Senior year of high school is our last chance to forgive and forget

By Krista Benson

What don’t we do? Eat meat!

Why don’t we eat it?

It’s murder!

This chant from “PCU” explains the reason behind many Americans’ switch to a vegetarian diet in the past few decades. The evils of slaughtering “poor, innocent animals” have been brought to our attention by nuevo-vegetarians in the last few years, as all people who do eat meat can attest.

These are the people that give vegetarians a bad name. These are the people who have the audacity to ask meat-eaters “can’t you hear the animals scream as you butcher them?” These are the people who have the nerve to push their own personal decisions as the morally right choice and condemn all other people.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing vegetarians as a group — I, myself, don’t eat red meat or pork and am considered a type of vegetarian.

However, the reason I don’t eat meat is not because of the poor little animals. I don’t have a problem with hunting or people who do eat meat, I just choose not to eat it. And as for the people who ask if meat eaters have ever looked into a cow’s eyes and ask if they could eat that poor little animal … yes, I have looked into a cow’s eyes. They’re smelly, annoying, dumb animals and I’m just fine with them being killed.

Save-the-world vegetarians are making all legitimate vegetarians look stupid. They are not only falling into, but advancing, the stereotypes attached to those citizens of the world who don’t eat meat. They often push their choices on other people, expecting them to comply with attitudes that they don’t believe. Nuevo-vegetarians don’t understand that if they desire respect for what they do, they have to respect that some people won’t do the same thing.

The dietary choices of people need to based upon educated opinions. This is true, whether they choose to eat a healthy vegetarian diet (which often requires a conference with a dietitian or doctor to be sure that the needed dietary elements are included) or a diet consisting entirely of meat. They need to be sure that they are becoming a vegetarian because it’s better for their health, or it’s cheaper or even because they just don’t like meat, not because it’s a new trend.

All choices made on lifestyle should be made for the right reasons at the right time.

Besides, it’s far less annoying when people don’t eat a hamburger because they don’t like the taste than because of the “cute little cow” who was slaughtered for that hamburger.

What about the cow that was slaughtered for your shoes?

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