Monday, February 14, 2011

Freedom of Choice

"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better."--Albert Camus (winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature)

I've been in Katsuura for two days now, and things have been pleasantly quiet.  While yesterday the boats went out and came back empty handed, today the boats didn't even leave the harbor.  It's been rainy here today, and the streets in Katsuura are quiet. 

The locals that we interact with are very nice, and the town itself is really cool.  It's like it was built to a little smaller scale.  The roads are narrow, and everything is close together.  And it's incredibly clean!  While some would think Sea Shepherd would be unwelcome in these parts, there's been no signs of animosity.  Of course, we aren't staying in Taiji, so maybe that has something to do with it.

This slaughter can be stopped, but it will only happen when the laws are changed.  Hunting dolphins is not illegal.  Hunting dolphins puts money in pockets.  I don't think that's coincidence.  We as humans have so much power to change things, and it's our choice as to what and when that change will be.  We have to be mindful of our place in this massive ecosystem we share with the other living, breathing inhabitants...the plants, the animals, the oceans.  We are not independent of anything around us.  We rely on clean air and water just like any other animal.  It's what sustains all of us.  But too many people don't see that sort of picture.  They only see today, next week, or maybe next month.  They only see what's best for them.  We talk about making things better for future generations, but are we really serious?  In the States, there's so much talk about our individual freedoms...our liberties.  There are people that make millions of dollars a year getting people fired up about how the government is going to take something away from them.  And by taken away, I mean impose a waiting period to buy a handgun, or put laws in place that punish companies for polluting the environment.  It's so awesome that I can get my .50 caliber rifle out and blast some targets, and it's even better that there are so many concerned organizations that lobby congress to protect that industry, er...I mean freedom.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the incredible amount of luck I had by merely being born in the United States.  There's a lyric in a U2 song that goes, "Where you live should not decide, whether you live of whether you die."  For the dolphins that migrate along the coastline of Japan, theirs' is a different fate than the ones that I see swim past Virginia Beach in the summer.  But they're only different in the space they occupy.  All they want is their freedom.     

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