4.22.2011

save the earth



from an early age i was an environmentalist.  in fact,  i started a save the earth club as a gawky fifth grader, enlisting my buddies in regular trash pick-up around the neighborhood.  i had a three-ring binder, checklists, greenpeace literature and everything.  no, this wasn't just some hair-brained idea of fun for me.  deep inside, i knew things weren't quite right.  

as a high-schooler, i became vegan, back when it wasn't fashionable.  i did this after learning about some of the evils of factory farming. the disrespect for animals, for the environment, and for humanity at large that went into meat production was all too much for my weak little heart.  it was then that i began to read labels, and really examine what i was putting in, on or around my body.  lots of chemicals, it turned out.  

as a college student, i started to learn about the history of food production, and how the fda, corporate agribusiness and the pharmaceutical industry has jeopardized our health at large.  nowadays, the extent to which things aren't right with the world breaks my heart almost daily.  being married to an environmentalist carpenter, i've learned even more about high levels of toxicity in commonly used building materials, not to mention paints and finishes.  it's a lot to wrap your mind around.

frankly, you can never ask enough questions.  it's not enough to assume that people are looking out for your best interest. they might not even know that the meat they're serving you is full of hormones and antibiotics, or that the cabinets they're installing in your house are soaked in cancer-causing formaldehyde.  these days, there's no way to protect yourself completely.

supposedly, an ecological conscientiousness is growing, but simultaneously, so is the massive amount of waste we are creating.   to me, the blanket of ignorance, the dumb smiles, the what i don't know can't hurt me attitude is even more of a waste.  i believe, to this day, that chemical toxins in food, products, and the environment are what killed my mother, are the source of widespread terminal diseases like cancer.  that, my friends, is a bitter pill to swallow. 

we can only save ourselves with knowledge.  we are our only advocates.  for me, hiding out in the country is one solution, a place where the natural beauty outweighs the destruction of manpower.  but even still, the river water that flows to the bay is full of feces from the cows that make the burgers we may eat tomorrow, that bay may be a red tide full of pesticides and chemical fertilizers from the growing of genetically modified corn that someone will surely put on the grill at a family barbecue or grind into millions of processed foods we eat daily.  but even still, i may eat an oyster from that same bay.  because denial ain't just a river in egypt.....the world isn't perfect.  but we're not doing it or ourselves any favors by playing dumb.

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