There is something about watching a film that highlights the suffering of others. Something that pulls on my heart and makes me wonder - what in fuck am I doing with my life? Something almost visceral in the images as they flash forth and burn themselves into my gray matter and make me realize how hard it is to truly be involved in alleviating the world's suffering. Something that seems so tangible in the moment and yet so fleeting in the large scope.
Maybe that's why I've never done anything in my life except not wear diamonds.
There are many things about which I care, sometimes even enough to argue over, but not as many things about which I make a firm stance as diamonds. You can only avoid so many human tragedies in an American life - child labor that makes your clothes cheap, forced labor that brings the raw materials for your computer, destruction of the rain forests that gives you a caffeine buzz at your local cafe, and so many more. Regardless, I've decided not to be involved in the purchase of diamonds. Yes, I realize that there are plenty of diamonds that are not conflict stones, plenty that supply decent, hard-working Canadians mine and sell, but the point is that every woman or man who decides to purchase a diamond perpetuates the industry. Every. Single. One. When that girl shows off her diamond engagement ring to her girlfriends, she is showing them something they think they want. Because they want it, their boyfriends will buy them and present them in a romantic setting as if that shiny rock bodes well for their future together.
And somewhere between the earth and their sparkly future together, some of those stones financed child soldiers and mercenaries and death. And despite all my failings as an American consumer, I have chosen not to participate in that cycle. There is a part of me that is simply unwilling to put such a morbid symbol on my hand to signify a lifetime of partnership and love. And that's simply why, of all things, I don't wear diamonds.
