I see now that its time for me to be done with this conversation and this  
forum.
it's very hard for one person to try to vocalize a concept to someone when  
that someone has yet to come to terms with something that they KNOW to be  
true. Everyone on this board knows what is true and what is not, or we wouldnt  be 
here.
 
 
i sort of see it this way...
everyone here is on a journey. a long journey our of dairyland. only, we  are 
all at different points. some of us are just at the very long and slow  
lactose intolerant beginning, some of us are in the hellish "how many names  for 
milk are there?" middle and some of us are near the "i cant believe i  use to 
eat that" end...if there ever is a end.
the beginning took me 14 years, i remember thinking in high school that  
something was wrong with me. the middle took me 4 year. who knows how long the  
end takes.
 
i can see now that no matter how desperately those of us who are way  past 
the middle wishes to save those of you at the beginning from all the  grief and 
trouble and the  terrible lessons of it all..it's just not  possible. it's 
like giving birth. how are you ever gonna describe that to  someone who hasnt 
done it. 
 
 
i also kind of see now that everyone has his or her own reasons for  being 
here. something caused you to start that trip out of dairy land. for me it  
wasnt being sick and addicted and fat all of my life. It was creating life and  
then seeing them becoming sick and addicted and fat. i am imagining many  people 
become active in this journey because of children.
 
I also see that people have there own way of getting where we are all  going. 
some of us, eg eric, are going kicking and screaming every step  of the way 
but still going. some of us do it with thoughtful acceptance...  like jent.  
and some of us do it with military like intelligent  investigation..like robyn. 
some of us do it at church...im not even going to say  who that is lol. some 
of us do it silently by staying up till one in the  morning on the internet 
every day and lurking in forums..that was me. 
 
but you know, it's all still on the same road. and that's a good  thing.
 
I also see that alot of people are not  going to make it. they are  going to 
quit because it's too hard, or it's too complicated, or it's too scary,  or 
it's too expensive, or it takes too long, or it's too unbelievably  simple or 
its too addictive or its just too dang lonely a process when you're  not a PETA 
person or a vegan or robert cohen.
 
the last thing i want to do is to be one of the reasons someone  stops making 
the journey. the dairy industry will do it's best to get you  to stop without 
me helping it by fighting with eric.
 
so this will be my last response on this forum. my email address is 
[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) . if you have something  to say to me 
or a question or just want to argue  i am up all times of the  night if you'd 
like to email me feel free. Im not an activist, Im not a  conservative 
christian, Im not a raving liberal, Im not a vegan or any of that.  im just a black 
33year old middle class single stay at home mom with two kids  trying to make 
sense of it all.
I will listen to you and talk to you if you  want.