When I first became acquainted with The Honorable Elijah Muhammad�s
term, "poison animal eaters," I, like most of my peers, thought that he
was referring to people who ate a specific type of meat, which was
poison, as distinguished from other meats which were not poison. I
assumed, incorrectly, that meat could be classified as "healthy", and
"unhealthy". Certainly, he wanted to get us to immediately give up the
most poisonous of all the animals we were eating � the filthy swine
(politely referred to by avid pig-eaters as "pork"). In his lectures and
in his writings, The Messenger often stated, "No meat is good for us."
Honor student that I was, and top English student in all my elementary
and high school classes, I was completely thrown by such a simple
sentence. I missed the "double-entendre," which consisted of the fact
that not only was there not a single type of meat in existence that was
good for us, but that the one type of diet which was good for us was a
diet of "no meat!"
It took me a while, but I finally came to understand that The
Messenger�s term "poison animal eaters" referred to those who ate any
kind of animals, all of which were poison.
I don�t think I would get much of an argument, if any, by stating
that only life can produce life � death cannot!
There are many who will raise the point that The Messenger made a
distinction between various types of meat. This is true, but he never
deserted his bottom line � "NO MEAT IS GOOD FOR US!" This is why The
Honorable Louis Farrakhan stated to all his ministers, on Thanksgiving
Day, 1984, "No Minister of mine will ever eat any more meat, ever again
in life!" Soon after that, he made us to understand that the ban did not
apply only to land animals, but to seafood as well. Many months later,
he realized that I had obeyed, because of a decided change in the
condition of my skin. Even though doctors had diagnosed it as a form of
protein poisoning, it never occurred to me that my scaly complexion,
which itched so badly sometimes that I would scratch it until I bled,
was the result of my greed for animal flesh. Soon after I abandoned meat
as a food, the condition began disappearing. I had not noticed the
change until the current Supreme Captain, Brother Mustapha Farrakhan,
pointed it out to both me and his father in New York.
Now, according to the news media, President Bush and his crew want to
poison our children in their school lunches. A press release appearing
in THE NEW YORK TIMES quotes Dr. Samuel S. Epstein as pointing
out that, "The government�s assertion that irradiated food is safe for
human consumption does not even pass the laugh test." Dr. Epstein is
emeritus professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the
University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago. He is quoted as
stating, "Exposing America�s school children to the hazards of
irradiated food is reckless negligence, compounded by the absence of any
warning to parents."
It comes down to the simple realization that death cannot produce
life! Have not we noticed that portions of most fruits and vegetables
which we eat can be planted and nourished and will reproduce the plant
which produced it. But you can�t impregnate a steak or a pork chop and
make it reproduce itself. The plants can do it, for they contain life.
The meats cannot do it because death just cannot produce life!