Hey Guys,
I rarely post bulletins on here, but the sad and recent death of Steve Irwin triggered some thoughts that I felt compelled to share with all of you. For starters, I lost someone who I deeply love and care for not too long ago, so when someone special passes away, it always triggers the pain that I feel, and reminds me of my own loss that I unfortunately had to experience. Aside from that, I just wanted to use this opportunity to pick the brains of you guys, and to get you all thinking. As most of you know, I am passionate about animal rights, human rights, and the environment. My philosophy that I preach is that if every single one of us tried to find one small, easy thing that we can do that would make the world a little bit better, then we should strive to do that. We don't have to become Mother Teresa and dedicate our every waking breath to it. We just should do SOMETHING, anything, more than just sit on our asses. If millions of people did one small, easy thing to help other people, animals, or the environment, then collectively it would make such a huge impact. Over the past couple of years of being on MySpace, and of living in the real world, I have come across so many people who think it's okay to make racist remarks, or have "fuck you and fuck everyone" all over their myspace page, or just in general seem to be sad, miserable, hateful people. I even had one guy call me a "fake" because my stage persona with Nocturne is so dark and aggressive, yet I always send out little e-mails about saving furry little animals, and since the two ideas seem to conflict with one another, that must make me a "fake", according to him. I responded by saying that I am not fake - the anger that I express through my band is very real, and my band has become an outlet for that anger. Because I am fortunate enough to have that outlet, the rest of the time, when I'm not onstage or writing, I can be the kind, happy person who I genuinely am (or try to be!). The point is, that in a lot of people's minds, it is not cool to be compassionate and kind. This is really sad. And how this gets back to Steve Irwin is that he was such an amazing person because he dedicated his entire life to conservation, the environment, and saving animals. He dedicated his life to making the world a better place. In my book, that is commendable and admirable beyond what words can describe. I would like to ask all of you to take a moment to think about your own life, and how you live, and what you do. So many people just simply "exist". They go to work (or school), they come home, they eat dinner, they talk on the phone or go on myspace, they go out drinking with friends, they come home and go to sleep, and then they wake up the next day and repeat the whole cycle. Most people say "I'm too busy" or "I'm too broke" to make a difference. Can you really not find a couple of dollars to donate? (A couple of dollars multiplied by thousands or millions of people is a lot of money!) Can you really not find 5 minutes to help someone, or make a phone call, or write a letter to try to change something for the better? Or what about stopping throwing your trash out the car window? Or vowing to stop wearing fur? Or being a little nicer to people in general? Do those things take time or money? Some people are really deplorable....not only do they do absolutely nothing to make the world any better, they actually make it WORSE, in my opinion. They use racial slurs or act in a way that is disrespectful towards women (ie: guys in bands? Yeah, hahaha.), they leave their dog in the backyard for 12 hours a day and pay no attention to it, they spread gossip and talk shit about people, they're short tempered with the cashier at the store, they have road rage, screaming at people and flipping them off, they throw their trash out the car window, they're rude to people, or arrogant, etc, etc, etc. Basically, they are alive simply for themselves - to exist, to take, to use, and to suck up the oxygen, and that is it. Maybe you personally are not this bad. Or are you? But ask yourself.do you simply "exist"? Do you take, do you use? Do you ever give back? Whats the nicest thing you did for someone in the past week? What have you done for someone recently that made you feel good about yourself? Can you answer that question? Seriously, think about it. Would other humans or animals on this earth be any better or worse off if you were not here? What would life be like if you didn't exist? Would it be better? Worse? Or the same? Would it matter? Maybe it would. But could you make it matter even moreso? Just take a moment and really think about this. Again, I'm not encouraging you to become the next Steve Irwin or Mother Teresa or whoever, but I am encouraging you to examine your own life and see if there is something a little bit more that you could do that would help make this planet and its inhabitants just a little bit better. Any little change that you could make. The fact that such a great human being, Steve Irwin, is now gone, we all should try to make up for that loss, with our own actions. I'm sure it would have been what he wanted.
Or maybe you dont care.
I would love to hear your feedback on this. Please post your thoughts.
Thanks, and cheers,
- Lacey
- N O C T U R N E -
Steve Irwin's Wildlife Warriors Worldwide: http://www.wildlifewarriors.org.au/