vegan question?
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Berclair School, Bee County, Texas. In an open field in front of the Berclair Mansion sits an abandoned schoolhouse, filled with faded and broken memories of decades past.
If there is one thing I have learned about Texas, it’s that Texas is filled with abandoned schoolhouses. I’ve run across all sorts of schools all over south Texas – from one-room shanties in the hills of Payton’s Colony or the desert plains of Comstock; to boarded up structures in Gillett and Quihi; to huge half-destroyed high schools in Asherton and Catarina. So it was no surprise to run across an abandoned school in Berclair.
The town of Berclair sprang up in the 1890’s when the railroad was built across the Coastal Bend. While it did serve the local ranchers, Berclair never really exploded, topping out at just 350 residents at its largest. Then the Great Depression hit, and like many small Texas towns, it never really recovered – dropping down to sixty to seventy residents until recently.
I have no idea of exactly when this little schoolhouse closed its doors, but it looks like it must have been at least a few decades ago. Inside, I did find a reunion sign for the Class of 1948. Now the building is filled with some junk scattered around the floor, plus it looks like has been used for storage for various community organizations at one time or another.
The front door opens up into a single central hallway that leads to another door at the rear. The entire left side of the building is one large room, which could be divided into two classrooms, and a raised section towards the rear that can serve as a stage. Off to the right, two smaller rooms filled with trash. A stairway heads to the rafters and attic, doubling as a storage area. In back, separated from the main building are the restrooms.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information at all about this school online. Although the schoolhouse was open to the elements with trash and some graffiti, it appears it has been cleaned up in the past (for class reunions, for example), and will no doubt be fixed up again in the future. Pictures taken March 7, 2009.
Question by crow: vegan question?
How does eatting honey harm the bee? Bees are raised in wooden hives the lower drawer is removed to get the seperate honey section and the bees raise the babies up on another level that isnt disturbed?
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6 Responses to vegan question?
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I think this is nonsense, and if you are vegan for the sake of the critters, it would seem perfectly okay to me to eat honey. The bees do not feel ‘exploited’!
But here is the official (rather silly) argument as to why a vegan should not eat honey:
Thin Kaboudit
May 8, 2012 at 11:26 am
The simplest reason why honey isn’t vegan is by definition. The term vegan was coined by Donald Watson in 1944 and was defined as follows:
Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals .
I.E. vegans don’t eat eggs or drink milk, they are animal byproducts. HONEY is an animal byproduct.
minoloblaniks
May 8, 2012 at 11:33 am
I haven’t been a vegetarian for long but I would assume that it would be fine to eat honey. Bees aren’t necessarily animals and apparently obtaining honey isn’t harmful to the bee so why not?
merlingirl06
May 8, 2012 at 11:51 am
I was told that bees suffer with artificial insemination in the process of producing honey.
claude
May 8, 2012 at 12:40 pm
When honey is “harvested” the bee keepers “smoke” the bees so that they will not hurt them but even though they are basically knocked-out, they grab the honey as quickly as possible which usually kills bees in the process. When those bees die they send a message to he other bees. The other bees attack, sting, and basically commit suicide because whenever a bee stings it usually dies shortly after. That’s how it harms the bees.
Penny
May 8, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Vegans don’t necessariliy avoid animal foods because it harms the animal. They are usually opposed to exploitation of animals, not actual harm.
professional_mother
May 8, 2012 at 1:31 pm