Just my thoughts....

This article is funny and very sad at the same time.... We all have to make small choices every day. Imagine if every time we are faced with a choice like that, we actually make the right one? What a change we could make in the world we leave our children.

I get picked on a lot for some of my beliefs--the eating local, cloth diapering, homeschooling stuff.... But one thing I feel strongly about is that we "vote" with our wallets. Who you pick on election day is almost insignificant compared to where you put your money. Electing someone who promises jobs for Americans does no good if you buy plastic stuff made in China. Listening to a politician talk about the importance of good neighbors and communities is ridiculous if you aren't going to actually buy local and support local farmers and businesses. It is the stuff people talk about all the time, but so few make the right choice every time they are faced with it. Neighbor's birthday coming up? Why not spend an extra dollar and buy that gift downtown instead of some huge on-line conglomerate? Save the gas on the shipping in addition to supporting your local bookstore.

Once a month I get together with friends and do a "Mom's Night Out." We have gathered quite a list of locally owned restaurants to rotate through each month. Recently there has been question about whether or not we should expand our list to include chain restaurants like Chili's or Olive Garden or some place like that. This is an interesting question to me. Besides the fact that those places don't usually offer good choices for vegetarians, I have an issue with the fact that they aren't locally owned. The fact is that if we are going to have a group of 6-10 moms pumping money into the local area, I would prefer that $68 of every $100 stays in the community as opposed to $43 of every $100. Isn't that just logical? But it is hard, so very hard, to make the right choice every time. I'm absolutely positive I will get voted down in this discussion and MNO will happen at a national chain in the near future. I can't help that.

And I'm not, in anyway, suggesting I always make the right choices. I can say with conviction that I do NOT shop at a certain blue box store. However, I have ordered a book from a large internet company when my local book store didn't have it and having them order it was going to take too long. I would love to say I don't buy stuff from China, but that is a very difficult standard to have (I just found out my favorite cloth diapers are made there--now what do I do???) So yes, I completely understand the feeling of "Oh just this once..."

And, like the article on the plastic water bottles, if we only make the "wrong" choice once in a while, it isn't that bad, right??