The Hypocrite's Oath

The thing is I was a vegetarian for five years of my life. That was many years ago and I believed torturing animals for food was bad.  I still think it's horrific, but why am I not a vegetarian anymore?  Am I some sort of hypocrite?

Sort of. 

I mean when I was young I thought I'd sell all my books for nothing just to get my words out there.  Now: show me the money baby.  What am I some sort of materialistic opportunist?

Sort of.

I admit I drink Diet Coke and they are associated with some scandal, I even admit to shopping at Walmart on occasion and we all know how they treat their employees.  I mean I'm workin on it, baby steps.  I never recycled before and now my roommate is making me do it.

Don't get me wrong I want to do the right  thing, but what's right for me is not always right for the animals or the homeless population, the workers or the environment.  I remember reading a post on Facebook called something like "Black folk don't go green" and I thought to myself wow I get that.  Don't get me wrong I love our planet and I want to save it too.

I guess my thing is, I got to help me before I can help the animals in some kinda way.  Or the poor or whoever else needs it.

I mean most of us eat meat, and most of us don't like the idea of torturing animals.  In the back of our heads we know the meat industry is evil.  So why do we still think "Where's the beef?"  

Because we don't know what to do about it.

I think having a conversation on the Internet about how animals should not be tortured is a start.  I mean if we talk about it we can do about it and think about it.  

I'm a human and in fact I'm an animal myself.  I gotta feed me before I can feed others.  Don't get me wrong I want to help the world, but do it Oprah style.  

It's like I always say you have to put on your oxygen mask on a plane first before you can put one on your kid.

I want to help people thrive, the first step is to thrive myself, lead by example.

But what about the animals?  I am literally  supporting an industry that violates life.  How do I justify that?

Dude I don't know.  I'm flawed.  Maybe I'm helping the situation by talking about it in a public forum.  Maybe I'm just making excuses for myself publicly.  

The thing is, I feel like my heart's in the right place.  I care about those animals.  I care that there are people suffering while I live like a princess.  

What am I gonna do about it?  I don't know.  I feel like this is a start.  We all have to start somewhere.