Hello World Options

[nugas]

Hi, I suppose that I should introduce myself. I'm 25 years old, live in Virginia, and am in the Navy. I have been for seven years. It's slowly encroached into every aspect of my life until when anyone asks anything about me I'm compelled to talk about the Navy. My ambivalence towards my job - and it is just a job - largely led me to this forum. I don't quite recall how I found it but I'm glad that I did.
Not to go too much into things that might be best discussed elsewhere, I've reached a turning point. I'm a vegetarian, have been for about four years. It's becoming harder and harder to be ethically consistent in my beliefs about the importance of non-violence with my job. My specific job is to forecast the weather so I'm certainly not directly involved in the killing, but I still feel dirty. We support air strikes with one goal. We serve on ships built for a singular purpose. We can hand out all the bottles of water we want after a disaster - with an absolute emphasis on ensuring that there is someone on the ground first to take photos - but there's still only one ultimate ideal for the organization. Killing people and destroying things. Efficiently, from a proper distance, mechanized and sanitized. I have the chance to leave it all behind soon and I would, but there are other considerations. Trying to reconcile it all has consumed me for months.
Forgive my tangent. This is supposed to be an introduction rather than a rant. Anyway, my main interests on this board are pacifism, environmental issues, and related areas. Mostly I was hoping to meet like minded people and discuss things that I'm very passionate about. That's something I can't find in my current situation.
Thank you for reading, if you did, and I hope to be able to contribute to this community. I'll also need to update my profile, get a cool avatar, etc.

[Soulthriller]

Hi nugas and welcome to the forums

That's a realization that came in its due time and can act as a catalyst for a new change and transformation. In this time, perhaps more than ever, we need more people focused on pacifism and environmental issues because at the rate that things are developing, we have a quite big risk of seeing our planet become unhabitable for most life and largely as a result of our own ignorance to the reality that everyone and everything is linked in some way.

There's a vast amount of info on the forums so feel free to check them out.

[jackkminiy]

I'm new, small amount of experience which I'm happy to share look forward to chatting soon....

[sara katz]

Hello everyone
I am new here, just wanted to say a hello to everyone. Its nice to be here looking forward to enjoy my stay. ..