The title of this essay comes from a 1951 movie of the same name starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal. I caught bits and pieces of a 2008 version on an airplane (without sound) that looked like a very poor imitation of the original. Although the older movie was released several years prior to my birth, it was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I say ‘favorite’ with some mixed feelings since it also scared the heck out me. I realized even at a very young age, that we now had a problem of a new magnitude on our hands – nuclear technology.
I didn’t get much of a chance to forget about the problem. In October of 1962, our nation experienced what is now termed ‘the Cuban Missile Crisis.’ For a few days, nuclear war with the Soviet Union seemed almost imminent. As one exercise in caution, my Long Island, New York elementary school classmates and I were ushered into asbestos filled school basements and there experimented with hiding under desks in a makeshift fetal position.
A key milestone in the development of nuclear technology was July 16, 1945. On that day, a plutonium bomb was exploded at Trinity, New Mexico. Twenty-one days after that test, a uranium bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. A bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan three days later. The bombs killed approximately 150,000 people upon impact.
On March 11, 2011 an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. Those events and resulting power outages caused a disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Japan has been battling a potential catastrophic nuclear meltdown since.
We have truly unleashed the genie from the bottle. If human society dealt with such capabilities and threats in an intelligent, long term, planned manner; we would be just fine. This time however, it may very well be the death of us. It’s rather sad, that I had that understanding even as a second grader.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
The Pursuit of Happiness
The Declaration of Independence states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government"
My pursuit of happiness is based upon 'Primum Non Nocere' - do no harm. I will not be happy unless the world that I leave my children and their children and their children ... has hope of being at least as good as the world that I experienced. Preferably the world would be better, but I suppose that's step two.
Logically, we could stop damaging our world and even improve upon it. But reality is another story altogether. We have the intellect, the technology, the information, to solve or at least remediate our major problems. But that is not the path that we are embarked upon. And if we don't change that path, which at this point seems probable, our species itself will face serious decline and perhaps even extinction.
I would like to direct your attention to the work of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - http://maweb.org/en/Index.aspx. You might start with the 'Statement of the MA Board.' The MA has involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. They are careful to not hold accountable the forces that are responsible for our decline. I imagine their funding would then dry up in a heartbeat. But the message is still very clear. Here are a few of those messages:
"At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted."
---
"Nearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are found to be in decline worldwide. In effect, the benefits reaped from our engineering of the planet have been achieved by running down natural capital assets.
In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
---
"More land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850, and now approximately one quarter (24%) of Earth's terrestrial surface has been transformed to cultivated systems."
---
"Some 12% of birds, 25% of mammals, and at least 32% of amphibians are threatened with extinction over the next century."
---
"Only 4 of the services were found to be increasing their ability to benefit human populations, while 15 were in decline. Five more were found to be in a stable state overall, but in trouble in some parts of the world.
On the credit side, three of the improving services reflect the worldwide efforts to keep food supply ahead of the increase in population - total food production increased by about two-and-a-half times while the number of people in the world doubled from 3 billion to 6 billion between 1960 and 2000."
---
---
This far-reaching, comprehensive report paints a pretty clear picture of our probable future. Is there anything that we can do to prevent that probable future? I don't know, probably not. Is there anything that I can do about it? I'm still thinking about it. Let me know if you have some ideas.
My pursuit of happiness is based upon 'Primum Non Nocere' - do no harm. I will not be happy unless the world that I leave my children and their children and their children ... has hope of being at least as good as the world that I experienced. Preferably the world would be better, but I suppose that's step two.
Logically, we could stop damaging our world and even improve upon it. But reality is another story altogether. We have the intellect, the technology, the information, to solve or at least remediate our major problems. But that is not the path that we are embarked upon. And if we don't change that path, which at this point seems probable, our species itself will face serious decline and perhaps even extinction.
I would like to direct your attention to the work of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - http://maweb.org/en/Index.aspx. You might start with the 'Statement of the MA Board.' The MA has involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. They are careful to not hold accountable the forces that are responsible for our decline. I imagine their funding would then dry up in a heartbeat. But the message is still very clear. Here are a few of those messages:
"At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted."
---
"Nearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are found to be in decline worldwide. In effect, the benefits reaped from our engineering of the planet have been achieved by running down natural capital assets.
In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
---
"More land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850, and now approximately one quarter (24%) of Earth's terrestrial surface has been transformed to cultivated systems."
---
"Some 12% of birds, 25% of mammals, and at least 32% of amphibians are threatened with extinction over the next century."
---
"Only 4 of the services were found to be increasing their ability to benefit human populations, while 15 were in decline. Five more were found to be in a stable state overall, but in trouble in some parts of the world.
On the credit side, three of the improving services reflect the worldwide efforts to keep food supply ahead of the increase in population - total food production increased by about two-and-a-half times while the number of people in the world doubled from 3 billion to 6 billion between 1960 and 2000."
---
---
This far-reaching, comprehensive report paints a pretty clear picture of our probable future. Is there anything that we can do to prevent that probable future? I don't know, probably not. Is there anything that I can do about it? I'm still thinking about it. Let me know if you have some ideas.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Reverse, Upside Down, Inside Out Discrimination
On Monday morning October 25th, I voted early at the DeSoto Town Center. Several African-American workers were carrying campaign literature, but they ignored me entirely. That has happened before as well. Having been an election judge and activist in far southern Dallas County, I think I knew what they were thinking. Voting down here primarily, but not totally, follows racial lines. African-Americans mostly vote Democratic and Whites mostly vote Republican.
But that is not the case with me. My father still jokes that when I started crawling, I crawled backwards. That’s been the case ever since. Mr. Opposite ‘Mopposite.’
Let’s take the story back about three years. About 50 feet from where these workers were waiting, I had single-handedly erected a ‘DeSoto Democrats’ booth at the annual city festival. My good friend Gordon helped me that day. But few others were interested.
By that point in time, I had studied and even written essays on the three major Democratic candidates for President – Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama. I had given my endorsement to Barack Obama after considerable research and thought. But that day at the DeSoto City Festival, I was a lone voice. I remember discussing the topic with several African-Americans. They argued vehemently that Clinton was the more practical choice. I stood my ground.
A few months later, I attended the first Dallas County Obama organizational meeting. And numerous meetings, events, and most importantly voter registration drives after that.
Fast forward to the March 4, 2008 Democratic Primary. What a mess. I was the election judge for three Democratic Precincts. It looked like I would also be responsible for three Precinct Conventions. Ordinarily that would be no big deal. At the previous convention, only me, my wife, and my oldest son showed up. But that was not to be the case this day. The DeSoto African-American Democratic citizens of these three precincts were very, very energized. I have written about this day and evening previously so will not bore you with the details again. But I will say one thing. Although I was probably the most committed Obama evangelist there, I did not dare to try to become an Obama delegate to the Senate District Convention. To put it politely, I was not feeling a whole lot of warmth toward me that day. Things were so bad at one point that I considered dropping to my knees and praying.
Our society has come a long way since the 60’s. But not far enough.
But that is not the case with me. My father still jokes that when I started crawling, I crawled backwards. That’s been the case ever since. Mr. Opposite ‘Mopposite.’
Let’s take the story back about three years. About 50 feet from where these workers were waiting, I had single-handedly erected a ‘DeSoto Democrats’ booth at the annual city festival. My good friend Gordon helped me that day. But few others were interested.
By that point in time, I had studied and even written essays on the three major Democratic candidates for President – Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama. I had given my endorsement to Barack Obama after considerable research and thought. But that day at the DeSoto City Festival, I was a lone voice. I remember discussing the topic with several African-Americans. They argued vehemently that Clinton was the more practical choice. I stood my ground.
A few months later, I attended the first Dallas County Obama organizational meeting. And numerous meetings, events, and most importantly voter registration drives after that.
Fast forward to the March 4, 2008 Democratic Primary. What a mess. I was the election judge for three Democratic Precincts. It looked like I would also be responsible for three Precinct Conventions. Ordinarily that would be no big deal. At the previous convention, only me, my wife, and my oldest son showed up. But that was not to be the case this day. The DeSoto African-American Democratic citizens of these three precincts were very, very energized. I have written about this day and evening previously so will not bore you with the details again. But I will say one thing. Although I was probably the most committed Obama evangelist there, I did not dare to try to become an Obama delegate to the Senate District Convention. To put it politely, I was not feeling a whole lot of warmth toward me that day. Things were so bad at one point that I considered dropping to my knees and praying.
Our society has come a long way since the 60’s. But not far enough.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Richard’s Assessment
So what happened on November 2nd? As anticipated, the Democrats did poorly. The Republicans and the Tea Party did well. They now control the House as well as a greater share of Senate seats. And the entire progressive agenda and certainly the progressive momentum is in jeopardy.
The battle for November 2, 2010 actually began on November 4, 2008. In reality, it started even long before that. But we will use November 4, 2008 for the purposes of this essay. By November, 2008 the conservative machine was positioning itself to make a comeback in 2010. Even they acknowledged by then that the Bush mess spelled disaster in 2008, but they optimistically had hope for 2010. Their hope and hard work paid off well.
What went wrong? How did progressives go from a position of power and popularity to one of defensiveness and excuses in just two years? Like everybody else who has spent some time studying this issue, I have my opinion. I will focus my comments on Barack Obama and senior Democratic leaders.
As you probably know by now, I am a strong Obama supporter and was active even in the early stages of his campaign. I was thrilled that we would finally have a President who thought things through and explained them to us in clear, logical terms.
Obama did not have much of a honeymoon period with the American people. George W. Bush and his leadership handed Obama an enormous mess - an imploding economy, two wars, intense political polarization, and a host of other serious problems such as a cancerous national budget deficit. The first priority was the economy which was in total free fall as the Obama Administration took office.
The decisions on the economy were a tough call. I was dismayed that we were greatly expanding the national debt to stimulate the economy. The national debt was already out of control, the additional stimulus puts it in the realm of make believe. Does anybody really have a plan to address the runaway national debt? Does this just put us in a more impossible situation? Just leave it for future generations to clean up our mess and pay for our excesses?
However, the calls were made by both the Bush and Obama Administrations to stimulate the economy by accruing further debt. If the economy was the top priority - and I certainly think that it was - then the follow through should have been also treated as such. Most importantly those greedy bastards that got the economy into the mess should have been and should still be held accountable - to the fullest extent of the law. And with a consistency and persistence rarely exercised by government. The problem has been patched, but the greedy bastards are still out there waiting for the next opportunity. And they have proven that capitalism has a serious Achilles heel.
So was the economy the top priority or not? If it was and is, then everything else should fall in line behind it. That includes health care, the foreign wars, immigration reform, and even the environment. Each of these matters is too complicated to solve without complete focus. When the economy is tanking, nobody pays attention to anything else. And it gave the Republicans a huge opportunity to change the tide again.
All is not lost, but it is certainly in dire jeopardy. The progressive agenda will again be gridlocked by the Republicans. If we don't start fighting back and organizing more efficiently, then we might as well start praying for a miracle.
The battle for November 2, 2010 actually began on November 4, 2008. In reality, it started even long before that. But we will use November 4, 2008 for the purposes of this essay. By November, 2008 the conservative machine was positioning itself to make a comeback in 2010. Even they acknowledged by then that the Bush mess spelled disaster in 2008, but they optimistically had hope for 2010. Their hope and hard work paid off well.
What went wrong? How did progressives go from a position of power and popularity to one of defensiveness and excuses in just two years? Like everybody else who has spent some time studying this issue, I have my opinion. I will focus my comments on Barack Obama and senior Democratic leaders.
As you probably know by now, I am a strong Obama supporter and was active even in the early stages of his campaign. I was thrilled that we would finally have a President who thought things through and explained them to us in clear, logical terms.
Obama did not have much of a honeymoon period with the American people. George W. Bush and his leadership handed Obama an enormous mess - an imploding economy, two wars, intense political polarization, and a host of other serious problems such as a cancerous national budget deficit. The first priority was the economy which was in total free fall as the Obama Administration took office.
The decisions on the economy were a tough call. I was dismayed that we were greatly expanding the national debt to stimulate the economy. The national debt was already out of control, the additional stimulus puts it in the realm of make believe. Does anybody really have a plan to address the runaway national debt? Does this just put us in a more impossible situation? Just leave it for future generations to clean up our mess and pay for our excesses?
However, the calls were made by both the Bush and Obama Administrations to stimulate the economy by accruing further debt. If the economy was the top priority - and I certainly think that it was - then the follow through should have been also treated as such. Most importantly those greedy bastards that got the economy into the mess should have been and should still be held accountable - to the fullest extent of the law. And with a consistency and persistence rarely exercised by government. The problem has been patched, but the greedy bastards are still out there waiting for the next opportunity. And they have proven that capitalism has a serious Achilles heel.
So was the economy the top priority or not? If it was and is, then everything else should fall in line behind it. That includes health care, the foreign wars, immigration reform, and even the environment. Each of these matters is too complicated to solve without complete focus. When the economy is tanking, nobody pays attention to anything else. And it gave the Republicans a huge opportunity to change the tide again.
All is not lost, but it is certainly in dire jeopardy. The progressive agenda will again be gridlocked by the Republicans. If we don't start fighting back and organizing more efficiently, then we might as well start praying for a miracle.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Risky Behavior
I have always been rather non-confrontational. That may have been my greatest weakness as a Manager for so many years. That non-confrontational behavior permeated my professional and personal lives. For example, my wife was the primary disciplinarian for our three sons.
Part of this behavior is my psychology and part of it is my nature. The psychology part has been that I have felt uncomfortable with many confrontational situations. Sometimes I just avoided them. The nature part is the way I think. I don’t think that confrontation is usually a winning strategy. It immediately sparks defensiveness in the other party. Then nothing gets accomplished or things even get worse.
Don’t get me wrong. When I get wound up enough about something, I will confront. For example, while still in High School, I defied the town school board and precipitated the early termination of the board meeting. The issue was my insistence on better information about the Vietnam War and related military recruitment efforts at the High School. Not too many years ago, I organized and participated in a humble protest against Karl Rove and his supporters. Rove was speaking at Union Station in Dallas.
Something happened about two years ago that I just can’t quite identify. Did you see the 1997 movie “Liar Liar” with Jim Carrey? Carrey plays an attorney that by a strange twist of fate can no longer lie. His life becomes very, very interesting. I certainly have not taken truthiness to the level that Carrey’s character did in that movie. But I seem to have passed a number of hurdles in that direction.
When people ask me a direct question, I give them a direct, honest answer. Can you imagine? For example, my sister recently said that she hoped if we have problems to discuss in our relationship, that we would discuss them. I said OK, there is something that is bothering me quite a bit and this is what it is… Perhaps it’s coincidence, but I have not heard from her since.
Deceptions, misinformation, political correctness, and just plain lying have become standard fair for modern communication. I will stand by the opinion that despite all the new and innovative communication channels that we now have, real human communication has generally deteriorated.
I’m not sure where this new path will take me. But I do know that it is my destiny. Will my family accept this? Will my friends think that I am even weirder? Will my superiors at work castigate me? Will the readers of my essays ridicule me? Truth is indeed a risky thing.
Part of this behavior is my psychology and part of it is my nature. The psychology part has been that I have felt uncomfortable with many confrontational situations. Sometimes I just avoided them. The nature part is the way I think. I don’t think that confrontation is usually a winning strategy. It immediately sparks defensiveness in the other party. Then nothing gets accomplished or things even get worse.
Don’t get me wrong. When I get wound up enough about something, I will confront. For example, while still in High School, I defied the town school board and precipitated the early termination of the board meeting. The issue was my insistence on better information about the Vietnam War and related military recruitment efforts at the High School. Not too many years ago, I organized and participated in a humble protest against Karl Rove and his supporters. Rove was speaking at Union Station in Dallas.
Something happened about two years ago that I just can’t quite identify. Did you see the 1997 movie “Liar Liar” with Jim Carrey? Carrey plays an attorney that by a strange twist of fate can no longer lie. His life becomes very, very interesting. I certainly have not taken truthiness to the level that Carrey’s character did in that movie. But I seem to have passed a number of hurdles in that direction.
When people ask me a direct question, I give them a direct, honest answer. Can you imagine? For example, my sister recently said that she hoped if we have problems to discuss in our relationship, that we would discuss them. I said OK, there is something that is bothering me quite a bit and this is what it is… Perhaps it’s coincidence, but I have not heard from her since.
Deceptions, misinformation, political correctness, and just plain lying have become standard fair for modern communication. I will stand by the opinion that despite all the new and innovative communication channels that we now have, real human communication has generally deteriorated.
I’m not sure where this new path will take me. But I do know that it is my destiny. Will my family accept this? Will my friends think that I am even weirder? Will my superiors at work castigate me? Will the readers of my essays ridicule me? Truth is indeed a risky thing.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
A Jury of Your Peers
Last week, I had jury duty. Jury duty is an important civic responsibility so I did not try to get out of it. However, I was hoping that it would end early so that I could run some errands or even go fishing. No such luck that day.
Even in the best circumstances, jury duty can be time consuming. I always bring at least one book. That day, I was able to read about one-third of What's the Matter with Kansas by Frank Thomas. That book has been on my to-read shelf for about six years. I'm whittling down the books on that shelf since I'm not working all the time now.
Mid-morning, I got selected as part of a group of 75 for a murder trial. While we were waiting to enter the courtroom for 'final' jury selection, a lawyer knocked against me while I was reading, yet offered no apology. Despite having a good book, I was getting cranky. Before lunchtime, we got some basic instructions from the judge and then we were dismissed for lunch.
After lunch, our assigned seats within the courtroom had changed. I was in the jury box with 11 others. Everybody else sat on the hard spectator benches. As I am apt to do, I tried to draw correlations with the other 11 people in the jury box. We were a pretty diverse group, as was the entire group of 75. African-American, Hispanic, Oriental, White, young, old. I don't know for sure since I did not speak with any of the others that day. But I would guess a mix of liberal and conservative as well.
The judge spoke for some time about the nature of the trial, the indictment against the defendant (who was there), and our responsibilities as potential jurors. He asked us a few questions about our commitments and availability and health for the next couple of weeks.
There were two prosecutors. One spoke for quite some time and proceeded with the Voir Dire. That is the process to ferret out potential juror biases. She asked the jurors a number of questions and the other prosecutor, the defense attorney, and sometimes the judge took notes about specific individuals. Then the defense attorney had his turn and asked us more questions with the resulting note taking.
By 6:30 PM, the potential jurors were dismissed. Apparently, the attorneys could not come to agreement for the minimum number of jurors and alternates and such that they needed. So they had to repeat this process the next day with a different cast of potential jurors.
The main impression that I have retained from that day is how seriously everybody in that courtroom took their jobs - the judge, the attorneys, and particularly the potential jurors. When informing outside people that you have jury duty coming up, they will give you suggestions on how to be eliminated during the juror selection process. It's standard fair for such conversations.
I listened throughout the afternoon and evening very carefully. I never got the impression that a single one of our 75 had employed this tactic. It astounded me how open and honest people seemed to be. There was not really a single egregious instance of a statement that could be grounds for clear dismissal. People even said things like 'I'm not sure that I have the attention span for such a serious trial that would last so long.' Or 'I don't really feel comfortable with the potential of committing a person to life in prison.' Or 'I was held up at gunpoint in the past, but I think that I can be fair on this jury.'
It was a very long day and I obviously never made it to a fishing hole. But it was a bright spot in this cynic's routine. It was a rare time that I felt a lot better about my average fellow citizens.
Even in the best circumstances, jury duty can be time consuming. I always bring at least one book. That day, I was able to read about one-third of What's the Matter with Kansas by Frank Thomas. That book has been on my to-read shelf for about six years. I'm whittling down the books on that shelf since I'm not working all the time now.
Mid-morning, I got selected as part of a group of 75 for a murder trial. While we were waiting to enter the courtroom for 'final' jury selection, a lawyer knocked against me while I was reading, yet offered no apology. Despite having a good book, I was getting cranky. Before lunchtime, we got some basic instructions from the judge and then we were dismissed for lunch.
After lunch, our assigned seats within the courtroom had changed. I was in the jury box with 11 others. Everybody else sat on the hard spectator benches. As I am apt to do, I tried to draw correlations with the other 11 people in the jury box. We were a pretty diverse group, as was the entire group of 75. African-American, Hispanic, Oriental, White, young, old. I don't know for sure since I did not speak with any of the others that day. But I would guess a mix of liberal and conservative as well.
The judge spoke for some time about the nature of the trial, the indictment against the defendant (who was there), and our responsibilities as potential jurors. He asked us a few questions about our commitments and availability and health for the next couple of weeks.
There were two prosecutors. One spoke for quite some time and proceeded with the Voir Dire. That is the process to ferret out potential juror biases. She asked the jurors a number of questions and the other prosecutor, the defense attorney, and sometimes the judge took notes about specific individuals. Then the defense attorney had his turn and asked us more questions with the resulting note taking.
By 6:30 PM, the potential jurors were dismissed. Apparently, the attorneys could not come to agreement for the minimum number of jurors and alternates and such that they needed. So they had to repeat this process the next day with a different cast of potential jurors.
The main impression that I have retained from that day is how seriously everybody in that courtroom took their jobs - the judge, the attorneys, and particularly the potential jurors. When informing outside people that you have jury duty coming up, they will give you suggestions on how to be eliminated during the juror selection process. It's standard fair for such conversations.
I listened throughout the afternoon and evening very carefully. I never got the impression that a single one of our 75 had employed this tactic. It astounded me how open and honest people seemed to be. There was not really a single egregious instance of a statement that could be grounds for clear dismissal. People even said things like 'I'm not sure that I have the attention span for such a serious trial that would last so long.' Or 'I don't really feel comfortable with the potential of committing a person to life in prison.' Or 'I was held up at gunpoint in the past, but I think that I can be fair on this jury.'
It was a very long day and I obviously never made it to a fishing hole. But it was a bright spot in this cynic's routine. It was a rare time that I felt a lot better about my average fellow citizens.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Packaged Cynicism
My wife is not feeling well. But she has gone to work all week since this is the first week that kids are in the library. After work yesterday, she went to the supermarket and got our needs for the week (I offered – really). But she forgot apples and cucumbers. No big deal, I’ll grab some tonight on my way home from work.
But I had no fruit for my lunch today. And being a person of habit, I needed a piece of fruit. I thought about stopping at the supermarket on the way to work and picking up the missing apples and cucumbers, but ran out of time. No big deal, I have seen apples and bananas at the coffee booth in our cafeteria. I work at a major university medical center.
I went down to the cafeteria early so that I would not be stuck with the passed over apples and bananas. Unfortunately, the coffee cart had no fruit. Well, they did have a cup of chopped melons and grapes for $2.75. I already had a hard time with the thought of a $1.25 apple so the fruit cup was out. Hmmm, I walked around the cafeteria and a few of the vendors were open. I must admit that it was still breakfast time, so perhaps fruit is available for lunch. However, I could find nothing.
Hold it, what that? Over by the Subway counter. It’s in a small plastic container – no that’s the display product. Behind that. It’s apples in a plastic bag. Sliced apples – 2.4 ounces worth – in a plastic bag. That my friend was my sole option. $1.40 later, and the 2.4 ounce bag of apple slices were mine.
It would be hard to criticize Subway for this. After all, at least they had fruit – even if it was sliced and packaged. I think that it is more of a reflection on our culture. Did you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.? It’s an absolutely brilliant book and Ms. Kingsolver is a wonderful writer as well. It tracks a year in the life of food by her family farming for a year in Virginia.
Anyway, back to the apple. We take one of God’s most perfect products- the apple – perfectly packaged already and delicious. Then we slice it up and add some Calcium Ascorbate. Then it goes in a plastic bag. All 2.4 ounces of it for $1.29 plus tax. I enjoyed the apple slices – but I can only shake my head and mutter.
But I had no fruit for my lunch today. And being a person of habit, I needed a piece of fruit. I thought about stopping at the supermarket on the way to work and picking up the missing apples and cucumbers, but ran out of time. No big deal, I have seen apples and bananas at the coffee booth in our cafeteria. I work at a major university medical center.
I went down to the cafeteria early so that I would not be stuck with the passed over apples and bananas. Unfortunately, the coffee cart had no fruit. Well, they did have a cup of chopped melons and grapes for $2.75. I already had a hard time with the thought of a $1.25 apple so the fruit cup was out. Hmmm, I walked around the cafeteria and a few of the vendors were open. I must admit that it was still breakfast time, so perhaps fruit is available for lunch. However, I could find nothing.
Hold it, what that? Over by the Subway counter. It’s in a small plastic container – no that’s the display product. Behind that. It’s apples in a plastic bag. Sliced apples – 2.4 ounces worth – in a plastic bag. That my friend was my sole option. $1.40 later, and the 2.4 ounce bag of apple slices were mine.
It would be hard to criticize Subway for this. After all, at least they had fruit – even if it was sliced and packaged. I think that it is more of a reflection on our culture. Did you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.? It’s an absolutely brilliant book and Ms. Kingsolver is a wonderful writer as well. It tracks a year in the life of food by her family farming for a year in Virginia.
Anyway, back to the apple. We take one of God’s most perfect products- the apple – perfectly packaged already and delicious. Then we slice it up and add some Calcium Ascorbate. Then it goes in a plastic bag. All 2.4 ounces of it for $1.29 plus tax. I enjoyed the apple slices – but I can only shake my head and mutter.
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