This is our America...

Is this our America? When did you grow up? Where? What did you do for dinner? Did you eat out a lot or did mom/dad cook your meals regularly? How about breakfast? Was lunch an option at home? What about sickness'? Did you know anyone with any particularly unusual diseases? Where am I heading with this? What's my point?

I grew up just outside of Chicago, Il. I was raised, like many if not most people in the area, on meat and potatoes, generally speaking. For dinner, most nights, we'd eat some type of meat; beef or pork usually: a vegetable; mom loved string beans and french cut beans and we'd have potatoes with almost every dinner. There was almost always some type of ice cream in the freezer for later on when the A-team was on.
We would eat out maybe once a week and it was usually a semi-important occasion. It wasn't always marking a special date or celebrating an anniversary or anything but it was just...an occasion. Mom and Dad would wear decent clothes, they never over dressed nor under dressed and I'd wear whatever Mom thought was good for the family diner. Again, we'd eat the usual foods that we'd eat at home only now it was cool because someone else was preparing it AND cleaning up afterwards. AWESOME! I remember leaving those family restaurants and lying in the back seat of the Oldsmobile bravada digesting way too much food, listening to B96 or the oldies.

My mom was a consistent cook. She never tried to reinvent the wheel and she never disappointed, either. Tacos were the exotic dish we'd have once a month or so. It was like an event. Otherwise, steaks, pot roast, pork chops, meatloaf....all the while never even thinking once "where does all this come from?".
Maybe I never questioned the food because just beyond the limits of our backyard was a corn field. I could see the red barn on the hill on Old Bell Rd and never thought to meet the people living in that strange house. I was mostly scared of their domicile because of Friday the 13th movies. I wish, and this isn't a regret, I'd have at the very least, talked to them about what they do and why they do it.
This was well before Monsanto was granted permission to dominate the global foodscape. Hell, they were still busy making Round Up. Y'know, those chemicals that kill the bad carbon materials and leave the good carbon materials to grow and flourish. I never thought about my food because, innately, we all should have the ease of mind of assuming our food comes from wholesome places, developed/nurtured by wholesome people, sustaining the earth. That's how it
should be but we all know how it is today.

I can remember hearing about when the Marth boy got chicken pox...or when the cousin of our neighbor had contracted a nasty virus...today, it feels like our small family of four is the minority as both of our kids, knock on REAL wood, have been free of serious ailments. I have friends who have kids with very serious situations. Situations that arose not from the harsh reality of nature and it's, at times, cruel touch. No, these children and their families are caught in a suspended reality of sorts where the data says one thing and those with lined pockets say something contradictory. It's the same when you read about certain foods today like Raw Milk and, as I've recently read, Raw Almonds. When one reads about how and why pasteurization rose in milk production it becomes very evident that it was out of necessity. Horrid urban conditions created a filthy environment where cows needed antibiotics to stay alive and their product, milk, needed pasteurization to be consumed. The real important thing to know is that pasteurized milk and raw milk existed simultaneously because there were markets for both. Why is there so much opposition to raw milk? Why the misleading articles. Last month, 4 boys in Southern California were stricken with E. Coli. The headline stated "4 Boys contract E. Coli, Raw milk believed to be the cause." The reality was, the farm from which the raw milk came is tested twice a week and has NEVER tested positive for E. Coli. And, the milk that was found at the different residences were tested as well and....came back negative for E. Coli. So what's the deal? It's not in my interest to concoct new conspiracies to answer why some things happen when really you just need to familiarize yourself with two things; 1) occam's razor and 2) money. They go hand in hand, actually, and ironically is the only transparency that Obama's administration has kept their promises on. I digress.

So here we are. We have one hand full of information and one hand on the tv remote. This is our America. OUR America. It's not THEIRS. Take back what you can. We can't all be president and we can't all be the CEO of GOOGLE or whatever. That's fine. I urge people to get in touch with what they value, not based upon what the tv says is good or your neighbor says is right but you as an individual organism, feels is right. Don't be afraid of your instincts. This is our America.