I'm concerned about what identifying the cult killers as vegan  is doing to the already negative view of vegans.  

I found this in a Farhad Manjoo opinion piece in the NYTimes.

One survey found that vegans are viewed more negatively than atheists and immigrants, and are only slightly more tolerated than drug addicts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/opinion/vegan-food.html

https://vegnews.com/new-york-times-stop-mocking-vegans#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20vegans%20are%20right.,writes%20opinion%20columnist%20Farhad%20Manjoo.&text=In%20a%20recent%20op%2Ded,from%20animal%20products%20all%20along.

 

The montage above shows the vegan dishes I had between January and November 2023.  There are so many possibilities!  But the SF Gate Best of the Bay Area doesn't have a vegan category at all, and the suggested restaurants, cafes, etc. that it lists aren't vegan.  

https://www.sfgate.com/best/vote/#/gallery?group=506913

 

I was waiting for the #38 Geary at the corner of Geary and Divisadero, when one of three teenage boys asked me, "Could you spare five dollars so I can get a hamburger."

I was keeping my five dollar bills for servers who take pictures of us at the table because I don't think that's part of their job description, and I want to reward them.  But I really didn't need the five dollars that day--no eating out plans--so I gave him the five dollars.  Then it occurred to me that I didn't want him to get a hamburger.  

"Oh, my goodness!  I forgot!  I don't want you to get a hamburger.  They're the worst thing for animals and the environment.  Please get something else."

"He can get a salad," one of the other boys said.  "or a veggie burger."

He asked me, "Are you a vegan?"

"Yes," I said.

"Now I hate you."

"Then give me back my five dollars."  

I couldn't believe I was losing an opportunity to give him a little lesson.

He said, "We need meat for our bodies."

"That's what a lot of people believe," I said.  I could have said so much more.   I should carry around a flyer showing how animals are treated every day of their lives.

I really failed to rise to this occasion!  

The #38 bus was soon there.  

We ate well--and always vegan--in NYC this month!  (But the dish with the halved avocados wasn't in NYC.  It was at the Mission Rock Resort.  
 

You can see the variety of plant-based dishes we enjoyed in New York City between January 10th and January 18th.  We ate at Luanne's Wild Ginger, Aunt and Uncles (in Brooklyn) and Coletta, Mitr Thai, Frenchia's, Ras Ethiopian, and PS Kitchen among other places.  I even found a good vegan dish at Campbell's Bar and at a sandwich shop across from HELL'S KITCHEN! 

 

I forgot to take pictures of my buffet on January 6th--all vegan dishes-before people started eating, but here you can see some of the dishes after a few minutes of friends serving themselves.  

 

 

Here's what Monica Chen of New Roots (formerly Factory Farm Awareness)  says at the beginning of letter going out:

Did you know that factory farms are exempt from the Clean Air Act? This means they’re allowed to emit hydrogen sulfide and ammonia at levels higher than the EPA permits for the oil and gas industry.

This came in when I was writing a letter to the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle:

There's a connection between Peter Hartlaub's article on the fire station decoration contest and Patti Breitman's letter to the editor of  December 24th.  Both mention the manger scene, which Peter Hartlaub reports was created by one fire station between 1948 and 1950 when it "borrowed live animals on route to a local slaughterhouse and used them in a manger scene."  Patti Breitman pleads for showing concern for the animals at peace in the manger scene by abstaining from eating them, an act of kindness in an era when cats and dogs are part of our family but we treat farm animals like insensate beings and accept their suffering  on route to our stomachs.  I want to know more about the incident with the animals temporarily rescued from slaughter.  How did they adjust to the manger scene?  What was their ultimate fate?  I can't find anything online.  Could Peter Hartlaub dig into the archives and do a follow-up?