Report from Vegan Video Brigade: Last Friday's excursion

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

We had two shifts of wonderfully dedicated activists out at Market & Powell

in San Francisco last Friday, leafleting passersby as our mini faunette

played PETA's powerful video, Meet Your Meat (see it online:

http://www.goveg.com/VegKit/meetmeat.html), documenting scenes from factory

farms and slaughterhouses. On our little card table setup, we also had

Polly's battery cage on display and an assortment of leaflets (including the

Food & Social Project's brand new generic leaflet on the health,

environmental, and animal protection benefits of going vegan).

 

Although the original plan was to mimic the work of Compassion Over Killing,

going out at 8:30 pm till about midnight, a couple of people wrote to me

indicating that they could only come earlier. So, we began at 6 pm, and with

two different shifts of people, stayed until 11 pm. It was AMAZING. There

were groups of people (passersby) swarming around the television screen

almost constantly. People reacted strongly to the video, empathizing with

the animals' plight and calling over friends to witness the horror. Most

people (probably all) who stopped to watch the video readily accepted

literature. One woman cried openly as she watched the video. So, so, so many

people asked questions. Some people took literature for their friends. One

fellow even stopped what he was doing to help us pass out flyers (!!!!). By

11 pm, I was cold, hungry, and exhausted. But, I was also thinking that we

should be doing the baby faunette every *night*. Just kidding - actually, I

do think we should do this every night. It just concerns me that we'd

probably get burned out before summer's end.

 

We had six people for the earlier shift and four for the later shift. Jay

Rosenthal came with a large stack of PeTA's Veggie Starter Kits which were

happily and gratefully taken by people walking by. Thanks so much to

everyone who took time to come out to the event.

 

A reminder that this week's Vegan Video Brigade with converge on North

Beach. Taking a note from our experience of last week, I'm thinking that

earlier is actually better. So, I want to suggest that we get together at 7

pm (of course, if people come later, that's fine & wonderful too). We will

meet near Caffe Greco, which is on Columbus Street between Vallejo and

Stockton (423 Columbus). One of our coffee aficionados informs me that Caffe

Greco has the best coffee in North Beach, while stocking the soy milk for

which he's been agitating for years! Yummm!

 

What? Vegan Video Brigade

Where? Near Caffe Greco, on Columbus Street between Vallejo & Stockton (use

423 Columbus as a reference)

When? Friday, June 7, 2002, 7 pm - 10 or 11 pm (depending on how strong

that coffee is, and how effective we feel we're being in that area)

Who? You and anyone you would like to bring

Why? Because it's a fun way to do some positive and powerful outreach,

educating people on issues of factory farming & food choices

 

Please let me know if you can make it. If, on the evening of, there's any

confusion of where we might be, please call my cell phone: 650 279 0512.

 

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday!!

 

Cheers,

Alka