You are looking at the welcome sign for Effie, Minnesota– population 90.  A place where Matt David is the Mayor, the Neighborhood Tavern is listed as a major employer- and where the recreation department boasts a river for fishing, a shooting preserve for shooting pheasants, and “access to state, federal and county land for hunting.”  All of that AND they are an Edge of Wilderness Community.

Welcome to Effie, an edge of the wilderness community, where you can kill fish for aquatic life, kill shoot pheasants, and kill hunt whatever you want on state, federal, and county lands (aka: where ever you want).  Come to a wilderness community to kill off all of non-human parts the wilderness.

Am I the only one who sees the irony?  Sigh.

But Effie isn’t just a paradise for folks that like to kill hunt, they also have a giant statue of a mosquito to welcome you into their town.  Nothing says “welcome” better than a giant blood-sucking insect!

But seriously, it’s the mosquito that I want to talk about.  The ever annoying blood-sucking insect.  I’m not gonna lie, I don’t like mosquitoes.  I just don’t.  (I’m sure you’re all astounded by this bit of information too, because mosquitoes have such a great fan following??)  So why am I fixated with mosquitoes today?  Well, because today I read this on twitter about our mosquito friends,

If you think you’re too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. ~ Betty Reese

That’s so true, isn’t it?  And it got me thinking about being vegan.  Sometimes, when I talk to people about veganism, folks question the statement I’m making (by being vegan) because there aren’t very many of us out there.  They question if such a small population of animal advocates can really make a difference in the lives of farmed animals.

But isn’t that where all (r)evolutions begin?  In small numbers?  Doesn’t it always start with a few people who suddenly realize that the mainstream isn’t always right?

One mosquito can have a giant impact on a good night’s sleep.  Imagine the giant impact one vegan can have.

Quite simply, little things are big– they really, really are.

That link up there?  It’s to a wonderful blog about a vegan family.  I enjoy reading about the sweet adventures of Marie-Rose, Eric, Cordelia, and Bumblebee.  It’s simple and pure outlook is a refreshing change from the snarkiness you can sometimes find at other blogs, like this one for instance.  And it also happens to be a blog that I read every day.  What I’m getting at is, you should read the blog.  It’s lovely.