http://www.legacy.com/omaha/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=93288800I just learned of Marie Schwartz's passing. Marie was the local force against harp seal hunting. I first met her before my first demonstration against Red Lobster for the sea food boycott. Marie devoted most of her time for 2 years to saving seals. She often dressed up in a seal costume for parades, gatherings, etc... You could see kids looking at that costume like she was Santa. Her car was covered with seal info, lovingly called the sealmobile. She called friends for $ and got the banner behind a plane at the College World Series last summer. ESPN carried it live coast to coast. She started the shirts for seals web site to raise funds. Marta and I are proud we each have a shirt. She was on a local radio show arguing with the talk show host about animal rights several times. She was a good friend of Paul Watson at Sea Shepard. It goes on and on.
Her favorite quote was from a Republican about the annual seal hunt:
"How have we allowed this barbarism to increase? Are we so numb that we don’t care anymore about hundreds of thousands of innocent animals who did nothing but be born? If most of us rounded a corner on a highway and saw a slaughter like this, we would call the police, we would scream until our throats gave out, we would probably charge the men with clubs. We wouldn’t say, “I’d do something, but there are so many other problems in the world …” The fact that it’s taking place in Canada doesn’t remove our responsibility. We made a difference once. Our horror, our outrage registered with the Canadian government."
Davis, the daughter of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, is a writer based in Los Angeles
http://www.harpseals.org/hunt/press/patti_davis_seals.htmlhttp://www.shirtsforseals.com/home/Goodbye Marie. Thanks for everything.
With love,
Steve