The tough thing about being in a leadership role is that you're held to a higher standard than everyone else. Once you tell people that certain behaviors or actions aren't acceptable, you have to make sure that you're following through with that in your own life. Even harder than that, once you realize that certain things that you've been condoning or even participating in are unacceptable, you then have the burdensome responsibility of telling people that you can't allow them to continue doing what you had just been encouraging them to do yesterday.

Leadership isn't a total downer, though. Its upsides most certainly outweigh its few downsides. For one, leaders are required to live with integrity. You're forced to give careful thought to every move you make, because your life is held as an example of how others ought to live. I'm a youth leader with my church's high school ministry, and the two years that I've been ministering there have caused more positive personal changes than any other time of my life, because how I live my life is a major factor in the spiritual and moral development of my students.

If anyone needs a boost in the integrity department (and I think everyone does), it'd be a good idea to find some kind of leadership role to take. But make sure you take on a leadership role that is appropriate for your own social and spiritual maturity level! I've seen so-called "leaders" whose integrity and maturity are so lacking that they actually do more harm to their students than good. If you can't handle what life throws at you, if you're going to whine and complain and moan about every setback that comes your way, if you don't actually have a grasp on the stuff you're supposed to be teaching, then you have absolutely no business being in any kind of leadership role until you can at least start getting your act together. Like Jesus once said, if the example you're setting causes anyone to fall, it'd be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a boulder tied around your neck than to continue leading.

Being a vegan isn't always easy when you live in a conservative town like San Diego. Ignorance comes in all shapes and forms, from the daily bombardment of jokes and wisecracks (promptly followed by "no offense," as if that changes anything); to the flabbergasted "You mean you don't even eat eggs???" asked with the same amazement and chagrin that would follow if I'd just revealed that I'm into bestiality; to the ever-popular, "Why the hell would you want to be a vegan?"; and everything in between.

Maybe I should revise my statement. Being a vegan isn't any harder in San Diego than it would be in Berkeley. There's no force compelling me to eat a cheeseburger or buy a new pair of leather tennis shoes. I mean, suppose you don't like alcohol. Not drinking isn't going to be a chore for you, even if you're a freshman at San Diego State University. Seeing as I'm thoroughly disgusted by animal products, not giving them my patronage is as natural to me as not driving a rusty screwdriver through my temple. Yes, saying it isn't easy isn't really accurate. I guess it'd be better to say it's frustrating. Frustrating because I'm surrounded day in and day out by self-absorbed ignorami who, for some reason or another, feel that because my lifestyle is different from theirs, I should therefore become the object of their scorn and contempt.

I was born lucky. I happen to be a white European male in slightly-upper-middle class southern California. I've never been the object of any form of racism or any major sexism, and my God is affiliated with the religion that happens to be the most popular one in America. I spent two decades enjoying the easy life that my DNA and geography happened to afford me, and it wasn't until I made the decision to stop eating animals that I was really on the outs with anybody. One deviation from mainstream culture and suddenly you've gone from an "us" to a "them." If you ever want to see which of your friends are real friends and which are just ignorant sods, all you have to do is go vegan. Trust me, it's much easier than going homosexual, and you'll get the same effect.


Answering criticism that their Chicken McNuggets are made from disgusting mechanically separated and recongealed chicken flesh, McDonalds announces their new "McIdentifiable" chicken product.