Will Tuttle lecture (author of "The World Peace Diet")

March 21, 2010 @ 9:30 pm

A few days ago I read a blog entry by one of my favorite animal rights/vegan blog writers, Angel Flinn, enthusing about author/musician and vegan activist Will Tuttle and his new book, The World Peace Diet, which recently hit #1 on Amazon.

I checked out his website, worldpeacediet.com, and lo and behold, he was scheduled to speak a 10-minute drive from my home here in San Francisco at the First Unitarian Universalist Society. It was one of those coincidences I couldn’t ignore.

The lecture started off with a lively introduction by Dixie Mahy, the president of the San Francisco vegetarian society and a 76 year-old vegan (since age 25) in perfect health (“No arthritis, no medications!”) Then Bob Linden of goveganradio.com took the stage and gave a powerful speech connecting veganism as the baseline for correcting so many of today’s ills: war, famine, environmental destruction, cruelty to animals.

Soon the main speaker, Will Tuttle, gave an impressive performance of one of his own compositions on piano before taking the stage to talk about his life and book. It was great to be in a room full of like-minded people who cared about animals and, if they weren’t vegan themselves, were at least curious enough about the topic to listen. Every word Bob and Will said resonated with me as powerful validation of the inherent truths I’ve rediscovered and learned much more about since going vegan last October: Animals have souls. They suffer. They want to live. Meat and dairy are devastating to them, one’s health, the environment and even our own interconnectedness and sense of peace with ourselves. I joined everyone else for a standing ovation.

The lecture ended with Ms. Mahy bringing up a champion vegan bodybuilder, the humble and gracious Kenneth Williams. The whole thing was incredibly inspiring, an experience I’ll never forget. It really gave me hope that more people are becoming aware of all the positives this way of life has to offer people and our planet.

I invite you to read Angel Flinn’s original post about this book, along with all of her other blog entries (which you can subscribe to from that same link). She is, to me, an exceptionally articulate and compassionate voice in the animal rights community.

On a Sunday, I was grateful for the reminder that there are such good people in the world, both on the stage and in the audience.

Will’s Twitter handle is @willtuttle, and Angel’s is @angelflinn. Please follow and spread the word using the #vegan and #ar [animal rights] tags

Check out this short video of Will’s piano performance. Amazing!

Will Tuttle on piano