Kirolak,
My hubby and I also get very "verklempt" about all the killing going on (animal and human) and wish for a kinder world. Sometimes we wish over and over to be somewhere, anywhere else, feeling like we don't fit in, especially in our current city where it feels like people eat animals morning noon and night at every meal, in every recipe!
The only thing I can come up with that makes it a bit bearable is that 1) we are an example to others and 2) that perhaps a little bit of kindness shining through our example will make the world a bit more tolerable and raise consciousness as a whole.
We have gotten our share of jokes and raised eyebrows for being vegetarians over the years, yet we do not suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, colorectal cancer, digestive issues, diabetes, obesity, or any of the things that I see people my age regularly starting to experience (I'm almost 44, hubby 52, each of us easily looks 10 years younger).
If we were not here, and others like us, on this Earth, why and how would anyone make a change?
Still it's enough that we have decided to try to find an ecovillage that is vegetarian/vegan and live there. We know that hiding from the world is not an answer, but we are sick of living in a consumer fed culture and a culture that encourages people to be totally independent instead of interdependent. And we are sick of people eating dead animals, period.
Ok, what were number 1 & 2 again?