Red feathered, yellow footed and beaked, Ruben was not an
unusual-looking rooster nor was he set off in any other way from other
cocks. But that he was my first rooster
in charge of my first flock, gave him meaning to me. Proud, I came to understand, was Ruben—and
over the months, I noted that his preference for Juliet and only Juliet, set
him apart from other birds I later came to know. Inseparable they were—from coop rung at
night, to field grazing during daylight hours, the two were lovers, friends, and
where one was, so the other was to be found.
Birds’ brains we are told, are pea-size—and of little matter. Emotions and feelings,
obviously lacking. Otherwise, how could
a human population house birds in the deplorable conditions where beaks and wings
are clipped, in cages holding them tightly squeezed and where daylight and
movement are absent?
Howard Zinn, author, historian, playwright, social activist and Boston University professor, told us that what a government will do to a
country abroad, it will soon do to its own people.
Extrapolating from this, we might wonder how the current corporate US
government manages to fool its own people into similarly deplorable living
conditions where food, air and water are contaminated with toxic shortcuts for
corporate profit--dulling our minds and ultimately allowing our government access to
our own choice for freedom.
The
domestication of our fowl came through man’s evolutionary shift from nomadic
to agricultural based living. As we might suspect, from Zinn's perspective, our own ultimate fate is clearly
presented to us in our animal’s quality of life. How is it possible for the “smartest” species
to be diminished so greatly and that we do not see it upon us?
Kat
2-29-16
