Vegetarian rant.

"Star Trek is boring, guys. Hey, what can I get into over here? Look at me, wheeee!"

This is going to be a vegetarian rant. Because we are vegetarians and I received an email today that made me feel very disappointed. And I worry about A-chan being a vegetarian child in the future and being discriminated against. Yes, I really did say discriminated against for being vegetarian. Not in any overt way - certainly nothing like asian americans or other ethnic ancestored people experience. (for examples of what i'm talking about visit Mama Nabi's Hwe blog or The Lotus Life blog) This is more of a 'gosh, vegetarians want to be able to come here and eat too, fancy that!' type of discrimination. An almost unconsious non-recognition of vegetarians and their lifestyle is way too common. Perhaps it's just that way here in Georgia, but come on - our town even has two dedicated vegetarian restaurants!

Let me get back to the point...I received an email today about the upcoming Burns Night Dinner. Last year we had worked with our scottish country dance group to create and host the Burns Night dinner: it was a potluck affair and very low key. We were delighted at the chance to join in the entertainment but be able to bring our own vegetarian renditions of old scottish dishes. (We were not the only vegetarians in attendance, either) This year's Dinner is a high-class affair ($25 a head) with authentic scottish dishes catered. I read the announcement about 3 times, hoping that "vegetarian alternatives available" might magically appear somewhere on the page. I feel...disappointed, left out, sad and discriminated against. I might feel a little different if the people involved had not been our friends for a while and knew last year how we felt at being able to enjoy Rabbie Burn's b-day celebration with everyone else. This year it seems that they deliberately didn't include anything vegetarian. of course, it probably isn't intentional, but more of the unconscious, "you wanted to come? but we're having haggis" attitude. Yes, we could go and spend $75 for all three of us. But if we're not eating any of the meal that's a pretty darned high price tag for a two hour gig.

I'm extremely sad about the whole thing. For a year I've been looking forward to going to this celebration. We had so much fun last year! And A-chan enjoyed the heck out of it last year. She loves bagpipes, she loves to see other men in kilts besides her da, she loved the dancing and the harps and the fun. And she won't get to enjoy any of it this year. What other things will she be unwelcome at in the future? Are we being bad parents for raising her vegetarian, against the grain of most of the populace of this country? Heck, you can get vegetarian food at Burn's Night celebrations in Scotland! But not here.

Okay, rant over :)