HW 27 - Visiting an unwell person

As we pulled up to his house, there was an scent of familiarity in the air. We knew what was coming next, he was going to be really excited to see us, but it would turn to tears and us consoling him about how he shouldn't be sad because we were all there. He is 88 years old and he has neuropathy in his right foot. Neuropathy is when the nerves are damaged by disease or by a chronic condition. In his case it stemmed from an infection in his foot that eventually claimed his big toe and the ball of his right foot. He is on constant medication and he knows he is aging fast. So after we passed the usual conversation, we moved back to his outside porch and sat down in the warm sun. He said as he always does "I'm getting old Steph." As he refers to my mother. We always joke about how he is going to see my graduate college and even my first child, but he knows that isn't true. No one lives forever. His house is very neat and well organized. He has enough canned food to last him for another 100 years that he will never eat. His freezer is stocked with home cooked, frozen meals, and his fridge has more junk food then ours does, but no matter how much time has passed, it seems like it is always the same.

He lives like he wants everything to be in perfect order when he dies. It is clear that someone lives there, but it isn't clear if they are actually living. It feels like a museum that has shag carpeting. We ask if he would come to lunch with us. He responds with "i do what i want to do." So we ask if he would please come to lunch with us. He does, and he has a hot dog. When we get back to his house he complains about how he doesn't like to go out because the food upsets his stomach. It hits me, this is a man who is always on some kind of medication, has to watch what he eats, and knows he is old. He is still a respectable man, he is very smart and he can still think and speak for himself, but he can't really hear that well. So i think to myself, if people know what this is like when they get old, why do they bother? I don't think i can deal with living like that for myself.

How does someone come about being like that? Is it a process that you don't really notice until one day it floods you? Or do you see its slow and dark approach? When they do realize, why do they continue to live like that? On my flight back home i think i discovered the answer that i was satisfied with. I think that when you get to that age, you know that you are dying and it is scary. It is like holding on to a ledge and someone telling you to let go, but you don't know what is below you. The only difference is that this is death. I can understand why this man we visited wouldn't want to let go. He likes where he is. I would be willing to compromise on my health and well being to still be alive. To just have one more day and see the people i love because they make it all worth it. He takes his pills every several hours because they are what keep him alive.

Most of the time we just sat around his house and watched TV or talked and joked about past memories. When it came time to leave he stood on his doorstep and with his hands behind his back he would watch us drive off. Both of us weren't sure if we would ever see each other again. It's a feeling you can never describe because you haven't lost anything yet, but you want to freeze time so that one moment will last that much longer, but it wont so you do your absolute best to commit it to memory before you forget it. That is what i think that people who are dying are trying to do. They want to remember the way they had lived and correct any faults they may have committed because regardless of your religious orientation, no one wants to die with a tarnished conscious. The "unwell" person who i visited is no exception, that is why he continues to hang on even though he knows he isn't completely happy. But he knows that even the most unsavory of tasks must be completed.

HW 26 - Looking back & forward in unit

• Sometimes we aren't afraid of dying, but afraid of what will happen to others because we die. (My Mother)
• You can't avoid death, but you can value the time you do have (Beth Wood)
• The American way of life is really something of a rarity and other countries there isn't just bad health care, but a complete lack of it. (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
• We live in a country where our health care denies service to the people who need it to make money. (Sicko)

For me HWs 19 and 21 were the most insightful to do because it gave me the perspective of what dying is, from people who had witnessed it first hand. They brought to light how people feel when they are dying and what they want and what they think. They showed us extremely personal moments of weakness and hoped that we would be able to learn from what they had to share. These were two different, but somewhat ordinary cases, two deaths from cancer. By being able to hear these stories, i was able to discover deeper meanings to what it means to live, and then die.

What i really want to know is what is death like. I know there is only one way to find out, but i feel like death isn't something that anyone can ever fully explain because the only way to find out doesn't allow you to ever repeat it. The reasonable question i have is what do people associate death with? What is the first word that comes to mind when someone says death to you. Do they picture a skeleton in a hood with a scythe? Do they picture falling asleep? Maybe even a tombstone. By looking at what people associate their fate with, maybe can begin to understand why people are living the life they are living.

HW 25 - Response to Sicko

Sicko Precis: We live in a country where the rich use the poor to get richer. The powers at be created a health care system that abuses the poor by overcharging them for health care that wont actually "care" for them, by implementing a privatized health care system that operate by "less care is more profit." Meanwhile in Canada they have public health care where they can walk in to a clinic anytime and get completely free health care. Here, to reattach a finger it would have cost $60,000, there it was free. In England and France it is the same thing, they operate not under, "Ask yourself what you can do for your country, but what can your country do for you."

In the part of Sicko i saw in class, Michael Moore was trying to prove that our government was being corrupted by the health care industry. Some evidence he used was :

• On Feb 17th 1971 Edward Keiser presented his "privatized health care system" to president Richard Nixon that boasted "all the incentives are towards less medical care, the less care you give them, the more money you make." The next day, Nixon called for a "new national health strategy."
• Hilary Clinton who once ran against the Health Care industry with a universal health care bill, was defeated after the HMO's spent more then $100 million, and in turn became Hilary Clinton's biggest campaign supporters.

Michael Moore believed that our government was corrupted by the privatized Health Care industry. He presented us with Nixon's meeting with Keiser Permente and the start of Private health care. Then with how one of private health cares biggest opponents became their ally by bribing her with campaign contributions. Dr. Sanjay Gupta checked in on how true Michael Moore's facts really were. One difference between the two different sets of data was that Michael Moore over stated how much waiting time there was for non-emergency surgeries outside the U.S. Moore said that it was a misconception that there were long waiting times for universal health care and then interviewed several people who agreed with him. I then did my own research to see how the two compared and learned that Moore was still off.

"We found that waiting times for an initial orthopedic consultation and for knee-replacement surgery, as measured by patient reports, were longer in Ontario than in the United States, but the differences were not as large as some might have anticipated. A substantial majority of respondents in both countries considered their` waits acceptable. "(http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199410203311607#t=articleDiscussion)

Although Moore was right on this account, i still disagree with his overall way of presenting his data. He uses fear to persuade us to join him and leave our country behind us. He rips on the government he lives on and his information isn't even 100% correct much less is it persuasive.

I don't personally like Michael Moore, I think that he aggrandizes his points by creatively and with large numbers, hypnotizes his audience by showing them things that confronts their beliefs in a non-confrontational and interesting to watch way. I personally feel that if he has such a big problem with how health care is run, then he should get the f*&k out of this country. He has gone from deep and insightful about issues like gun control and Columbine, to short and nearsighted with his arguments on health care. He does a lot of one sided research into a topic and then very loudly and obnoxiously tells everyone about it. What really angered me about this movie was how he never discussed that the English, French and Canadian citizens pay egregious taxes for their "free" health care. I think that Moore needs to broaden his approach before he begins to make another movie because the sociological effects that this movie have on people who will believe and not question every word that he speaks will just strengthen his army of mindless drones who don't understand both sides of the issue because their leader, Moore, doesn't ever present both sides of the story. I mean whatever makes for a more interesting because in the end, 50% of what you just payed is going directly into his pocket. According to Celebritynetworth.com Michael Moore was entitled to 50% of the profits from the box office release of Sicko which amounted to $24.5 million and all of the profits from the DVD sales which amounted to $17 million. So in total he walked away with $29,250,000 million, not including royalties or merchandise sales. But it puts my mind at ease to know that with all that money he can at least buy some decent health care coverage.

HW 24 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 3

Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Random House, 2003

Precis: Paul Farmer met Father Jack when he was in Harvard Medical School. He used to board in his parish. Father Jack was a character, he would play little games on Paul and Ophelia when they would stay there. In the early 1990's Father Jack left his Parish to move to a slum on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. So when he told Farmer he should open a TB clinic, Jim Kim, Paul's right hand man was ready for the task. There was heavy political unrest in Peru between the Government and the Guerrillas. The Guerrillas used the TB clinic as as bedroom, and even blew up the pharmacy that Partners In Health had built for the community. It wasn't long after that, that Father Jack got sick with Tuberculosis and was flown back to Boston for treatment. He died a month after starting therapy, when they tested his disease for drug susceptibility, they found out that his disease was immune to all four of the drugs he was on as well as one other that he wasn't on. The next thing that Farmer investigated was how many people really did have drug resistant TB.

Quotes:

1. "Pel, you wouldn't believe what Father Jack just did. He's hiring all these people because he feels sorry for them, and they can't do the work." (p.131)
2. "Eventually he TB had been cultured and found to be resistant to the four first line drugs. She'd been re-treated again--with those very same drugs, strangely enough--and now she was sick again and coughing up blood. Along the way her doctors had accused her of non-compliance." (p.133)
3. "The air carried a strengthening smell of urine. There were no sewers up there, only bathrooms secluded places among the boulders above the last dwellings. I looked to the north. In the distance i could see a river, a line of green, but all around and high above, only dirt and rocks." (p.136)

This was more then a matter of a friend dying for Paul Farmer, it was that this whole new aspect of a disease had been overlooked because for a global organization to try to come up with personalized instructions for everyone who came up with a disease like TB or AIDS would be out of control. The simple problem here is that similar, if not more intensive care was put forward for Father Jack, but he died because he was immune to the drugs he was given. In a country where we value our health enough to have to pay an outrageous amount every month just in case we get sick and we wont be able to actually pay the hospital. These are people who can't do that, so they take whatever treatment they can get, but these treatments aren't helping because sometimes the system can fail for people because the safety net can never be big enough for us all. The thing is that for most of us, that will never be a problem because we probably wont ever get E Coli or TB, because there are measures put in place to try to prevent that. We read stories about people who that happens to, but its never us. When it is though we always want to implement a serious change so that it will never happen to us or anyone else, because it was a stupid mistake that shouldn't have actually affected anyone, but it did. That is the saddest thing is that it always takes something more serious for us to learn, then if we had just listened in the first place. I am no exception, and since it hasn't happened to me yet i don't know what i can do to change it. Is there really such a thing as looking at the world through too many lenses?

HW 23 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 2

Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Random House, 2003

Precis: Farmer entered Harvard Medical School in the fall of 1984, he was only 24. He signed up for classes, got his textbooks and headed back to Haiti. He never had trouble passing his classes, in fact, he had some of the highest grades in his class. His professors understood what he was doing, and in fact, most of them embraced it. He was seeing diseases and situations everyday that most of the students there would never see in a lifetime. While he wasn't studying in class, he was studying with his friend and lover Ophelia Dahl. Daughter of famous writer Roald Dahl. Farmer wrote thousands of index cards on which he would write questions and then hints towards the answers. A good portion of his knowledge also came from experiences in the field including drug resistant TB. He would come back for midterms and finals, but Paul Farmer is a exception to the fact that you need school to learn.

Quotes:

1. "In the car, she started in on him, accusing him of self-righteousness. She didn't let up. Finally, he slammed on the brakes, reached across her, and pushed open her door. Get out! he yelled, and called her a foul name. She didn't obey. She sat rigidly in her seat, feeling both offended and also exultant, smiling inwardly, thinking, "Yes! I got to you. You have this human quality. You're flawed." (p.97)
2. "But he went, right back into the thick of the trouble, demonstrators climbing over the car while soldiers clubbed them. He took several more bloodied civilians in, and came back unbloodied himself. "It was very important for Paul to witness things," Ophelia would say. (p.98)
3. The establishment of a school may seem a bit out of place given the homelessness, landlessness, and hunger of many of the water refugees. But it appears that they themselves did not feel that way. Children flocked to the new facility. One peasant woman explained, "A lot of us wondered what would have happened if we had known how to write." (p.91).

Paul Farmer hates dealing with death. The diseases he deals with have claimed a good number of his close friends, including Father Jack. To him death isn't something that should be an everyday worry. He became a doctor so he could bring some kind of medical care to one of the most impoverished nations in the world. He wanted to help people. He went to the root of the problem. He knew that the root of the health problems came from malnutrition, bad water and just bad overall living conditions. He did more then throw drugs at the problem. He rebuilt schools, gave people new roofs, and cement floors, fresh water that they didn't have to walk down a 900ft steep hill to get. He organized funds from friends from school and other anonymous rich donors. It was more then just money. It was his life. What i realized that this book wasn't meant to make Farmer famous. It was for people to understand what it takes to take a country from far below poverty and starvation, and put them back to 3rd world country status. This book was meant to inspire us and show us that we all have the ability to be extraordinary people. It is all just about what you decide to do with your life. You can choose to keep it to yourself and share it with your few friends. Or you can dedicate it to those around you and really realize what can be done to make some one else's life better.

HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1

Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Random House, 2003

Precis: Paul Farmer, also referred to as Dokte Paul. Was born with a gift, he possesses the gift of healing. Instead of using this gift for his own personal gain, he lives in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world for 8 months out of the year, where he runs a hospital. Specializing in Infections Diseases, he is working with as many people as he can to slowly restore the health of the population of Haiti. Since he came there, no one has died of Tuberculosis in 12 years in his hospitals catchment area. His hospital is run off of donations, although he does charge a fee of 8 cents to all of the patients, unless they are wounded, sick, elderly, women or children. All else have to pay though. If his patients do not come for a check up, he will go out and find then, which sometimes include climbing mountains. He said to me once that he keeps working because there is always some one who needs treatment but isn't getting it. I guess that just shows what kind of man he really is.

Quotes:

1. "No one else, not at this time, is treating impoverished Haitians with the new antiretroviral drugs. Indeed, almost no one in any poor country is treating poor people who have the disease." (p.24)
2. "Look at you bourgeois people watching TV! Farmer says. The patients laugh. One of the young men looks up at him. No, Dokte Paul, not bourgeois. If we were bourgeois, we would have an antenna." (p.31)
3. Joe seemed glad to see him, as well as the present. As Farmer was leaving the shelter, he heard Joe say to another resident, just loudly enough to make Farmer wonder if Joe meant for him to overhear, "That guy's a fuckin saint." (p.16)
4. "My local hospital in Massachusetts was treating about 175,00 patients a year and had an annual operating budget of a$60 million. In 1999 Zanmi Lasante had treated roughly the same number of people, at the medical complex and out in the communities, and spent about $1.5 million, half of that in the form of donated drugs." (p.22).

In contrast to the "American way of life," Haitians live pretty poorly. They beg for food and live on what they can in a day to day manner. There was a part of this book where a woman came into the hospital with gangrene infecting her hand because it had been 15 days since she got the initial infection. In America we don't have to worry about that, we go to the doctor when we have pain in our knees or we take an aspirin if we have a headache, they have to tough it out. There will always be the people who truly upset by these inequalities, but how many of them are qualified enough to actually do anything, almost anyone can throw money at a problem, that is the american way, but it takes a truly remarkable man to actually make a difference. If there were a million more people who were just as qualified and dedicated as Dr. Paul Farmer, then there would be a whole lot less problems in the world. But there aren't so the men who are like him look that much more remarkable because of all the things they are willing to sacrifice to try to improve the world around them. Reading about what he does makes me want to change the world, but where do we start? Where is the line between wanting to help so we donate money, and actually donating ourselves to a cause that we really believe in? Or is that the problem, we really just couldn't be bothered enough to actually have something we believe in.

HW 21 - Comments

Amber,
I think you had some ideas here that were worth restating. to me the most powerful one was "We don't want to believe the bleak, depressing reality of just laying 6 feet under when we die." I think that because she never directly mentioned her fear of death for this reason, it was even more important, because this really is an idea that people don't ever really want to think about.
There was depth in your ideas and a lot of personal connections that made it seem like a topic that you really did care about and because of that it was reflected in your work
good job
-sam

Amhara,
I really liked the direction you went in the last paragraph because it really showed this beauty of death that really makes you appreciate what you have, because you know you wont have it for that much longer. My favorite line is "This is true at least for the people lucky enough to have loved ones and passions." Because it is filled with doubt and regardless of how many people you may have around you, it is something that everyone thinks. There is always the "what didn't i do." You did a good job of putting your thoughts together on something you didn't get to see, but i think you picked up the ideas beautifully.
-Sam

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Amhara said...

I thought you're outlook on death is very interesting. You've accepted death yet you'd rather not think or talk about it and let nature take its course. This seems to be the outlook of most people but I find it interesting people think of it as an avoidable topic. I think that you could have expanded on that idea because it is a common is an idea shared by many other people. One thing you could discuss thinking and talking about death personally affects you and why it makes you uncomfortable. I personally believe that over thinking about the topic is what causes all of the negative connotations that go along with it. We instinctively think about how we are supposed to feel because death is always a big deal, but if we gave death less significance, such as something that just occurs naturally, we probably would feel as uncomfortable about it.

amberrosesmith said...

Sam, i thought it was interesting how you don't feel the need to talk about death. Why is this? Do you feel its something thats uneeded or do you think you don't want to face the reality of it?
I think its a great attitude to not be afraid of death, and love the way you made the paragraph personal by making connections to your own family. I have the same view as you as in I never want to become a burden on someone and have someone resent looking after me. Reading 'Tuesdays with Morrie' I thought to myself I think I'd rather die than suffer for a drawn out period of time.
I think the way you make real life connections and the language you use is really nice, well done.

Amber :)

Sam j said...

Eli (younger brother (less skilled)):
Your ability to take a serious and personal concept, such as the path that is death and how this individual dealt with it, and bring it into a personal and certainly relatable topic is outstanding. I have some bias being part of your family, but it is clear that your connections are profound. For example, you mentioned "Like what my mom said with how she isn't afraid of death, just the effect it will have on people when she does die. I can relate to that because i have too much that I cant leave behind and i don't want other people to be responsible for me when i do die." You turn a very small and narrow story into not into something from your life, but something that is relatable to everyone.

In my opinion the goal of a writer is to tell a story that will bring a reaction of others. Just to hit them and make them think, make them say, "this applies to me". You took a story and did just that, with strong and creative connections.

Sam j said...

Stephanie (mom/mentor):
"why do we suddenly feel the need to really live, when we find out we are dying"
This was an amazing comment and insight to me. It takes a tremendous amount of bravery to face mortality and still be true to the course of our lives. This says to me that you know that you have to be able to clearly see the life you live now, to make the most of it in your final final days.
it wasn't easy to se your grandmother (whom i know you loved, and know you are so loved by) live and die with great dignity and i am proud that you are able to build on this important life lesson. To understand the value of family and loved ones now, to cherish our days while we can live them as we choose is a great gift and i am so impressed that you have been able recognize this.

HW 21 - Expert #1

Important Insights/Experiences

1. The way he would take Josh to museums and paint and do art with them. So they wouldn't grow up in front of the TV
2. The way they never used the word Death, or Dying
3. The way he deteriorated from "movie star handsome" to "flesh and bones." In the end he was 6 feet tall and weighted 92 pounds.
4. The idea of pushing things away, not being able to talk, but pushing everything away
5. The way Evan would hold his head up so he could sit up straight, or how josh stayed home from prom to take care of him. And how Beth would stay up all night with him, and take care of him like a baby.

One of my favorite insights was the way she discussed how they never used the words death or dying. They both knew what was going on, but they didn't need to talk about it, they just knew. When my grandma was dying, she never said she was, but she knew she wouldn't be coming to fire island after last summer because she knew she wouldn't last, but she just wanted to enjoy her time left and be with the people who love her. Which is what i believe in, not being afraid to die, but not talking about it. Just let nature take it course.

My other favorite insight was how this slow death caused him to need to have to take care of him. He didn't want to have people doing things for him, he still had his dignity, so he didn't like it. But eventually he accepted it. I don't ever want to be old enough, or in a position where i need people to wait on me hand and foot. Where my loved ones have to watch me slowly die. Like what my mom said with how she isn't afraid of death, just the effect it will have on people when she does die. I can relate to that because i have too much that i cant leave behind and i don't want other people to be responsible for me when i do die.

What this story brought to mind is what it is like to literally be living just to avoid death. We always scramble if we find out we are going to die because suddenly there is so much to accomplish. We know that everything is going to end, so we want to do all the other things because we were living our lives. We couldn't go to Paris because we were working, but now we have 9 months to live so i am going to go learn french and visit the Eiffel Tower. What i thought about was, why do we suddenly feel the need to really live, when we find out we are dying. That is what i respected about this story. This man only changed the way he lived because he couldn't physically do the things he used to. He continued to live as he had because he was living the life he enjoyed. He only spent more time with his wife because they both knew they were going to have to make up for lost time. Although it isn't directly related, i learned that if you can continue living the way you are living when you find out you are going to die. Then you are living a good life. But what i learned is to love who you are with and what you do so that you don't have to look back when you are dying and question why you weren't living the life you dreamed you were.

HW 19 - Family Perspectives on Illness & Dying

My grandma was sick for a very long time. She had cancer, and then it went into remission, and then it came back. When i asked my mom if she ever talked to her own mom about death, she said she had. She said that my grandma knew that her time was running out, but she wasn't scared of death, "she was scared for us, for what we would have to go through," as she put it. For people who have never met my grandmother, she was a strong willed and independent woman, she was ahead of her time. Someone people would look up to, she just had that aura about her. She really was a strong woman, you never would have known that she had cancer until the end. My mom on the other hand, knew the whole time because that was her mother. I asked her how she felt about the whole deal, and she said that after watching what she had gone through, she wasn't afraid of death, just suffering. She didn't want people to watch her slowly deteriorate until she did die. I don't think anyone does.

The first thing my mom said to me after i read her the assignment was that she always knew that my grandma wanted to be cremated even though it was against her religion. I felt that this was a significant thing to begin with because my mom was always very close with her mother and it is deep to understand that your own mother will die one day and you are going to have to be responsible for fulfilling her final wishes. She knew that once my grandma had accepted death, she couldn't do anything but be there for her to support her. It reminded my mom of the one time she went to visit her grandmother Sadie's grave, she said she went into the graveyard and it was so quiet and peaceful. "It was fasinating, so many souls resting in peace, but under the ground, rotting in boxes," as she said.

After watching what happened to my grandma, my mom has a new outlook on life, and death. She said that you are supposed to appreciate life, and with it, appreciate death. The only sure thing in life, is death. Life is very much like the Never Ending Song, one day you start it, and how long you keep it going it up to you, but eventually you get tired of it, so you stop, and then you move on. Its fun to do with groups of people, it is merry and makes you feel like you are part of a family when you sing it. Very much like my grandma's views, my mom agrees that she isn't scared of death, she is afraid of what she will leave behind, that somehow her work here wont be done. To me that made sense, not wanting to leave anything behind, we are given plenty of time on this earth, but yet it never seems to be enough. We always need more, i guess because no matter how we have accepted it, we are still a little scared. Thats what my mom is trying to say, or thats how i interpret it.

I'll leave you with a little poem i found on the internet:

When the first living thing existed,

i was there waiting.

When the last living thing dies,

my job will be finished.

i'll put the chairs on the tables,

turn out the lights,

and lock the universe

behind me as i leave.

-Death

HW 18 - Health & Illness & Feasting

For the past 5 years, my family and i have spent Thanksgiving at the New York Rescue Mission. Thanksgiving day we go and help set up and serve people who don't have homes on thanksgiving and then after they leave, we serve the people who live in the mission, and we eat with them. Afterwords they all share stories of things they are thankful for and their back stories. This year a minister who works in another church came and ate with us. He was friends with the people who ran this one and even though he wasn't homeless, he was allowed to come. He told us about how his wife and children had just left him, but he had been sober for over 23 years. But he said that because god was with him, he would be strong and god would pull him through the fire he was engulfed in now. Other stories from past years include a fireman who fell through a roof of a burning building, broke his back and got hooked on painkillers, which escalated to heroin. His family had left him, and now he was homeless, but Jesus had found him, and now he was on his way to recovery. These were men who had lost themselves, and then found it again through religion. They tried to live better lives because they needed to be able to please someone else.

To me, being with these people is a normal thanksgiving. Every year i come out of there with a sense of purpose and fulfilment. These men have danced with the devil and lost everything, and now they were starting again, and they had a place to sleep, and a "family" to eat with. It is in no way a "typical" Thanksgiving, but we weren't alone. We were all there, volunteers, and residents, to celebrate and enjoy a warm meal. We didn't care about each other's past mistakes. We didn't judge each other on what we were wearing, or how much we ate. We did't care about the quality of the food. We were there because we all wanted to be in a place like that, and whether of not going home was an option. That was the place to find it. To listen to a grown man cry because he knows that he shouldn't be allowed to see his own children because of the things he has done is a humbling feeling. But the even more humbling feeling is the low echo of "Amen's" that come from throughout the room as the other men there feel his pain, because in one way or another, they have all been there.

After my family and i left the shelter, we went to my Dad's mother and sister, and then my Mom's Brother and his family. After leaving the shelter, and then visiting my family, i was brought back to light how hostile a family environment really is. Everyone is laughing and joking, but there are awkward silences where we are all silently judging. We ask each other for things, and we are forced to entertain. To me, that doesn't sounds all to much like the Thanksgiving we are told about. But i guess its because we are used to it. Not everyone can experience what it is like to volunteer in a homeless shelter, so instead they just go through the rituals of eating until they can't physically eat anymore. I guess it is about repressing emotions and hiding disdain. We all know we are going to die eventually, so on holidays, the family wants to be close together, so we can "bond." Maybe it is just because we have a small family, but i think the bigger picture is because we want to fit in with what everyone is doing. By working in the shelter, we have broken that, and now we can see things from the outside. That is more liberating then unbuckling your belt after your meal.

HW 17 - First Thoughts on the Illness & Dying Unit

I find dieing to be a scary concept because what happens to us when we die. Its really the biggest uncertainty in someones life because there is no way to avoid it. The biggest problem is when it happens, what will happen to you? What happens when our heart stops beating? Do you dream? Is everything just black? There is no way to ever know until you are there, and if you don't like it, there is no going back. That is scary, that is something to quite literally, live in fear of. As a person i can say i am scared of uncertainty and the unknown, and death is no exception. All i can relate it to is sleeping, and i relate sleeping to darkness.

Jim Morrison of the musical group The Doors said: “I wouldn't mind dying in a plane crash. It'd be a good way to go. I don't want to die in my sleep, or of old age, or OD. I want to feel what it's like. I want to taste it, hear it, smell it. Death is only going to happen once. I don't want to miss it.” We quite literally live to die. It is one of the most important things about life, is dying. He wanted to experience it, and that was ironic because he ended up dying of a drug overdose. Dying is something that you do only get to do once, so it seems fair to want to experience it. To want to, as weird as it may seem, really live death, isn't something that is to far fetched to want. I don't think that if i was given the option to know when i was going to die, i would take it. I don't want to know. The point i am trying to make is that death is something that each person only gets once, so the mystery around it is what makes it so interesting and scary. We only know what it brings to an extent, we don't know what happens to us, only what is left.

The other day i woke up and i had a sore throat and a stuffed up nose. I don't remember how i got sick, but i just was. I hate being sick because it doesn't happen often and it makes me really uncomfortable. I have never been seriously sick though, i have never had any illness that caused me to go to the hospital. So what do we do when we are told there is something really wrong with us. What happens if we went to the doctor and he told us that we had a disease that would ravage out bodies and leave us gaunt and frail bodies when we had once been strong and well built people. How do we accept that these sicknesses are real and can have real consequences. Every day there is a new report on the news about how a certain action can increase your risk of cancer or decrease it. So do we live in fear and try our very best to avoid sickness so we can live healthy lives in hopes that we can avoid death for another year? What happens to the people who don't smoke but got lung cancer from the dust from 9/11, and the people who have been smoking for years, but still have a mostly clean bill of health. What causes that? I have been taught by my family that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, and that the body has a tendency to work its problems out. So if i hurt my wrist, but it isn't debilitating pain, then i will wait it out until it goes away, or gets worse. I can accept this and respect this because it does make me feel stronger as a person to not have to go to a doctor all the time to tell me what is wrong with me. I adhere to my own health standards, but i am worried because i don't know if my cell phone will give me brain cancer, or the sun can give me skin cancer, or ground zero having some other negative health effect on me. I don't live in complete fear of it though. Some people are scared of getting sick because they don't want to die and they don't want to be faced with the news that they might me. What i do know is that the unknown scares me, but it doesn't rule me.

End Of Food/Super Size Me Review.

The End of Food by Paul Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very similar to Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, Roberts is very heavy on the facts. This book is over 300 pages of hard to digest facts which point out the obvious flaws in the food industry. By having so many facts in his book there is a blatant disregard for the reader. He doesn't take into account that there are over three hundred pages and through out them he berates the food industry for all of its flaws. An industry that is under the weight of a nation that is at three hundred million and growing. They are at a crossroads between needing to make the most profit possible and producing enough food to feed all the people who live here. Roberts does do an excellent job of pointing out the weak points where the major companies do take liberties with their products and because of that millions of lives are put at risk. He does what he sets out to do, which is point out the flaws in the corporate giants who run the food industry and explain how our current consumption will outweigh the supply of food in a matter of years. The biggest flaw i find in his book is that it is all about the facts and what is going to happen, no alternatives are suggested. He does what the movie Food Inc does, it shows you the bad and the good, and they leaves the end result up to you by saying and making you want to buy home grown organic products. They leave change to the readers, i think it is a noble cause and a very strongly written book, but i feel that he didn't do all he could, he told us about the end of food, but that's it. Still left me feeling hungry.

View all my reviews

After watching Food Inc, it seemed inhumane to let someone eat McDonald's and only McDonald's for a month. The amount of mistreatment of animals and just overall processing of their meat is astounding. The chicken nuggets aren't actually nuggets of chicken, they are a paste that is made of all parts of the chicken ground up so it looks like pink play dough, it is then colored white, stamped into shapes, breaded, fried and then shipped to a McDonald's near you. The ground beef that comes from those plants isn't from one cow, but from up to 1000 different cows. The narrator and main character Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days for 3 meals a day. I thought some of the best points in this movie were how he would feel low if he didn't eat for a while and then feel better when he did eat. He noticeably gained weight, just by living an exaggerated version of the American Lifestyle. When he tried to reach anyone at McDonalds to talk, he could never get anyone on the phone. This movie points out how we as Americans live. We live in a society where we can buy a 72 ounce soda at 7/11 or a cheeseburger for a dollar. We never think of the ramifications of these actions, we just know that it tastes good and is cheap, which is all we really want. The biggest problem that i had with this movie is that he took it too far. He ate it for three meals a day for 30 days, it is clearly unhealthy, but for what we thought would happen, it wasn't that bad, his cholesterol went up and he gained a lot of weight, but he also didn't allow himself to work out which he used to do on a regular basis, so he lost muscle too. I just didn't feel that the results of his experiment weren't the same as what they were hyped to be. But he did get a great message across and did cause the food companies to change their ways, which in itself is an achievement. My favorite part from the movie was when he put the different burgers from McDonalds and the fries all in different jars, and then got a hamburger and fries from a restaurant and put them in jars too. Then watched as they decomposed. And in the end they all did in one way or another, except for the fries. As the Big Mac turned to mold, the fries still looked the exact same as they did the day they were bought. He then raised the question, is it healthy to put something that cant be broken down by nature in our bodies? I thought no, it isn't, if mold can't grow here, then what is going to happen when if i eat it? This is the world we live in. Where we eat what is available for a cheap price, and because of that, we eat things that are terrible for us. Its all because we live in a Fast Food Nation, we just all need to realize that.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/usercomments-408

HW 12 - Final Food Project 2 - Outline

Thesis: The dominant social practices of our society demonstrate how the "normal routines" of our society are leading to a nightmarish industrial revolution in which demand outweighs the need for safe and clean practices.

Major Claim: The ever growing demand for food has caused the mass production of food to become dirty and unhealthful.

Supporting Claim 1: Tainted meat outbreaks in the U.S.A. are more present then ever.

Evidence: E' Coli outbreaks (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/first-case-filed-in-bison-meat-e-coli-outbreak/)

Evidence: Tainted meat reaching consumers (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/04/audit-finds-tainted-meat-making-it-to-market/)

Evidence: Salmonella in the eggs (http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/enteritidis/)

Supporting claim 2: The growing demand for food is causing animals to be mistreated

Evidence: Foie gras (http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/graphic/326116197001.aspx)

Evidence: Undercover PETA videos (http://www.peta.org/features/butterball-peta-investigation.aspx?search=slaughterhouse)

Evidence: Cat and Dog trade in china (http://www.gan.ca/campaigns/fur+trade/cat+and+dog+fur.en.html)

Supporting Claim 3: Workers are getting injured due to increased line speeds

Evidence: Immigrant workers are misrepresented due to illegal status (http://www.organicconsumers.org/irrad/slaughterworkers.cfm)

Evidence: Very high injury rate (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6F-466CHK3-29&_user=10&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F1989&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1524841755&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=8bd01493f70bf399a61245daf0c0ce03&searchtype=a)

Evidence: The Jungle-Upton Sinclair

HW 11 - Final Food Project 1

For my final project for the food unit, i decided to try being a vegetarian. From watching Food Inc, and Fast Food Nation i have realized that just by eating meat, i am supporting an industry that is almost comparable to South American Slavery. The workers are put in dangerous positions, doing jobs that no one else will, for next to nothing, every day they risk life and limb to put food on their table. Especially watching the combination of the two movies, i first thought i would fast, but then i realized that i wont get anything out of that, so i decided to try and just be a vegetarian and see what happens if i try not to eat meat for as long as possible.

Day 1: So at the end of my first day of being vegetarian, i feel pretty good, i ate fruit and bread for lunch and had a peach after school for a snack, then i had tofu pad Thai for the Thai restaurant down the block from my house, then i had my last peach for dessert. I kind of wanted some chicken or something in the Pad Thai, but i feel rather good not having any.

Day 2: Today was another strong day, i still haven't had any meat even though my brother and dad had grilled chicken, i went out and got myself frozen veggie burgers. They are surprisingly dry, even though i had rice and beans on the side, it still didn't help, it wasn't the same thing as having a normal burger. At this point, meat still seems appetizing, but i don't really want it as much as i used too.

Day 3: Alright, so today was the deciding day, i wasn't vegetarian today, but the interesting thing is that up until dinner i was, and when my mom told me we were having sausage for dinner, i didn't want it. It didn't seem appetizing to me and i didn't want to eat it, and when i did it didn't taste as good as it used to.

Day 4: Another day of vegetarian, and i actually look at meat and i am strangely repulsed, i no longer think of eating meat when i am hungry, and i am actually feeling a lot more relaxed then i normally am. I know it has only been 4 days and one of them i actually ate meat, but the thing is that i don't feel the same way i used to. I don't feel as dependant on meat anymore, today me and Conor went to a Taco Bell and when i went in, i didn't want anything they had there, looking at the big shiny sign, with all the food that looks better then it normally would, i felt my hunger leave me. I no longer wanted to eat there, and instead of that i had a slice of pizza.

So after my brief experiment, I went in with strong doubts that i would be able to make it, and now all i can think of, is what can i eat that doesn't have meat in it. I want certain foods, like Sesame Chicken, but i want it for its texture, not its taste. I don't think i would eat the chicken if it were put in front of me right now. So after only 4 days, i no longer want to eat meat, i feel more relaxed and laid back, and i don't eat nearly as much as i used to. I used to always be hungry, but not so much anymore. The real question is why? It has only been four days and i already feel different then i used to and i feel like i no longer need to eat meat. Is this just a phase or something more. I feel like this actually uncovered more questions then it answered because i no longer know how i feel about the way i eat. I want to be healthy, but i don't know why. I no longer drink soda, i stopped eating white bread, and now meat. For soda it took me almost 8 months for me to not want it anymore, even though i still do sometimes, but meat, only 4 days. I haven't had a craving for any sort of meat in that time, and when i was actually eating it, i didn't want it. My next question is why? What happens if i keep being a vegetarian?

HW 10 - Food, Inc. Response

Since the 1950's raw food production has grown exponentially. The way food as been grown has been merged with chemicals and poisons, and animals have been mixed with growth hormones. The major companies have had to keep up with the demand for their products, so that means that not only do the product pay the price, but so do the consumer and the people who make it. The only people who profit are the ones who own the whole operation. The corn is sprayed with pesticides as are other fruits and vegetables, pesticides that we can end up ingesting. The chickens are kept in coops and never see the light of day. Cows are kept in feedlots eating corn, chicken manure, old chickens and sometimes old cows, and they walk in their own manure. They are slaughtered and quickly disassembled by immigrants who usually don't speak English. The injury rate is so high because the disassembily line moves so fast, which also leads to the meat being contaminated by dangerous pathogens like E Coli and Salmonella. These companies have made is virtually impossible for normal, everyday citizens to stand up to them by having people on their side in the government. When pressed with issues of the quality of their food, they would rather try new scientific methods to clean the food, rather then redo their process for how they produce it. The days of the American farmer are dead and gone, we are now in the days of the American corporation.

I feel that both the movie and the book were extremely powerful and moving. The biggest difference, i feel, between the Food Inc. and Fast Food Nation was that in Fast Food Nation, you got to experience things from points of view, other then those of the owners of companies. You got to see things from managers, employee's and just even meat workers points of view. You get to hear their stories, which if not for this book, would never have been heard. One particulary moving story was the one of Kenny Dobbins. He worked for the beef company Monfort for almost 16 years. While working for them he severely herniated 2 disks in his back which required a surgery which failed. He couldn't read and was very greatful for the company giving him a job, he felt loyal to them for all they had done for him. He was given the most unsavory jobs, he went to the hospital on more then one occasion for the work he had to do and he always came back when he could. One day while lifting very heavy boxes, he felt a strong pain in his chest, the nurse at the plant told him it was a strained mussel and he should go home, Kenny had actually just experienced a massive heart attack, while recovering, Monfort fired him. After 16 years, he can no longer work; "They used me to the point where i had no body parts left to give," Kenny said, struggling to maintain his composure. "They just tossed me into the trash can." Once strong and powerfully built, he now walks with difficulty, tires easily, and feels useless, as though his life were over. He is forty-six years old." (p.190). This was the kind of emotion that was missing from the movie. The movie tried to get you to feel angry and betrayed towards the big companies and sympathetic towards the little ones, but what about the people? The men and women who work behind the scenes, not in cubicles, but on the floor, who get their hands dirty so we can have dinner? The ones who put their lives on the line for us. The movie spent an hour and a half knocking big corperations and their practices, but never once focused on a person and their struggle. Kenny Dobbins sacrificed everything he had for that company, and now he has nothing. But the movie never touched on that.

HW 7d

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 9 summary: In 1997 about 35 million pounds of ground beef were recalled by Hudson Foods because they were infected with a strain of E Coli. By the time the beef had been recalled, 25 million pounds had already been eaten. Because companies feel the need to make a profit is more important then the safety of their customers, they tend to skimp on the health requirements that the government sets for them, not that they matter because the government holds no power over them at all. Our American government can not force a company to recall meat, much less shut down one of their plants for health violations. Just as typical to a big corporation, the rich get richer and everyone else suffers.

Chapter 9 Quotes: "Throughout the 1980's and the 1990's, the USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements." (p.218). "The safety of the food seemed determined more by the personality of the manager on duty than by the written policies of the chain. Many workers would not eat anything at their restaurant unless they'd made it themselves." (p.222).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the continuous bending and breaking of laws by these big companies show how once again, the government doesn't fully run this country, big business runs this country?
2. What i have noticed is how the author starts out on a mainly historical path explaining where the chains started from, and as the book progressed, he started to get more one sided against fast food and big business. He like the way mass production took place and found it inhumane. It is inhumane, but what would happen if they slowed it down so that they could control the diseases and the people wouldn't get hurt, what would happen to the supply and demand?
3. How does the speed of these slaughterhouses reflect our economy and how we have to be able to keep up with our outrageous demands, that not only put others at risk, but ourselves?
4. What does the powerlessness of the government in situations like these show the people, and how come they aren't as well informed?

Chapter 10 Summary: McDonald's opens about 5 new restaurants a day and about 4 of them open overseas. When they opened a McDonald's in Plauen, Germany, they didn't know what to expect. Now American chains have become a staple of overseas culture just like it is a staple in ours. It hasn't be met with completely open arms though. Protesting in countries such as India and Holland and China have destroyed restaurants who believe that these establishments are destroying or undermining their culture. In some aspect they are right though, with chains in over 12o foreign countries, not everyone is going to be happy.

Chapter 10 Quotes: "In Ancient Rome, the leaders of conquered nations were put on display at the circus. The symbolism was unmistakable; the submission to Rome, complete. Gorbachev's appearance at the Mirage seemed an Americanized version of that custom, a public opportunity for the victors to gloat." (p.239). "In 1996, Indian farmers ransacked a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Bangalore, convinced that the chain threatened their traditional agriculture practices. In 1997 a McDonald's in the Colombian city of Cali was destroyed by a bomb." (p.244).

Questions/Responses:

1. What connection do these fast food chains have with the people around them? How does an American fast food chain make or break in a foreign country?
2. What I've noticed as a reoccurring motif in this book is power, and who steals it from who. It started with everyone "building off of" everyone Else's ideas, and then to corporations buying each other out to build these huge multinational corporations that control, chicken, beef, pork, and corn markets, but can't maintain safety or health requirements. They have the power, so they make their own rules, then it ends with how they can go to other countries and make the people there embrace and become one with their own culture, all through their food. Their food is a drug that makes all those who ingest it want to turn into one of them. It is the power of food.
3. Is this power of food used for good or for bad? What importance does it mean if we can influence the entire world with our corporate mascots?
4. If we can turn people to our sides with fast food, then how can christian monasteries and UN "Peacekeepers" use "American Influences," such as these to do their job and convert the people around them to their mindset? What kind of power does this really hold?

Epilogue Summary: The Lasater Ranch occupies more then 30,000 acres of shortgrass prairie near Matheson, Colorado. It is a profitable working ranch that for half a century has not used pesticides, herbicides, poisons, or commercial fertilizers on the land. Meanwhile, 60 miles away in Colorado Springs, Rich Conway runs his own family restaurant called Red Top. They have 4 locations in Colorado Springs. They work on the same premise that the Lasater Ranch works off of. They use all natural meat that came from cows like the ones at the Lasater Ranch, they cut their own potatoes for french fries, and there isn't a big price hike for the improvement in quality. They want people to eat good, healthy food, and it shows by how successful they are. They refuse to buy from companies that give their cows growth hormones or feed them corn. Unlike Swedish and Dutch slaughterhouses, we are doing almost nothing to stop the spread of diseases. We don't slow down production or use different methods, we just look at what else we can do to the meat so it wont get tainted, they don't think to slow down. That's the beautiful thing about living in a fast food nation though, you can still choose to have it your way.

Epilogue Quotes: "Eggs are regulated by the FDA, but chickens are regulated by the USDA, and a lack of cooperation between the two agencies has hampered efforts to reduce the levels of Salmonella in American eggs." (p.264). "The low price of a fast food hamburger does not reflect its real cost - and should. The profits of the fast food chains have been made possible by losses imposed on the rest of society. The annual cost of obesity alone is now twice as large as the fast food industry's total revenues." (p.261).

"Even in a fast food nation, you can still have it your way." (p.270)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the Lasater farm represent the dying breed of real farms in America, but how do they show that because of such a large demand for their product, it is often the most business savvy who succeed?
2. What i have noticed about the food industry, is that yes the major corporations are toxic both literally and figuratively, but they are a necessary evil. There is currently 310,534,895 people in the United States of America as of 12:53 a.m on Friday October 22, 2010 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html) and if all farms operated like the Lasater ranch did, then we would have major food shortage problems. We need to be able to keep up the supply to meet the demand, otherwise there would be massive inflation. So as bad as they may be, there is still going to be a need for them.
3. How do the necessary evil's such as McDonald's, and ConAgra, support our county and have the power to manipulate it as they please? What kind of system do we live in where the fast food corporations rule the country?
4. How does the final sentence of the book represent how the author wanted to leave us as though he was neutral, even though his goal was to make cracks in the pedistal that we put fast food on and waver our trust just enough so that we think for a little while longer before we go to Burger King or Wendy's? What does that show about him where he wants to leave a positive taste in our mouths even though he just put up a wall of hate against the fast food companies?

HW 9 - Freakonomics Response

In what world does someone turn down $50 to improve their grades, they would rather fail and not be paid, rather then put the effort in that was necessary to make them pass. The relationship here is the money and the grades. The causation is the effort needed to be put in for it. When looking for the specific example of the two children who were offered $50 to improve their grades, and then a possibility of $500 for doing it. The fact is that they didn't do it. They found it easier to not do their work and do what they found easy and enjoyable. No one likes, or enjoys homework, but they do it because we need to get the good grades so we can do good in college and make more money. These kids didn't even have to think about college yet, and they were already getting paid to improve their grades, which is what they were supposed to do to go to college. The point of putting this part into the movie is to represent that there is sometimes a disconnect between causation and correlation. These kids had the opportunity to be rewarded for their work and they didn't take it. The authors wanted to address that the relationship between two things can effect the outcome, and through this example they were able to show just that. They offered money for something that the kids didn't want to do, and the kids didn't do it. This demonstrated the simple fact of putting an obstacle in front of the weak, and the weak will do what they can to avoid it. Only the strong willed have the ability to clear this obstacle and eventually reap this reward. The authors don't entirely believe that their experiment failed because it worked for some children, but not for most. So what can get these children to improve their grades? The idea was for the authors to figure that out and they couldn't.

Statistics is the most common source of evidence for the authors because numbers never lie right? They can be used to see patterns and predict future outcomes. So the authors use the records of sumo wrestlers to tell if they are cheating, and the number of abortions to tell is crime went down. But in both of these situations, there was more then one variable. There was still proof behind their numbers, but more specifically in terms of the crime going down due to abortion being legalized, they needed to address other possible factors, like gun laws and police presence which they did do, and they made excellent proof of it. But what is missing is the importance of it. What is the significance behind these findings. Who cares if the sumo wrestlers cheat? And now if we know that abortion leads to lower crime rates, then how come it isn't legal? What is missing in these situations if what we aren't changing what we are doing, but the evidence is there? There has to be something that we aren't seeing if they are making these statements, using evidence to back it up, but yet there is still no change behind it. That leads me to believe that not everything has been brought to light. Maybe there is some evidence they missed

"Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices."

I disagree, very strongly with this statement, because a lot of the statements made in this movie weren't "hidden in plain sight." They were things that people had studied before, and these men just put a new face on the research. As for the names research. They didn't actually prove anything, they just threw facts at us and tried to make it seem like they discovered something. They never were able to prove anything that would positively affect us and make us have a better understanding of what they were trying to prove. There was no inspiration and there was no examples of dominant social practices. So to say that they did a good job is an inaccurate statement at its least. In connection to Fast Food Nation, you can see how these people use the research of other people and use it to build their own "franchise," just like Ray Kroc did with McDonalds. These are examples of people who can fool you because they teach you and please you, but in the end all they really did is get you on their side.

HW 7c

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 7 Summary: The smell of Greeley, Colorado is unmistakable, the smell of meat, manure and death. Greeley is a small meatpacking town, very similar to what once were the meatpacking districts of Chicago before industrialization took over and forced all the small companies out of business. The same process as in the fast food restaurants were applied to the meatpacking companies, to industrialize. The skilled, and highly paid butchers were being replaced by migrant workers who only had to stand in one place and do one thing all day, for half the pay. Slowly unions and smaller companies were pushed out of business by these huge industrial giants who, between three companies, controlled almost the entire beef market, among others.

Chapter 7 Quotes: "Holman and Anderson designed a production system for their slaughterhouse in Denison, Iowa, that eliminated the need for skilled workers. The new IBD plant was a one story structure with a disassembly line. Each worker stood in one spot along the line, preforming the same simple task over and over again." (p.153).

"I met hard-working, illiterate, religious people willing to risk injury and endure pain for the benefit of their families." (p.165)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the blatant disregard for human safety and well being show how the road to profit can cause people to loose track of what is right and wrong?
2. I've noticed that not only to the people who are in power, but to the people who aren't the easiest way is often the best, and most celebrated by all. By having everyone do the easiest possible job, you can pay them less and they can come right in and work instead of having to teach them how to work and having a period where they adjust.
3. How does this laziness connect back to the degenerating backbone of America and how the basic work ethic is slowly dissolving and being replaced more commonly by foreign, often undocumented workers who are willing to not only work hard, but for a much lower price then we are?
4. How does our reliance on our government to support us even when we aren't working and contributing to society in any positive way give in to this breakdown posed in the last question?

Chapter 8 Summary: The floor of the slaughterhouse was covered in blood, i had to wear knee high boots with my pants tucked in. As we toured the facility we saw workers silently doing their jobs, not talking to each other for fear that they might fall behind. The cows are brought in and a single man is responsible for stunning each one, while another is responsible for cutting their throats. In these types of environments, injury is common and because most of the workers are illegal, these injuries often go unreported. Women are subject to sexual harassment while men take methamphetamines to keep up with the work because they believe it makes them work faster. Often health violations and other safety precautions are ignored or simply fined. The companies use and abuse their workers, forcing them to work even while they are injured. All in the name of making a bigger profit.

Chapter 8 Quotes: "The line speeds and labor costs at IBP's nonunion plants now set the standard for the rest of the industry. Every other company must try to produce beef as quickly and cheaply as IBP does; slowing the pace to protect workers can lead to a competitive disadvantage." (p.175). "Once strong and powerfully built, he now walks with difficulty, tires easily, and feels useless, as though his life were over. He is forty-six years old." (p.190).

Quotes/Responses:

1. In what ways does the way these meat companies treat people connect back to the way they portray them as being treated?
2. How does the misuse of underprivileged "Americans" by these top tier meat producing companies go unpunished and what does this show about the structure of America, where the rich get away with inhuman treatment and the workers are forgotten and ignored?
3. Because of the profit and the tax money that comes from these companies, they can never really be shut down. They are needed and when it takes too much work to replace them and reform them, the powers at be would rather just turn a blind eye and ignore the problem and pay off those who don't do that. That is the American system at it's finest.
4. Because of the necessity of these companies, is it safe to regard these people as expendables as these companies so clearly do? Is their sacrifice really worth it?

HW 8 - Growing Our Own Food

Every summer since i was little my family has been growing tomatoes on our roof deck on our house on Fire Island. I don't much care for tomatoes but the way that my family describes them, they sounds amazing. We also grow Blueberries, Roses, Sage, Chives Basil and depending on what type of seed we buy, either Radishes or peppers. This year we grew peppers. So instead of eating the sprouts that i did grow, and had been eating all summer, but eventually started to rot, i decided to eat one of the peppers we grew.

They were sort of spicy, but mainly just tasted like a not so spicy jalapeno. The fact that i grew them didn't mean much to me, although i was born and raised in the city. I still did spend summers on Fire Island. Although i will admit that it is nothing like living on a farm, it still gives you the same feeling that you need to pay attention to them and make sure they get sun and water and that no little Caterpillar is going to come and attack the plant. For me, growing this plant feels wholesome. I feel like i did achieve something, but it isn't something that means the world to me, it is just a small achievement. When people start to come over to my house and eat the food that i have grown and say "Oh my god Sam, this is amazing!" and i get to say "Well i grew it." It is all about the satisfaction of other people seeing what you have done and then saying to you that they approve of what you did and therefore are proud of you. Although most people say that they do it for their own satisfaction, there is always a long term goal to please the people around them so they look more fondly and compliment you more. It makes me feel that i did something right, to be able to put this picture up of something I grew. It is something sacred between the person and what they grew, and if its good, then the whole world gets to be a part of it. Thats how i view my own food at least.

HW 7b

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 4 summary: When compared to Colorado Springs, Pueblo, CO is decades behind, but as more and more franchises spring up, their differences start to become more subtle. Dave Feamster stands out in his Little Caesars Pizza Franchise, being the white owner among a mainly Latino workforce. They are like a family and Dave himself treats them as such. He pays their college tuition's as long as they maintain a 3.0 GPA. Opening a Franchise isn't easy or cheap. They cost anywhere from $10,000 so $1.5 million. Their contracts are often filled with hundreds of tiny print, where if you don't do something to their liking. Then they can close you for breach of contract and you loose most of what you invested.

Chapter 4 Quotes: "Since Feamster did not have the money, the company gave him a loan. Before selling a single pizza he was $200,000 in debt."(p.102)

"According to a 1995 investigation by Canada's Financial Post, Subway's whole system seems "almost as geared to selling franchises as it is to selling sandwiches." (p.100)

"Becoming a franchisee is an odd combination of starting your own business and going to work for someone else. At the heart of a franchise agreement is the desire by two parties to make money while avoiding risk." (p.94)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the consistent opening of new franchise restaurants compare to that of non-franchise restaurants? And what is their success rate?
2. Based on the number of opportunities that they provide not only for the owner, but for the new jobs it creates, is a franchise the enemy or the savior, especially in these tough financial times when saving money is key?
3. I am really disgusted by the way Subway is run. The simple fact that people have to keep opening restaurants in order to keep making money, is simply not fair on behalf of those who work in the restaurants and those who own them because there is such a huge disconnect between the two, and therefore a drop in quality.

Chapter 5 Summary: J.R. Simplot is the definition of American Ingenuity. By age 36 he had been one of the principal suppliers to the military for dried potatoes and owned one of the biggest potato farms in the U.S. In the 1950's he began to sell frozen sliced potatoes known as french fries. In 1965 he began selling french fries to Ray Kroc, the owner of MacDonalds. As the number of restaurants Ray owned multiplied, so did the amount of money Simplot made. The Business of french fries is extremely competitive, so what most companies do is they hire companies from the flavor industry to come and make their foods taste and smell better, chemically. Through artificial meals, companies are making their food taste, and smell better.

Chapter 5 Quotes: "J.R. Simplot, an eighth grade dropout, is now one of the richest men in the United States." (p.115)

"Out of every $1.50 spent on a large order of french fries at a fast food restaurant, perhaps 2 cents goes to the farmer who grew the potatoes." (p.117)

"Approximately ten thousand new processed food products are introduced every year in the united states. Almost all of them require flavor additives. And about nine out of every ten of these new food products fail. (p.124)

Quotes/Response:

1. How do artificial additives really affect us in terms of buying one product or another? Does this mean that all artificial flavorings should be added under that level?
2. I think that is very upsetting that ideas and options like J.R. Simplot are so very very scarce now. We can't drop out of school at eighth grade now and expect to have a job then slowly move up. Almost all people with only a high school degree don't get as far as up as he did.
3. How did the revoutionizing of french fries mark an important milestone not only in our own productivity, but in our own laziness, where we would have someone make our food for us, and all we had to do was warm it back up?

Chapter 6 Summary: Hank is a Colorado rancher. He lives and works on his farm with his wife and daughters. He showed me the difference between raising cattle and "Raping the land." When compared to his land, you see the runoff from the city's drainage system and the damage that is doing to the environment. There were trusts such as the Steel Trust, Tobacco Trust and the Sugar trust. They were when a few major players controlled the price of the goods on their own. In the beginning of the 1910's there was a beef trust too, when the owners of the five major slaughterhouses got together to designate the price of beef. Now-a-days the market hasn't changed all that much, you can't report on any misdoings in the market and the cost of being a farmer is so expensive that most farmers are now selling their land in order to be able to pay for it.

Chapter 6 Quotes: "small pieces of reconstituted chicken, composed mainly of white meat, that were held together by stabilizers, breaded, fried, frozen, then reheated." (p.140).

As a result, cattle are much bigger today; fewer cattle are sold; and most American beef cannot be exported to the European Union, where the use of bovine growth hormones has been banned." (p.142)

"It would be wrong to say that Hank's death was caused by the consolidating and homogenizing influence of the fast food chains, by monopoly power in the meatpacking industry, by depressed prices in the cattle market, by the economic forces bankrupting independent ranchers, by the tax laws that favor the wealthy ranchers, by the unrelenting push of Colorado's real estate developers. But it would not be entirely wrong." (p.146).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does Hank's suicide send a deeply personal message about the state that our food economy is in, when the workers are being driven to self mutilation by the intense competition and relentless race to stay on top?
2. Through the different Trusts that used to control the major industries that ruled the economy so long ago, we can see new patterns emerging that these few major companies run all the little ones, so in the end they are still on top.
3. In what ways are the reoccurring symbols such as cheating and a small group controlling most of the power not only significant to the food industry, but to our own government?

HW 7 - Reading Response Monday

My Book is Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Chapter 1 Summary: Carl Kacher was born in 1917, worked on several farms, then saved up enough money and bought a hot dog stand and after enough customers open up a drive in barbecue restaurant because everyone was starting to drive cars. Meanwhile, across the street, the McDonald brothers opened their first hamburger restaurant which featured the Speedee service system. It was the first fast food restaurant that brought the customers out of cars and into the restaurant itself.

Chapter 1 Quotes: "The McDonalds fired all the carhops in 1948, close their restaurant, installed larger grills, and reopened three months later with a radically new method of preparing food. It was designed t0 increase the speed, lower prices, and raise the volume of sales. The brothers eliminated almost two-thirds of the items on their old menu. They got rid of everything that had to be eaten with a knife, spoon, or fork. The brothers got rid of their dishes and glassware, replacing them with paper cups, paper bags and paper plates." (19-20).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the term "History repeats itself" apply directly to this chapter and how does his very in depth of history of Carl's Jr's represent how he feels by going for one of their lesser fast food cooperation's?
2. Through the quote above, Eric Schlosser is trying to describe how the fast food industry actually helped revolutionize the rest of the country and through our own impatience, actually sped up our own development.
3. What is the significance of titling this section "The American Way?" And how does that represent how our own ways can temporarily blind us and not let us realize what we have done to ourselves in both positive and negative ways.

Chapter 2 Summary: Ray Kroc dropped out of high school served in WWII and eventually opened up the most successful fast food company in the world. He and Walt Disney were born in Illinois a year apart and together they both refaced the world's view on product advertising. Disney was a staunch opposer of communist idealism and worked closely with the government in Un-American Affairs and was very supportive of the Hollywood Blacklist. Disney worked on connecting with the consumer by promoting synergy. Ray Kroc used the cradle to grave technique to catch his support young with toys and happy meals.

Chapter 2 Quotes: "If they were drowning to death, I would put a hose in their mouth.” Ray Kroc says this of the Walt Disney Company as their fortunes declined in the 1960s "(Pg 41

"In 1988 a federal investigation of web sites aimed at children found that 89 percent requested personal information from kids; only 1 percent required that children obtain parental approval." (Pg 48).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does Ray Kroc's rise to success mark both the beginning and the end of the American dream?
2. How does the rivalry and eventual friendship between Ray Kroc and Walt Disney reflect on our main ideal which is that Money comes first?
3. I believe Fast food to be both one of the biggest turning points in American history, both as a good thing and as a bad thing, they were revolutionizing the world and how the world looked at us and at the same time they were starting the downfall of unhealthy, processed food that eventually would become the countries biggest vice.

Chapter 3 Summary: WWII brought military bases to Colorado Springs, which brought people and with people comes change and modernization and the fast food industry. Which has a workforce that is primarily made up of adolescents. They are trained to work a certain machine and do set tasks when they work, so it takes no real skill or getting used to, so when they move on like they undoubtedly do, they can be easily replaced. Since they are paid such low wages, they often take it upon themselves to make more money, which means that they go back and rob the places they once worked because they know the layout and they do it to get back at their jobs where they are treated unfairly.

Chapter 3 quotes: “No other American industry is robbed so frequently by its own employees.” Joseph A. Kinney, the president of the National Safe Workplace Institute, says this about the fast-food industry when he urges restaurants to pay their employees higher wages in addition to updating security measures (86)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does this mind washing process of teaching the employees to use machines that pretty much work themselves, connect to school and how we are brainwashed to follow certain rules and guidelines without question?
2. I think the connection between the robbery's and the former employees is that as it was pointed out in the book was because the people wanted to get back at their establishment that they had felt caused them some personal harm and affected them in a negative way. They viewed their job as a prison.
3. Based off of the previous statement, how come there isn't more violence in schools against the Establishments. There is no pay, the work is difficult and we have to be here for 7 hours. Yet we all accept it, at most we complain. How come there aren't more school based attacks?
4. What is the significance behind the Owners of McDonald's being so against unions? How does the refusal to reset or break the formula show how the bigger a business gets then the slower and more stubborn it becomes? And what does that mean for developing businesses.