I was so happy to open the East Tennessean and to see the section on vegetarianism for the first time since I have been attending this school. I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian and I am raising my 5-year-old daughter vegetarian as well. It is often very difficult to live in the pork-eating city we live in and be vegetarian. I, too, have had a lot of looks when I ordered meatless meals. But, I have decided to cook mostly at home and to send vegetarian lunches with my daughter to school. On several occasions she has had teachers tell her that she is “suppose to eat meat.” But thankfully, she is strong enough to tell them that we don’t eat other beings. I chose to become vegetarian in order to have a healthy lifestyle and to not participate in the slaughter of innocent animals.
I hope your article will enlighten others to our way of life and maybe even educate a few die-hard anti-vegetarians we often run into. Thanks for not walking on eggshells either, but telling the truth about what actually happens to the animals. I’d like to add to your examples that pig knuckles, snouts and guts are ground up into hotdogs. I’d suggest that others check out the Peta site as well and if they can order the video, Meet Your Meat. It’s very educational and shows the process and pain that animals go through in order for them to appear on the dinner table.
Thanks for writing this and I hope this will not be the last word on vegetarianism here at ETSU. There are a lot of vegetarians who often don’t voice their opinions as loudly, so hopefully this will start the ball rolling in maybe getting a group started, or bringing more vegetarian options to the menus.
Patrice Farmer

Author