Rant on Morals (and Speech Camp)

   Recently, at speech camp, through interesting circumstances involving a highly talented speech coach sending his students on an emotional roller coaster, I found myself, along with my new friends, sitting on Stanford's lushly green (and very much artificial) grass, watching PETA videos in an attempt to make ourselves cry.

   Allow me to explain.
   My speech instructor for a week-long public speaking camp at Stanford was teaching us how to use an "emotional trigger" for dramatic interpretation speech. With a demonstration. First, you pick an object that has emotional value to you. Allow the emotion to fill you up, to course through your veins and take over your body. Just before you lose control and start sobbing your heart out, deliver your line.
   As my speech coach was once a national speech champion, he was clearly a pro at this. So, understandably, he had us practically freaking out as we watched his eyes get progressively redder.

   Inspired by our teacher's demonstration, we were determined to take after the master and make ourselves cry.

So.

   We were watching animal videos depicting chicks ground up alive and cows slaughtered mercilessly and pigs beaten for no particularly good reason.
   There were many varied reactions from my friends. One could not comprehend what was happening and kept asking why they would be so pointlessly cruel. We had no answer. Another vowed to become a vegetarian FOREVER (he was unsuccessful). Me? I'm that weirdo who always posts weird, kinda philosophical things on this weird blog of hers, so here I am.
 

   In the beginning. Is one species meant to be the dominating one? Sure, all species are created with completely different intellectual/physical capacities. Does that mean one species (ours??) is meant to domineer over all the others?

   Right now, humans are sort of 'playing God', right? We decide whether a member of another species lives or not. For heavens' sake, we EAT the other species. I suppose one could argue that other animals also eat other species, but we humans eat an unnecessarily large amount of 'other species'. It's impractical, unethical, and yet we do it anyway.

   I remember reading somewhere that humans are the worst species. Why? As far as I know, we humans are the only species that kills members of our own species. And not even to survive.
 

This time, dear reader, I won't try to impose my interpretations of this on you too much. It's up to you to decide whether to agree with me or not.

Some more thoughts.

They say he looks fine. Just like he's sleeping. Eternally. You can't tell the difference, they say. They say.

To me. It's not him. It can't be. In the photographs, his jaw is clenched, his gray hands folded stiff. Brightly colored lilies, sunflowers, roses, wildflowers. Framing unfeeling flesh. Cold flesh. Dead flesh. The contrast is mocking.

But what do I know.