What You Can
You know, a friend of mine raised a pretty valid point in regards to the Chick-Fil-A issue going on right now. He said, and I quote:
"Everyone who uses motorized transportation realizes that OPEC supports a Radical Islamist agenda which involves KILLING gays, right? But I guess quitting gas takes a bit more sacrifice than quitting a regional chicken franchise. If you are any kind of American consumer, you probably tacitly support thousands of companies and individuals whose politics, morals, ethics, and actions you'd find reprehensible if you bothered to research them."
And there is a pretty decent amount of truth in that. And my response to this is very simple:
You do what you can.
Could I give up gas? No. I'm moving to L.A. next month, and finding work in this economy without fluency in Spanish is going to be near impossible enough without eliminating motorized transportation, be it public or private.
But I *CAN* choose not to financially support an organization that funds and supports those acting against my best interest by having lunch somewhere else.
This, to me, is one of the major problems with the Conservative mindset. This sort of black and white, "if you can't fix EVERYTHING, why bother caring about anything?" attitude.
The point isn't to be perfect, isn't to aspire to some life where you never so much as step on a flower. In the modern world we live in, it is IMPOSSIBLE to move through life without doing at least a negligible amount of damage. It's unavoidable. That's not the point. And that's why it's called picking your battles; because some you pick, and some you don't. You *PICK* your battles. You don't sit back on the couch, comfortable in your apathy, and crack a beer while you watch everyone else die.
You can't jump into every fight. You can't even jump into every good fight. And sometimes, you can't even jump into the most important ones. But you can always do SOMETHING.
And you do what you can.