Dear Friends:

I am honored to be writing this to you.  At present it is May 18th, 2009 and  I have been a Vegetarian for almost 12 years.  At least you can see that when I do something I stick to it.  When I first began my initial trial I was challenged by Steven Seagal Sensei actor, martial artists and Buddhist to take one year of my life and do as little harm to the planet, create the least amount of pain to all sentient beings and practice love, compassion and empathy.  I took on the challenge and the rest is history.  

Well, as you have read, over a decade has gone by and I am still practicing what I preach.  My daughter Kiara is also a vegetarian and has been since birth.  She has an entirely different paradigm then I have in regards to diet.  Allow me to explain this from her point of view.  She believes all animals, insects, fish (sentient beings) have the same rights.  She believes that we as humans have no right to treat these beings with any less love, respect and understanding then we would our neighbor.  She currently is having a bit of a hard time understanding, how people can see it any other way, the entire concept is confusing to her.  Think about it, she never has eaten or lived that way.  

I try to explain to her in a compassionate way.  I tell her that all people are different they have been brought up with a specific belief system and understanding.  We really have no right to judge them, as they have no right to judge us.  I do teach her that decisions should have a wide spectrum of thought.  What I mean by that is, the old mentality "just because it is good for me, it's okay," just doesn't fly with us.  We believe that we all must live a life-style of compassion, understanding ans that the more pain and suffering we are a part of, the more pain their will be on the planet.  

So without telling you, what to do, or suggesting to you that you quit eating meat (Flesh) altogether, I ask you to take on a different thought process and cut back.  If you find this possible then maybe, just maybe, you may want to take a shot at going vegetarian. 

I would love to extend to you a 30 Day challenge.  Eliminate all Meat Products (fish, Chicken, Beef, Pork) from your diet and see if you feel better.  If you don't then at least you played a part in lessening the suffering for 30 days. That is not that hard, is it.

I am going to go one step further and ask you a question that my daughter asks me, and I am going to start by saying, please don't take offense to this, why do we as humans believe it is okay, to hurt animals?  If you don't agree and say you believe in the cause that animal cruelty is not okay, I then ask, why is it okay to hurt them for food, when their are so many choices out there that can eliminate this suffering.  Vegetarianism is a life-style.  

Thank you for listening:  thanks for being open minded.  

In spirit;
Kyoshi

Allie Alberigo

If you are not of the faint hearted you may want to watch this video.  I warn you, it is not something that will not effect you.