My Vegan Diet Isn't for ME

I love my friends and know that when they say they made a dish for me, they have the best of intentions.  But I wish they understood that my diet isn't about me. 

I'm often in the awkward position of hearing the apology   as I did at a pot luck dinner last night, "Oh, I forgot you were coming, or I would have used Earth Balance instead of butter,"

It sounds too grandiose to say it's for animal welfare and for the environment, and I want to sound just the right amount of grandiose.  But here are a couple of concepts:

1)  Fair Trade coffee isn't something we buy to please our friends who drink only fair trade coffee.  "Oh, here's Fair Trade coffee for you, Jane.  And the rest of us can have the kind we prefer."

2)  When African-Americans sat down at the lunch counters in the 1960's, it wasn't because they wanted a sandwich.  It was to create change for the better.

In any case, I didn't suffer, and what came to my plate caused minimum animal suffering and harm to the environment.