Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the intensive confinement of egg-laying hens in tiny wire battery cages. Is anyone for this practice?
A few other cities have passed such resolutions.
Albany-based (really, Berkeley) Andronico's Markets and a few other chains have announced they will stop selling eggs laid in cages. Soon, nobody will sell them.
Is this the kind of motion that the rest of the country mocks us for? Of course.
Does anyone want to eat eggs laid by hens standing in feces and next to diseased of dying hens? Of course not.
This is a perfect example that what often starts a a lefty "fringe" position on an issue--this is about more than just compassion for hens--turns out to be based on common sense and generally accepted.
This is a picture of anti-conscription rally in 1940--Berkeley's questioning attitude was around before hippies and Mario Savio came to town.
That will be the case on this issue. People in Berkeley, and a few other places, initiate the discussions. (Of course, there is plenty of gibberish in our community dialogue as well.) The people open to change and new ways of handling old circustances are mocked as being idealistic, unreasonable, silly or just Berserkely.
However, the mainstream often comes to realize the wisdom of change: free speech, civil rights and fresh coffee are good things; apartheid, and wars in Vietman and Iraq are bad things.
We in Berkeley are not alone, but we are sure outnumbered.
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