by Louise D’Arcy)

There’s a Peaceful Solution called a peace revolution
So lets take back America
There’s a war and we’re in it, but I know we can win it, if we take back America

Stop using all those bombs
Stop killing all our sons

Cause there’s a Peaceful solution called a peace revolution
So lets take back America
There’s a war and we’re in it but I know we can win it
If we take back America

Wars never saved no one
Where’s those lessons we have sung before
Make Love not War

There’s a Peaceful Solution called a peace revolution
So lets take back America
There’s a dream so believe it, now get ready to recieve it
So lets take back America
When we take back America
We’ll bring PEACE back…America!!

* * * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

To me Peace is both the journey and the destination.

I think every single person on this earth has something to offer there fellow man, we are all a piece of the puzzle, but sometimes people forget either there own divinity or the divinity of others…we are confused by the world and where we stand in it…

compassion, communication and understanding I feel is the key to a better future.

What better way to spread the word of Peace then through music, perhaps the one thing in this world that goes straight to the heart to all who listen.

It’s an honor to contribute to Willie Nelson’s vision for a better world.

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Susan Bame Hoover uses images from the Omaha Reservation and Winnebago Reservation in northeast Nebraska to illustrate her video over the Sirus B recording of “A Peaceful Solution.”

How appropriate to bring forward the current state of the indigenous people of America in the context of peace. We must acknowledge and account for fruits of our actions regarding these people.

Never forget that the road leading to the current horrific Iraq and Afghanistan debacles began in the abysmal treatment of the original inhabitants of America. The history of the United States of America recounts a continuous destruction of indigenous peoples worldwide in order to extract a few highly valued resources and despoil the rest.

The path to peace must begin with a reconciliation and every possible restitution to the benefit of Native American people. No compensation could be commensurable. We also owe Hawaiians for destroying their culture and stealing their islands. Indeed, remembering all the victims would produce a long list.

Certainly we can see by now that the foolishly violent and wasteful path this country has been on leads to no good end. Soon enough we will be needing the good will of all our neighbors and unfortunately we have given them little reason to help us.

Yes, there will be hard adjustments to make. But these adjustments must be made. To not make these adjustments seals our own death and destruction.

Already many countries hold back from exporting their food to the United States and this trend will only continue. The slide down the energy curve from Peak Oil will make long distance shipping of anything problematic.

We are moving into a time when most people will have to depend upon their local economies in a post-petroleum world to meet all their needs, wants and desires. Already an Alliance of Post-Petroleum Local Economies has formed and more communities see the wisdom in this every day.

By no means is it too early to think about this and many feel any later will be too late. Consider all the local talent and labor that becomes ignored when the globe is searched for the cheapest exploitable human resources.

The luxury of hiring only the most desperate people at the lowest wage and pocketing the rest to pad your profits will not be possible when transportation costs take all that profit won at human expense and more.

Finally we will be forced to make peace with those around us. Our days of hit and run exploitation are at an end. Peace is the solution, a peaceful resolution and a peaceful revolution can save America.

Susan Bame Hoover feels this is an important story about Carter, Sadat and Begin: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/SADAT/lecture/lecture/carter.htm

* * * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

To look at it one way, I’ve been working for peace as a mediator for about ten years. Another way to look at it, I’ve been working for peace all my life. I have recently created a mediation service in my local community where I mediate juvenile court referred cases.

One of my greater visions is to create a mediation program that offers free mediation services to the entire community, and trains and mentors local community volunteers to mediate cases. In this way, people will learn how to create peace in their own lives.

What motivates me to work for peace is looking for the next moment when people in conflict with each other connect with each other deeply.

I remember mediating a truancy case where the school representative met with the mother and the 6th-grade daughter who had missed 50-some days of school. The school representative was angry, but she listened. It was the daughter’s job every morning to get Mom up and get her off to work by 6:30. There was no father in the picture. The daughter had to get Grandma up and out of bed and help her to the bathroom and feed her breakfast. Grandma had come to stay with them while she was dying.

The 6th-grader then had to get her three younger siblings up and out of bed, get them breakfast and make sure they met their buses in time – all three at a different time. When it was her turn to meet her own bus, she was exhausted, and would sometimes go back to bed. Once the school representative heard this story, her attitude changed completely, and she could for the first time “see” this student as a child with a desperate home life, not just as a truant student.

My ideas for peaceful solutions: listen.

Begin by listening to yourself. Find out where the conflict lies, within.

We all want to feel connected to each other, and we truly are, yet when we feel a separation exists within or between us, this is where conflict erupts.

Conflict is an opportunity for inner growth, so welcome conflict when it comes. Then listen openly, deeply, and with compassion, to others.

It is your own Self you see reflected back to you, in the eyes and deeds and soul of the Other.

When I watched the video create itself and unfold before my eyes, beginning and ending with the innocence of the children on both reservations and their dreams of peace and freedom and a better life, it reminded me of the story Jimmy Carter told about the Camp David Accord he brokered between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

The three men had gathered at Camp David for peace talks, and after eleven days no progress could be made. They were all just about ready to give up and go home. What made them go back and try again was when Begin began to think about the legacy he was leaving for his grandchildren.

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