I am writing this second philosopy oriented page not so much as an introduction, but for those folks who might like to BS a bit more about the why aspect of VM's, our views of life and existance, and the environmental movement in general.

I have found that for me, the spirit of care and concern for the other creatures that share this planet is epitomized in the martial art of Aikido. My involvement with Aikido and several other Asian martial arts have also influenced my world view with respect to viewing things as separate. The Shinto/Zen Buddhist/Taoist roots of these practices relate unity of all things. Another book which has strongly influenced my world view is The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra. Although it took me several years to finally make it through the book, it served to help unify two major aspects of my life up to that time. On the one hand I had gone to University to study western style science with it's emphasis and requirement for verifiability, rigorousness, repeatability and concrete evidence. On the other hand, my martial arts practice had introduced me to meditation and through this to a more intuitive understanding of existance. The Tao of Physics was able to show me how these are really two sides of the same coin. Different aspects or approaches to the same reality. Explanation of the Tao is difficult to articulate, in fact it is supposedly impossible - the Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao and all that. But it's fun to try, anyway... The way I see it, all things are made of matter/energy (which are interchangable) which is mostly space anyway. There is no fundamental, permanent difference betwen the matter which makes up me and that which makes up an earthworm or a bacterium. The difference is just one of a transitory organization of matter and energy which is temporally based. In my case, recognition of this lack of a fundamental difference and the transitoriness of the life that is me/ the realization that the matter which is me has come from everything else and will return to everthing else makes me realize that we all come from the same matter pool. This is the source of my identification with the rest of life on Earth and the Earth itself - we are really inseparable, and the dividing lines are really pretty blurry. So the division between one thing and another is really an artifact of perception and and separation Where I am going with all this, is that the perception that there is a fundamental difference between me and a cow, or a dog or any other organism on earth is a distinction made by me (and other humans). It is widely accepted by the majority of humans, but that recognition/acceptance is purely self serving. The only thing which makes us superior to any other form of life is our own belief in our superiority. What differentiates this ability to think that we are superior to other forms of life from the belief that one race of humans is superior to another? Fundamentally , nothing. So the question is a matter of degree. where do you draw the line?