In two days, as of noon today, 225 people from all over America have raised $11,005 to help Joshua Rockwood keep his family and his farm and his animals healthy and safe in the face of a cruel and unjust persecution by local authorities and the new and Orwellian hysteria spawned by the movement that says it is for the rights of animals. We are more than halfway there.
Joshua needs $5,000 to meet his gofundme project goal
“Never give up,” wrote Laurie Martenson on his project page as she donated $15, “a lot of people are pulling for you.” This support is touching to see. The contributions are not from the powerful or the wealthy, the big media has no interest in Joshua, politicians have run away from him, secret informers have targeted him and frightened his family, the police have raided his farm and taken his horses away, the town government of Glenville, N.Y., sleeps through this travesty, obliviousness to it’s implications.
Joshua has touched many people in a profound way. He is fighting for his farm and his freedom and his life with dignity and restraint. He has turned down a deal that would have dismissed 12 of the ludicrous charges against, he will not plead guilty to something he did not do, he says.
The contributions are coming in steadily, mostly for $5 and $10 and $25. And from everywhere in the United States and a number of other countries. The $100 contributions stand out, but this awakening is a people’s revolution, farmers, fathers and mothers, animal lovers, even some teenagers. We all sense something of ourselves and our own lives in Joshua and his struggle. It could have been our farm raided in the bitter March cold wave by police officers who know nothing of animals or farming. Our water tanks that froze. Our barns that were unheated. Our horses – or dogs or donkeys – taken away, held for thousands of dollars in ransom by people with staggering conflicts of interest. Our bank accounts depleted by enormous legal fees.
Joshua was arrested on charges of animal cruelty and abuse in March, he is not yet even close to a trial date or resolution of his case, and winter looms. He is studying and planning and thinking about how to prepare for it, he seeks funding for four tire water tanks and a large Greenhouse Shelter his pigs, cows and cattle. That will help him to grow and improve his farm and perhaps also keep him safe from the prying eyes of the secret informers who upended his life and who spy on their fellow citizens and neighbors and look to report them for the new and arbitrary notions of animal abuse.
I have come to know Joshua and am proud to call him my friend. He worries about me as much as I worry about him. And he worries about a lot of people – customers, fellow farmers, friends, neighbors, his children, and his wife, who is terrified to let her children play outside in case the informers claim they are being abused and try to take them away.
It is a beautiful thing to see this people’s uprising against an obvious injustice, an obvious overreach of government. In a democracy, wrote John Locke, it’s inventor, government exists to protect freedom and property. When it seeks to take freedom and property away, it is called tyranny. Here, and in many other cases around the country, the movement that says it is for the rights of animals has lost it’s way, lost perspective. Animals are not better than people, they are not entitled to more rights than human beings have. They are our partners, not our dependents, they share the joys and travails of our world, they cannot be given a perfect life any more than we can guarantee that to ourselves and our children.
The billionaires will not be writing checks to Joshua’s gofundme project, will not step in to fund his farm improvements. They are out buying their next presidents. It seems the people will come stand with Joshua, and they are making themselves heard. He is on the right side. We are helping to save one life, one at a time. Our one kind of powerful Super Pac.
“Stand strong,” Joshua Miller, who gave $10 this morning, “the folks are rootin’ for you and yours. Your case impacts us all. Best thing that could happen besides you being completely vindicated, would be for your efforts to be wildly successful. I only wish I could give more.”
In a way, the small amounts mean more than the big ones, although both are surely welcome. It will take a lot of people to get Joshua over the top, to the $16,000 he needs for the winter and beyond. I am confident now that we will get there, and grateful to be part of this new social awakening.
When you give money to Joshua’s project, you are donating to larger things as well. To keeping animals in our lives rather than driving them away. To our wish for people as well as animals to be treated with dignity and respect. To the idea that we are all part of a common community, we sometimes need help and guidance, but honest and caring people do not deserve to be persecuted because our feckless governments and political leaders have forgotten their duty, and forgotten as well what it means to be a farmer and live with animals.
An animal rights movement that exploits the love of animals to treat people with horrible cruelty is bankrupt and doomed. Every dollar that goes to Joshua is a step towards a better understanding of animals, the treatment of people with compassion, to a better way and a better world. You can contribute to his gofundme here. Joshua Rockwood is standing strong.