Alicia Silverstone: Secondhand Shopper with a Cause

Brooke, I don’t believe anyone “shoved it down your throat” – you chose to click on the story and read it. Also, many people are vegan or vegetarian because of the way a lot of livestock are filled with hormones, treated terribly during their lives, and then slaughtered inhumanely. I realize that is not every animal, but that is the story for many of them. Wanting this to be avoided is not about being on a pedestal, it’s about having compassion for other living things that are able to feel pain just as much as humans.

Everything in moderation? Really?

That mentality explains why so many humans are afflicted with the diseases we have today. Our ancient ancestors weren’t ridden with toxins as we are today. And we don’t have a choice. They’re everywhere…from how food is grown and processed to the harmful vapors that leach out of the vinyl in your new car.

When’s the last time you read an article like this anyway? Are articles like this really that pervasive? All I hear about is Kim Kardashian this, Demi Moore that anymore. I found this snippet refreshing, and intelligent actually.

We now return you to your meat sandwich.

@Brooke, who agreed with SassyMommy,
While your perspective that “God gave us control” over animals isn’t logically arguable, the conclusion you draw — that this means that “we aren’t mean people” — demonstrates a regrettable factual ignorance. Please consider learning a bit about factory farming, and then honestly ask yourself if what happens to billions of factory-farmed animals qualifies as “mean.” I think you may find that “mean” is an understatement. Consider what our world would be like if people had stopped working to change other unjust systems just because some other folks got tired of being “marinated” in them. If you truly are a “total animal lover,” how can you write off the hopeless suffering of billions of sentient beings? It strikes me that that’s the sort of thing that God calls upon us to open our hearts to. Blessings.

The funny thing is, I’m a graduate student at a business school right now, and the funny thing they’re stressing is being “green” and “eco-friendly” because it’s just cheaper. Businesses are spending so much money these days trying to clean up their image, that the most recent Eco-effectiveness (not Eco-efficient) finance studies are showing that it’s just cheaper to go green. It’s a smart business decision these days. So suck it up and try, sassy mommy.

To people like sassy mommy: you may not live a lifestyle like Alicia’s, but that doesn’t mean you need to bash it! I am certainly not vegan, nor to I shop secondhand, but I do try to do little things like use reusable grocery bags. I commend people like Alicia who are doing everything they can do save our planet, because I’m certainly not!