________________ SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS action such as that which you might deem trivial, was wrong for me. What did that tiny life form do to deserve to die? What hardship had it caused me? None. Its death was a waste of life. Some say that I am crazy, and may be I am. But if I am crazy, it is because I "choose" to be so. I feel more comfortable that way. For I have found more peace in my reverence for life than I had ever before experienced, and if I offend you I cannot apologize. To thine own self be true. Thus I do, when I remember to. telligence that I can conceive of, namely vegetation. I realize that all of life is beautiful, for I experience it as thus, and any unnecessary loss of life saddens me greatly. Please do not misunderstand me; I have killed intelligent, sentient creatures before. Yes, I have even desired to do so. I have killed pigs, quail, squirrels, and a dog. But each time I have killed I felt a great sadness inside, and a knowing that I had committed a great crime against myself. I "know" that it is wrong for me to kill the higher forms of life. I know this to be truth from the very essence of my being. It must be so, or how could I feel such sorrow at the death of a bird I killed in the wild, that I felt great tears of grief well up inside my heart? Or the physical shock I felt when I shot a hog in the forehead, and saw a man cut its jugular vein so that its blood would drain? Or the depth of my pain when I "saw" the innocent beauty of a squirrel I had shot? Such a gentle and playful creature that never sought to do me any harm. I am very aware of how wrong it is for me to kill, and if in my awareness I eat the flesh of these life forms, I am just as responsible for their deaths as if I myself had killed them. This is a responsibility I "choose" not to have. This is why I will not eat the flesh of an animal. Today without thinking, I squashed an insect that had landed on my face. I forgot, but at the end of every forget I remember. Even an Editor's Note: Mr. Marchewitz is presently confined in a prison in North Carolina. Recently he wrote in a letter, "As for who or what influenced me in my deep respect for life, I guess the greatest influence came from the life forms I perceive, and the pain I have experienced within my heart and spirit when I have seen the beauty and innocence within the life forms I have destroyed senselessly. I have studied much, and the fruit of my studies is a clarification of what I have seen within." 11
