DOAKS

Editors note: Sometime between last week and this week, I decided to submit an article to the Forward. After visiting the Kippah article on their site, I discovered that the Forward accepts submissions from outside writers.

So, being a wholly outsider and a wanna be writer, I sat down for a bit and tried to come up with something. Anyways, after reviewing my drivel, it dawned upon me that the Forward would never publish this little piece. So I’m doing the next best thing; I am placing it on the VK blog.

There’s been a whole lot of stuff written about the Rubashkin company. I’m surprised that the Kosher Slaughterhouse Scandal of 2008 has not yet been introduced as a key issue in the ongoing presidential elections, alongside offshore drilling and the war in Iraq.

The animal rights people are outraged with the way animals are being mistreated. Hence their decision to go vegan.

Personally, I’m furious with the treatment of vegetation! Last month, I witnessed with my own two-eyes and gaping jaw, a terrible scenario involving an orange. I saw someone literally plunge the blade of a knife into the heart of the acidy fruit. Then this monster proceeded to tear off the peels of the orange until it was entirely peeled. And then the unthinkable; this despicable creature ate the orange. Without shame.

Needless and seedless to say, I haven’t eaten an orange since I watched the aforementioned scene of grapefruit brutality.

It gets worse. Guess what I just found out? Do you have any idea on how wine is produced? Mercenary wineries squeeze the living juice out of grapes. That’s right. Grapes are mercilessly subjected to bouts of compression and wrangling. Ouch. Now I understand the term “grapes of wrath”. If someone plucked me from my home and put me through the wringer, I’d be pretty wrathful myself.

There is actual video footage documenting this pernicious wine-making process. Perhaps you’ve already seen it. It’s from an ancient I Love Lucy episode. Lucy is extracting a liquid substance from grapes in order to make wine. How is she performing this task? By jumping up and down on the grapes. Barefoot. There is no compassion. No dignity afforded to these small round fruit.

Wine is generally considered a classy drink. And to think that this beverage is made through the suffering of the lowest hanging fruit.

How does wine remain morally potable?