Respectful dialogue and education vs. forcing views on others

It feels like we have lost the ability to respectfully disagree. This is occurring on the national and state level as evidenced by the increasingly partisan positions that our political leaders are taking, whether it be in the school furlough negotiations, or in the national health care debate. Even in debates where the people involved are actually close in their outlook and aims, often vitriol and bitter words are reserved for those who have the same general aims and outlook, but who differ in some of their views. A recent example from my own dealings:

I engaged in an email exchange with a vegan who emailed me in response to my article about Island Dairy on the Big Island which produces Hawaii's Fresh Milk, a great local product. Down to Earth is a vegetarian company, we do not sell meat, fish, fowl, or eggs, or products which contain slaughtered animal ingredients. Vegans do not consume any products derived from animals, i.e. in addition to not eating meat etc., they also do not eat dairy products, honey, etc. So to most people, i.e. the 95% plus of people who eat meat, there may not appear to be much difference between the two groups. Vegetarians and vegans are closely aligned, they are both against animal mistreatment and don't eat meat. However, this particular vegan became opinionated and angry in their communications with me. In response I sent them the following in an email (I post it here to explain Down to Earth's perspective and philosophy on educating our customers and the public on the issues we hold important, as opposed to trying to force our views on others):

"I appreciate your deep convictions, and your right to hold and propagate them. I have long been aware of these issues and have had many discussions with vegans in the past and in the present and will no doubt have them in the future.

"In my life I have learnt that the way the message is delivered is often as important as the message itself. At Down to Earth we respectfully invite others to consider our viewpoint that the single most important thing a person can do for their health, for the environment, and for the sake of the innocent animals is to adopt a vegetarian diet. We do not force our viewpoint on others, we don’t try to convince them and then get angry at them if they do not accept our views, we understand that others may not agree with us; our customers appreciate this and are thus not alienated.

"We respect the right of meat eaters to eat meat (as abhorrent to us as that may be), and we respect the right of vegans to be vegan. We try to educate others on the issues that we feel are important and encourage them to make positive changes in their life, i.e. to improve their diets to eat less meat, to eat organic, to avoid GMOs etc. I hope that you can appreciate where we are coming from and perhaps respect the efforts we are making, even if they are not in complete harmony with your beliefs."

Thanks for reading.

Mark Fergusson
Chief Vegetarian Officer

P.S. I hope you are enjoying the changes to the blog with Shelly and Caitlin joining the blogging team.