Acknowledgment

(These opening comments were written for the California Raw Milk Association rally held January 11, 2009)

This rally began to come into being soon after Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB201. As Most of you know, much of 2008 was devoted to fighting the passage of AB1735 through judicial and legislative channels and this effort will continue on. I am sure Mark will touch on this when he speaks.

My feeling was that it was time to gather and prepare for the next wave. It seemed important to get as many of the customers from the farmers markets together to rub shoulders and meet, if only in passing. At the market, I and the others behind the table with me get to see all of you. To us, you are what makes the markets work. This is important, especially in this day and age.

Around September, an interesting pattern began to present itself. Republicans began to talk to me as if I was a Republican. Democrats would talk to me as if I were a Democrat. It was odd. To me, I was just me. My political choices are kept very private. Most of these conversations took place at the milk stand. Was raw dairy involved in someway?

What I was reminded of and realized again was that nature does not take sides. Raw dairy does not care what your political inclinations are or what church you belong to. Nature and Universe does not care to have buffers nor invests in anything outside of itself. It is constantly and eternally investing in itself and it's know-how. It is a pure example of worth doing.

One must have courage to encourage. Universe does this naturally. The dairies, the producers and the people who have benefited from this wonderful whole food are living examples of this integrity. We seem to have become, consciously or unconsciously and whether we like it or not, the paradigm shift. We seem ti have become the paradigm itself.

I like when Jack Bezian cackles, "We have been mislead!" If you think you haven't, then raise your hand if you believe that the sun both rises and sets. We've known for 500 years that the earth rotates around the sun. Yet what we think we see and the language we use to describe this visual is rooted in the days of flat-earth thinking, the days of God vs. Devil, the days of heaven vs. hell and the days when healers were considered witches and heretics and burned at the stake.

Well I don't believe in a devil. And it becomes clearer and clearer to me that it is pointless to blame anybody for anything. Universe and nature doesn't hate us for doing this. She waits patiently for us to discover, realize, understand and integrate her principles. We risk to realize and, in doing so, realize that we too are pure examples of worth doing. We always have been, are now, and always will be.

So this raw dairy thing is worth doing. Our health is worth investing in along with our children's health and their children's health. Our bodies are innocent, worth fighting for and protecting. Or potentials are worth discovering and growing. Humanity is worth advantaging. And the best convincers in this game are healthy bodies, high spirits, gleaming eyes and an omnidirectional glow that emanates both fierceness and love.