I ponder long and hard about the inability to do many things that I would do. Many of the work environments in which you and I find ourselves are adamantly opposed to our deepest values and commitments. Most of the time I hear complaints about coworkers who "haven't a clue" about moral sensitivity, but I need only remind people that the entire context in which these people operate is one that is adamantly hostile to our deliberate attempts to do good by not harming, to care about others, and to refrain from causing meaningless and needless pain and suffering. Also, much of what our places of employment do are a mixture of many of the following crimes or wrongs: (a) conditioning people to do or accept evil or harm done to themselves or others or the environment (b) direct harms against persons or ecosystems (c) conditions of disrespect for sustainable values (d) political chicanery or maneuvering to acquire blocks of wealth or power for the unjust, cruel, and inhumane community of human beings. Therefore, even if WE were capable (BTW, a big "IF") of being consistently good, or positively constructive or capable of acting without injuring others, and willing the good on their behalf, we could easily interpret our conditions of behavior as a forced compromise between our constructive wills and the demands of the downward pulls around us. I think constantly of the struggle of people like Paul in Romans 7:19, who, in struggling with the status of his own personal nature, wrote: "For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do." Now, Paul was deliberating on his own nature, and we probably ought to do some of the same, but many of us also are plagued with the issues of our contemporary environment, and how that effects our behaviors. I put this under the broader topic of "what we can expect to result or emerge as a result of our having lived and acted historically." Christian theologians have long interpreted this moral dilemma as a three-fold pull against the good that we might sensitively (and productively) realize - the world (everything around us that somehow degrades us), the flesh (our own wrongdoing and the impulses native to our own bodies-as-ourselves), and the Devil (a real Personal presence of Evil in the world that also manages to confound all good intentions and behaviors and to pervert even the best of intentions, but most objectively our personal wills). Many of us believe that the reason we are able to do good is because we will to do good, and that the inability to do good is a result of the conditions in which we are required to live those (otherwise good, we like to think) lives. Life, therefore, for such "ethical sensitives," is a constant compromise between our moral sensitivities or sensibilities and our commitments to compromising conditions. I understand that not everyone fully agrees on how simply our moral explanations should be about the nature of moral decisionmaking, or of ethical analysis, or moral self-realization; nor could we ever agree on how complex our analyses of relevant factors ought to be - and the reasons why those analyses ought to be more or less, simple or complex. I'd invite more dialogue on this topic from anyone who believes herself or himself interested in the topic AS it relates to our sensitivities that motivate our vegetarian identities. Needless to say, with all the efforts we vegetarians have made in person, at conferences, on the Internet, and in vegetarian, AR, and health publications to express ourselves, to share information, and even to do what in our own understandings WE believe to be good and honest - history seems to not be going the right way, the public isn't "wired" for health or compassion, and the vast majority of people are not making serious improvements in their moral tone OR their sensitivities towards the rights of others to remain unmolested OR their health consciousness. There was a period somewhat "akin to" a "revival" when people in the USA seemed to become kind of sensitive to respecting animals AND their own needs for self-care regarding their physical health and well-being. As a non-European, it is difficult for me to comment on the status of the broader human population throughout Europe, let alone in other parts of our planet. Nonetheless, I think that, with 265,000,000 people or so in my/our particular nation, I can get a pretty good sense from reading and hearing and watching news and people and personal and social commentary, that our modern human history is a "mixed bag" of good and not-so-good. Just my experience on the Internet gives me that kind of picture, and I get the same picture when I deal ONLY with vegetarians as when I deal with both vegetarians and nonvegetarians, or when I deal primarily with nonvegetarians. Surely there are few places where we honestly could feel comfortable working, IMO. If we were really rigorous in our analysis of how much others influence us, we might become even MORE careful about our companions, but that topic is a really "hot potato" - feels like immediately taking a huge spud out of the microwave after 10-12 minutes of cooking and trying to consume it immediately. Hot Potato ! Does anyone reflect upon the MEANING of our deeply frustrating moral struggles and the significance of the vast network of powers that seek to harm our souls and sensitivities, and the persons and well-being of others, including nonhumans, and the planet? Maynard S. Clark Vegetarian Resource Center