Not sure what sparked this, but it was sparked so here it is. Once again not proofread.
Often times people ask me, "why are you a vegetarian?" Well, here it is.
Once upon a time a 13 year old girl had a few environmentally conscience friends.
As you may know, I was a very angsty teen and tried my hand at any non conformist actions available to me in my little world. Once I began researching how the animals are slaughtered and processed for sale, I decided it just wasn't an acceptable practice. I will spare you the details, they are available through numerous radical agencies if you are interested, just search. I knew my love and compassion for animals ran deeper than that of my domesticated friends. Then to learn that the meat packing industry is not only cruel and unusual, but the products they output are incredibly unfit to consume and the industry itself is a huge detriment to our atmosphere and o-zone, I decided to pass. I don't wear animal products, I don't eat them. I also don't tell others what to do with their bodies and lives. I accept that not everyone feels this way. I married a non-vegetarian and i love him. He does sacrifice how much meat he eats due to me being the main dinner cook. I appreciate that he is understanding of me, and does not try to change my beliefs, so I show him the same courtesy.
This mutual understanding and love for each other's belief systems brings me to this:
If everyone would understand that we are not all the same and that we are a diverse culture and society, we may not have so many problems. We as people tend to get so hung up on what people around us are doing or not doing. Before you judge someone for their personal morals, take a long look in the mirror and examine yourself. You may think someone's religion is an abomination and silly, but think of it as an outsider. How does your religion look to them? If we aren't killing or hurting each other because of our beliefs than is it really worth stirring up problems by telling someone what they believe is wrong and they should save themselves? If a churchlike institution works for you, it doesn't mean it works for everyone. The same goes both ways. For my athiests and agnostics-if you choose to not have a firm foundation in the existence of higher dieties, that is your choice. I don't think my pagan, christian, muslim, etc. people are crazy for believing there is. Leave them to their faith. The same principles go for sexuality and sexual preference. The way people act towards gay couples is like they feel they are trash hoarding bubonic plague victims. It is utterly disgusting. I know people that say they are not against gay and lesbian people, but they always have negative comments about them. I will be against gay unions when I learn that everytime a gay union happens, a natural disaster wipes out a village or a random person has a tragic accident. Seriously, these people believe in the true concept of love without boundaries-take notes. If we could all love our partners in life without boundaries, what amazing marriages we would have!
I just get so disappointed when I read about how hateful people are.
When I was growing up neighbors were saviors. My neighbors took note of our familily's misfortunes and made a gesture of support. My father had been laid off, locked out, and on strike with the steel union. I will never forget the way my neighbors pulled together to help us. I look around my neighborhood now and think, who are these people? I don't know, I don't care and it is truly sad. When I was living back east, this didn't happen. I grew up outside of the city and we took care of each other. When I moved out and moved into the city limits, I still saw how people took care of each other. When I moved here I noticed a change. I bought my house and the only one to come over and say hello, was a 70 something german woman down the street. Out in my parents community people still have that great neighborly outlook, but they are older. Is it a generational gap? I will be the first to say that I don't like neighbors, but this was not the case until we bought our house here in AZ. Well, there was one neighbor in our Youngstown, Ohio apt. that I hated too, but he broke in and stole my stuff.
Seriously, lets just agree to disagree, clean up after ourselves in life, and learn to be compassionate and accept the differences of our fellow humans.
This is great, Tara. It made me want to write about my reasons, but when I sat down and put it all out there, it was too emotional. I still hate the memory of why I switched. I'm glad I switched, I think I would have done it eventually, as I was aware of all the reasons you listed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. :)