Patriotism & Animal feelings.

"A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world." - George Santayana.

January 26th 2010 is Australia Day. Quick history; 1935- all states and territories acknowledge this date by the name "Australia Day." & in 1994 we consistently celebrated it with a public holiday. Now i love this country. I honestly can't see myself living anywhere else when i grow up. I love the weather, and can tolerate (for the most part) the extreme heat. I love the fact that we are independent and isolated from any foreign issues. And if you look past the multiple semi-racist comments i make, you will know that i do love the fact that this country IS so multicultural. So yeah, i do rather enjoy the fact that we have a day to celebrate how lucky we are to live in a place like this.

The only issue i have with Australia Day, is the date that was chosen. January 26th is the day in 1788 when british colonials first landed on this island continent and began the ruthless takeover of this country from the native inhabitants. I don't like that this is the day we choose to celebrate. I'd much rather celebrate a day like January 1st (yeah i know it clashes with new years) to celebrate the date we became ONE country, Federation Day. To me this seems more logical cause it would be us acknowledging the date when unity finally occured throughout the land. Hmmm, but i guess it doesn't matter to most people, as long as we get a day off.

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So today i killed a catepillar. And unlike ants, or spiders, i tend to get a little 'sad' when i do. Now, i'm as far from being a vegetarian as someone can possibly be. I know that these animals are getting bred for the purpose of our nutrition and without them we are not strong. But killing a bug? Have i gotten this soft? The thing that plagues me is when my mind (as it does occasionally) runs off on this sympathetic tangent; creating situations where i'm the evil giant who just destroyed a father, or a mother. And then i cringe when i start thinking that these creatures have feelings and that they are in pain.

Anyway, thus wraps that long post.