User:Lmg2005/sandbox

Activists

The quote “blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another,” by George Eliot (brainyquote.com) states that there is nothing as blessed as the influence of one person on another. Most activists are influenced by problems around them, Ric O’Barry first hand, by experiencing a dolphin death in his arms to Martin Luther King Jr, by experiencing segregation himself. Howard Lyman even watched as chemicals, that were used for “modern farming”, wrecked his fields. Even if all activists cases are different, they are all influenced by problems around them, some by reading an article and others watching as it happens. One of the more popular activists is Martin Luther King Jr, a speaker against segregation and black rights. Another activist is Ric O‘Barry who originally was a dolphin trainer, but started speaking out about dolphin rights. Lastly, is Howard Lyman, a cattle rancher that went vegan. When Ric O’Barry was training dolphins for the show, Flipper, one of the five main dolphins, Kathy, died in his arms. Ric believes that she had committed suicide. Ever since Kathy’s death, Ric has been fighting for dolphin rights and thinks that training dolphins and forcing them to do tricks is wrong. Once, Ric was called to move two dolphins to the Gulf of Mexico and he happily did so, but was fined for illegally transporting the dolphins and harassment to the dolphins. Ric also created the documentary, The Cove, which tells about the deadly dolphin capture and slaughter in Japan, and the politics around the killings. In The Cove, Ric and other activists worked to expose the horrible practice of capturing the dolphins with noise and separating the baby dolphins from the adults, capturing some of the dolphins for tricks and killing the rest for dolphin meat. Ric is currently leading many voices against to end the killings in Japan, the Solomon Islands, Faroe Islands, and Indonesia (dolphinproject.net). On Earth Day, 1970, Ric launched the Dolphin Project, a huge campaign against the multi-billion-dollar dolphin captivity industry. Dolphin Project has been going on ever since. Howard Lyman was a fourth generation cattle rancher and had farmed thousands of acres of land, he had seen first hand what the dangerous chemicals, which were used for “modern farming”, had done to the soil. In 1979, Howard was diagnosed with a tumor in his spine and he promised himself that if he would go to non chemical means on growing his food and become a vegan if he lived his surgery. Howard survived, becoming an activist against the use of dangerous chemicals in the fields. Howard worked on Capitol Hill for five years, getting some small successes, such as passing the National Organic Standards Act. But even after the act became a law, it took the administration many years to allow the spending for the project (madcowboy.com) Howard converted his ranch into a sanctuary for wildlife and has been traveling the world speaking and talking about veganism, organic farming and animal rights (freefromharm.org). If you were a black in the mid 1900s you were segregated by other people who thought that black people were below them. When Martin Luther King Jr. was born, in 1929, blacks were still discriminated against. Martin Luther King Jr led rallies and marches for black rights. Martin Luther was influenced by problems around he because he, personally, noticed and experienced the problems of segregation. In his famous, “I Have A Dream”, speech he said,”…one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers…”, after his speech not many people spoke out, telling people about the effects of the speech. Even during his speech, the Bristol Bus Company announced that they would drop its color bar. But even as many people were agreeing with Martin Luther King Jr., he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 on the balcony of his motel. There is nothing as important as the influence of one person on another, as George Eliot's quote, "blessed is the influence of one true loving human soul on another", states. Ric O'Barry was influence by his dolphin, Kathy after she died. Howard Lyman saw his fields destroyed by the chemicals used to help the animals grow and get more crop yields. Martin Luther King Jr. was influenced by the people around him and himself because both him and the other blacks in the U.S. were being unfairly discriminated against.