The Dignity of Living Beings With Regards To Plants

(The Silent Screams of Asparagus)
4th place in contest

The Swiss, those bastions of “Pease, Not War”
That neutral country to the core
Have gone to the edge – then one step more
On the Dignity of Plants

The killing of flora is morally wrong
The concept of “Plant Rights” missing too long
They’re crying out loud and crying out strong
On the Dignity of Plants

They’ve adopted a biocentric moral view
Living plants are alive just like me and you
So we have to be thinking in all that we do
On the Dignity of Plants

Individual plants have an inherent worth
They don’t just appear, they get here by birth
So when dealing with plants we have to think first
On the Dignity of Plants

They say that the farmer can mow his own field
They don’t explain why – but the hay has appealed
Beheading of flowers – on that he must yield *
To the Dignity of Plants

The Swiss enshrinement of “plant dignity”
Is a symptom of cultural disease
Infecting Western culture
Bringing critical thinking to its knees

The Judeo-Christian world view
Which upheld the unique nature of man
Has fallen on hard times so now we can sue
We’ve no leg on which we can stand

Animal rights from this poisonous soil
Have crippled our courts, caused tempers to boil
Now flora and fauna have joined the coil
On the Dignity of Plants

If animals and man can feel real pain
As PETA explains and explains and explains
Then plants should be treated exactly the same
That’s the Dignity of Plants

Now some Swiss are saying that plants must come first
That “Man” is the AIDS of our dear Mother Earth
We may have to expel him for he is the curse
On the Dignity of Plants

We live in a time of cornucopian wealth
Yet millions of humans suffer in health
So hiding behind “plants rights” in stealth
Is no Dignity of Man

Me, I’ve got my dignity
Plants equal to man is just foreign to me
Giving plants our rights is immorality
And that is my stance on Plants

 
Mdailey

*   At this point it remains unclear whether this action is condemned because it 
expresses a particular moral stance of the farmer toward other organisms or 
because something bad is being done to the flowers themselves.

This is no HOAX.  The concept of what could be called “plant rights” is being 
seriously debated in the Swiss courts.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2011

Poem

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Dietrich Avatar
July 23, 2011 at 1:45 PM
hahaha, thanks for bringing to light this LUDICROUS situation in Swiss courts. You are not kidding? plants AND animals were given to man for our use in their consumption. So I will grab me a beef burger and smother it with onions and lettuce. Great win. Congratulations.
Horne Avatar
July 19, 2011 at 11:56 AM
LOL, My congrats to you, Mike : )
Brown Avatar
July 19, 2011 at 5:06 AM
Congratulations Mike on your win in P.D.'s contest "Only (Nature) Allowed". Love, Carol
Sweetheart Avatar
July 18, 2011 at 7:43 PM
congrats mike on your fabulous fourth place win with this energetic entry luv..enjoy...
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Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace