This story out of Dallas, Texas, has been all over the vegan forums since it broke last month. And the response (at least from the vegan community) has been largely celebratory. Hooray! We’ve struck another blow against Big Ag and their unsustainable meat machine!
But, somehow, I don’t feel like celebrating. If this had been a federal bill regulating animal welfare standards and how consistently they’re enforced, or another one of those painted-whore celebrity chefs endorsing a Meatless Monday, then I might feel a little bit more cheerful. But it’s not. And don’t let them fool you; this is not a huge step forward for veganism, awareness, animal rights or any other cause in which you could dress this up.
This is a group of bandwagon administrators trying to abate the flood of heart disease and obesity by sticking their fingers in the proverbial pork dyke. Let’s poll the parents in he audience. Which is a better way to teach your children how to make good choices? Do you give them their options, show them the benefits and drawbacks to each, and then allow them to rely on their own intelligence? Or do you say “Nope, you’re doing this, and that’s the end of it.” Well, when they’re younger, yes, you may be forced to make these kinds of judgement calls. This is why we don’t allow 14-year-olds to get tattoos.
But these are not first-graders we’re dealing with here. These are adults. The parents of these students have trusted them to leave home and live on their own. The administrators trust them to choose their own classes and their own majors. They can even leave school, enlist in the military and go off to a foreign place to willingly place themselves in the line of danger for their country, if they so choose. But god forbid someone at this college makes the choice that they want some bacon with their eggs. The message they’re receiving here is that they can be trusted to live on their own and start to build their own lives, but they can’t be trusted to make the choices that aren’t going to kill them when they go to the dining hall. That’s nice and consistent.
Making someone’s choices for them is not the way to get them to make lasting changes in their life. It’s a great way to make them resent their choices, that’s for sure. But if someone is going to make a change that will truly last and affect their life in any sort of meaningful way, then that change needs to be made because the person wants it to be made, not because someone is making it for them, no matter how altruistic those intentions may be. Taking pork off the menu at Paul Quinn College is not a step forward for veganism or animal rights. It’s a step backwards for free will and personal choice.
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