Cruelty-Free: Reflections from the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

My weeks here in Washington DC have been flying by!  I’ve been making the most of my time — learning so much through the legal internship, taking lots of yoga classes, visiting some of my old haunts, and catching up with all my east-coast friends.  Finally, I set aside time in the schedule to make it over to the National Mall.

My first time at the Lincoln Memorial is one of my earliest memories: a family trip to Washington DC when I was only four years old.  I remember the stairs leading up to the statue seemed like they went on forever, waves in a sea of white.  As I stood at the base of the statue of Lincoln in his chair, I was so small that, when I looked up, I couldn’t see Lincoln’s face; all I could see were the massive hands that stretched over the ends of the chair’s arms.  And then, I remember how my perspective changed as my father took me in his arms and lifted me up and set me on his shoulders. In one sweeping motion, it all came together.  I stared into the mammoth face.

Since that time, I have revisited the memorial many times and, at least in part, it’s because of this early memory that the Lincoln Memorial is extra special to me among all the monuments.  I have walked up its steps countless times, with many people who have figured heavily in my own life through the years: layers of context that, taken together, have an added poignancy well beyond the significance of each instance.  Since that first visit, of course I’ve also learned more about Lincoln as a man, and about his place in American history.  I now read much more into the stoic expression on the statue’s face.  And I’ve developed an appreciation for all that has transpired on the same steps I struggled to climb with my toddler legs and now leap up with my adult legs.  Now, from the top of the steps, as I look over the Mall and towards the Washington Monument in the distance, I think of Marian Anderson, an African-American woman with the voice of an angel, singing on the steps in 1939 to a crowd of 75,000 people; the open-air concert came about because she was refused the opportunity to sing at Constitution Hall for an integrated audience.  Each time I visit the memorial, I will always reflect on the milestones in our national history that it celebrates as much as it pays tribute to Mr. Lincoln himself: the end of slavery, the culmination of the civil rights movement, and other victories that have moved us towards equality and social justice.  I cannot imagine living in a nation where there were humans in chains, forced to work plantations; where there were signs over doors that marked separate entrances for “whites” and “blacks”; and where it was acceptable to deny people jobs or services based on their race, sex, or sexual orientation.  But those times did exist, and not all that long ago.  What history proves to us over and over again is that change for the better is possible.

Here’s the hope: I realize that it’s just as possible when it comes to how our society treats animals.  It’s just as appropriate for those working towards animal rights to hope and to dream… and to expect change.  There will be a day when our children, or our children’s children, will hear about factory farms and canned hunt facilities and wonder how they ever could have existed.  Unfathomable, they’ll think to themselves.  If I’m lucky, I’ll have an opportunity in this lifetime to stand at the top of the Lincoln Memorial’s steps and once again consider all the peacemakers in this world — great leaders and ordinary citizens alike.  And once again, I’ll be able to marvel at how far we’ve come.

Not far from the Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson stands in the middle of a rotunda that’s inscribed with many of his inspirational words.  My personal favorite: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

Washington Monument

When it comes to how we treat animals — whether it’s in the small decisions we make each day like using products that do not test on animals, or the grand changes we can make through legislation — I believe we, as a society, are in the process of once again choosing a new coat.  It’s precisely our ability to evolve that empowers us as individuals and as a whole.  Lincoln and Jefferson thought so, too.

(photo credit: Seth Webster)