inactivist

I watched The Cove last night. I can't even handle it. In case you haven't seen/heard of it, here's a very brief synopsis: In Taiji, Japan there is a cove where hundreds of dolphins are caught and either sold or slaughtered every day. People are trying to stop this, because a) dolphins don't do very well in captivity, and b) the method used to kill these dolphins is, to put it lightly, inhumane.
Watching this movie overwhelmed me. There's so much. I want to not eat meat, I want to go to Japan and covertly shut this place down, I want to open an animal shelter to just house animals that need to be released from their current situations, I want to be able to watch my food be raised and know how it's treated before it ends up in my fridge (eggs, milk, etc.), I want to be able to monitor how the fishermen and farmers and slaughterers treat their "products" and for there to be harsh consequences if they aren't acting well, et cetera et cetera. In this movie, one guy said, "The way I see it, you are either an activist or an inactivist." I am the latter, and I don't want to be. I am not an activist because I ended up on a different path, and I'm not willing to change my course. That's what it boils down to. I think that maybe I could do a little bit, but I can't totally upset my life. Joel is a big part of my life, and I am glad that we chose to share a life together. I think that, had we not made that choice, I would have probably ended up more actively involved in fighting for animals. Like I said, though, I am not willing to alter my course.

In the end, suffering animals bring me to tears, and I want to do more to fight for their ethical treatment.