Will the real Dante Marquez please stand up?

I know I won't get an answer to this question because the fact is, Dante Marquez does not exist. He writes letters to the editor praising the vegetarian lifestlye now and again, but in reality, he is a nobody.
I know this because the newspaper I work for published one of his letters last year and we got a letter from a woman who had seen that very letter under about 20 different names in other newspapers. I edit letters every week, and I know how most people write. Even the ones who write decent, understandable letters usually aren't so eloquent as this guy was, and I was suspicious. Anyway, I got wise, and now, when I receive a letter from the elusive Mr. Marquez, I usually give it a pitch. I did go to some trouble to confirm my theory that Dante Marquez, as the 60s comedian Dave Gardner put it, "is a fig-a-ment."
We've also received similar letters from another individual whose existence I doubt as well. Can't remember his name, though. Both people have somewhat unusual names that stand out among the predominately Anglo-Celtic names in Alabama. The second red flag was that both addresses lead directly to apartment complexes (no apartment number specified, naturally), and their phone numbers are toll-free. How very odd. I called one of the toll-free numbers and asked for, not Mr. Marquez, but someone who happens to share the same name as my cousin's husband. I was told he was on the phone and asked if I wanted to leave a message.
A little more digging using the phrases in the letters led me to a vegan Web site that promoted letter-writing campaigns. I looked up their address and was led, oddly enough, to an apartment number. I suspect they run this enterprise from their little domicile. Busted. I now know who's running this and why.
My problem with all this is that it disgusts me that these people feel the need to make up names and use false addresses and phone numbers, just to get their message out to the masses. If they want to encourage people to eat tofurkey on Thanksgiving, well and good. But they need to do it under their own names. The First Amendment is still in full force, and they are free to encourage people to eat shoelaces and bubblegum on Thanksgiving, if that's what turns their gears. But they need to do it under their own steam. Anything else, in my opinion, certainly diminishes their cause, and absolutely casts a bad light on their character. Besides--it's just a cheap and cheesy thing to do to get a point across. Particularly as preachy as these letters tend to be.
Some people might think that how someone eats cannot be a religion, but brothers and sisters, I beg to differ! Reading through a PETA magazine is enough to convince anyone that some of these vegan people have made an absolute CULT out of how they eat. They proselytize, hand out pamphlets and free materials about the wonders of the veggie lifestyle. They offer all these free resources, tout this lifestyle as the best thing to happen to humanity since the wheel, make subtle-- and not-so-subtle-- remarks about the barbaric, ignorant, unenlightened lifestyle of the "carnivore"-- their erroneous term for non-veggies. Look up carnivore and omnivore in the dictionary. However, those in the carrot cult are tickled plumb to death to welcome in a new convert, because, after all, it is a completely NEW lifestyle. The new has come and the old has passed away. They are new creatures in Veggieism. All hail the power of the great Veg!! I'm surprised they don't have hymns. "Amazing veg, how sweet it is/to do away with meat./I once drank milk, but its all soy now./Loved beef, but now tofu's my treat." Or, "Blessed tofurkey, tempeh is mine. Now that I'm meat-free, I'm feeling divine. I'm now so enlightened, so fully evolved, not like those cretins who still eat the hog. This is my story, veggies my chow. I'm so much better than those who eat cow. This is my story, and veggies my chow, you're just sub-human if you still eat cow." (With the very deepest of apologies to Fanny Crosby.)
They warn the neophyte vegan that they will undergo persecution for their decision, that it will be unpopular because other people just don't understand. They realize that the newbie may slip, but praises to parsnips, they can repent and be received yet again into the loving and sweet congregation of the New Vegan Life Community Enlightened Fellowship of Those Who are too Superior to Kill Poor Defenseless Animals and Consume their Contaminated Flesh.
Lest anyone misunderstand, I'm not against a vegetarian or vegan eating plan. Go for it. What I do strenuously object to, however, is being made to feel quite unevolved and positively Neanderthalish for wanting a steak once in a while! Vegans (rightly) don't want people preaching at them because they don't eat meat. Well by the Lord Harry, don't preach at me because I do!!
I also don't subscribe to organizations who claim to have animal welfare at heart, yet secretly funnel money to terrorist organizations that bomb research labs and usually end up killing some poor janitor who is trying to provide for his family. These groups do absolutely nothing for anyone else. Looking down some of these "legitimate" organizations' back trails is an interesting project, and plenty of information is readily available online.
Bottom line: eat what you want. Write letters to the editor about your views, under your own name. Don't, however, harangue me because I don't choose the same lifestyle you did. I promise to give you the same consideration.