I've never been an activist but I have always been fiercely passionate about those causes which touch my heart. I remember being 8 years old and watching a news report about the slaughtering of the baby Harp Seals and I was emotionally devastated. To know that this horror went on in the world and to be totally unable to help was a feeling I would soon attach to all the atrocities to which I was exposed while growing up. Famine in Africa, human genocide in Bosnia, a world-wide AIDS epidemic, and the murder of the most innocent souls...children. We, as a human race, are exposed to these horrors on a daily basis, furthering our desensitization. When do we say, enough is enough?
How do we take a stand? Protest, hunger strike, boycott...these preferred methods of can sometimes prove effective but most often go unnoticed. How then, do we draw attention to the causes to which we assign such importance? Though I strongly feel that the Internet has played a central role in the current degradation of our societal morals, I feel that it is time to set the power of this medium to a truly noble task. It is my proposal that we join...as one voice, one heart, one mind. Let those of us who feel passionately about our causes rejoice for this is the digital age and we can be heard!
I recently had the opportunity to watch "The Cove." This moving and thought-provoking documentary caused me to cast aside my apathy and awakened my desire do something, to act, to speak out. I use my words because at this time they are all that I have. I have no great amounts of money, no political prowess, I don't rub elbows with those in high places. I have the talent that God gave me - my words.
I am calling on all of my friends, all those who read these words and all who feel the time has come to stand up, stand together and put a stop to these senseless acts that happen everyday. I start with this cause because it has personal and deep significance to me. In 1993, I had the most wonderful and deeply moving encounter of my life. I swam with 6 bottle-nose dolphins in Hawaii. It was and remains to be one of the most significant moments in my life. It was one of those moments when you realize that you may not be the most highly evolved form of life on the planet. It was a moment when I truly appreciated and thanked God for my life. The level of self-awareness that's evident and obvious in a dolphin's eyes is truly remarkable. There's a part of you that expects a clarity of consciousness to arrive when you feel the power and grace in a dolphin's presence.
I ask that you watch the trailer for "The Cove." If you long to learn more, please visit: http://www.thecovemovie.com/
As I became aware that these graceful and majestic creatures were being needlessly slaughtered a half a world away, I became enraged. Lacking the necessary means to travel and participate first-hand in the abolition of this horrific practice, it came to me that I must do SOMETHING. And so, as stated above, this is my stand. I shall continue to post my blog, update those who follow and also comment on the state of other things which occupy my mind.
I ask those reading to read with an open mind, love with a full heart and learn with a yearning for knowledge.
"You're either an activist or an inactivist," Louie Psihoyos
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