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Mid-America (red states) not keeping
up with the world?
All those red states will feel the impact of their choice in this decade.
More and more immigrants will be brought in to work in the meat packing
plants and do farm work. More and more jobs
will be sent overseas - so those Wal-Mart shelves can be stocked with
ultra low prices.
The nitrogen and pesticide soaked soils from all the agribusiness will
destroy the last remaining inches of topsoil.
It will become a desert from all the destructive agricultural techniques.
Many will die from Mad Cow and infected meat. Cause the people in power
don't believe in regulation.
Loss of jobs - loss of environment - loss of clean air - loss of healthy
food - loss of sanity.
So much good philosophy, even the lawn sprays that are used on yards
all across America --this stuff goes in the drinking water.
shoot, you almost can't eat out & buy a real meal with real food --that
isn't doctored up just to taste good. and once the heart goes haywire
--the artery clogging stuff is deadly. of course, so much stuff causes
cancer that we are eating and breathing everyday.
but darn it; you can't bash ordinary people out working to survive and
support their family. American free enterprise capitalism has led the
world in providing for a chance for a good life.
I'm not bashing the families but you see the aim of my arrow hitting
the man and not the dangerous idea that he had.
People are responsible for their choices. And we are all recipients of
these choices when they a amassed in market capitalism.
Free market capitalism is not a bad thing. The same way a knife is not
a bad thing.
It is how it is used. Do we use free market capitalism with integrity
and compassion? Does it serve us?
If not we must re-shape it and mold it to our will.
But when it is used irresponsibly I will call it out.
You need people like me to expose the failings so we will do something
about it.
The media will not. They are too close to the pursestrings to be of any
use.
We cannot let our systems of living go unchecked and unquestioned.
A healthy society is not afraid of introspection and dissent.
An ailing society denies its weaknesses.
I just want us to pay more attention so we can modify it as we go and
not be hit with a terrible surprise later on.
We look at the same tree from a different angle. I see yours - why
can't you seen mine?
-Derek4America
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I was not being doom and gloom over the immigrants. My part of the country
has been a starting place for many new Americans. I am not a racist.
My point was that - many low income jobs go to mexican immigrants.
Big Meat packing plants actually promote jobs for this group cause they
are typically in need and are looking for a way to work in America.
Most of the people picking our food from the ground our mexican but he
wages they get are very poor. And the migrant workers have children that
rarely get a good education.
I don't think creating a huge low income ethnic working class and shipping
many of our manufacturing job overseas is intelligent.
Corporations wanting low age workers and huge profits is a disease of
morality in my book.
Our Nation is becoming less white. I am glad of that. Diversity is strength.
Equating Wal-Mart with the introduction of the automobile does not work
for me.
Wal-Mart is not progress in my eyes. Living in the auto-polluted LA will
show you how bad auto only thinking got us.
The big tire and auto manufactures drove out the trains. I would really
love the option of a rail system. So the car analogy does not sit well
with me.
I'm sure you do enjoy the benefit of a one-stop market but I feel that
the cost to our culture and communities is much worse than you seem to
recognize. In ten years we will have more evidence.
The agricultural business has been infiltrated by big AG-Companies.
many farmers feel a huge pressure from this type of corporate ownership.
Your brother in law may be okay. But not all farmers feel that way.
I visited an organic farm in California and they told us a different story.
You seem to have faith in the petrol-chemical industry and their techniques
of growing crops.
I don't.
It does not respect the balance of the ecosystem. It chooses to control
nature instead of work with it.
i choose to eat organic cause it uses techniques that respect the balance
of soil and animal-plant life.
I do not want to ingest chemicals.
you have lots of Turkey farms out there.
Do you not have a problem with the injections of antibiotics and hormones.
I do.
I also think the turkeys should be given a chance to thrive naturally
before we slaughter them.
Most of the birds are raised form birth in a factory like housing.
I guess I have a sense of concern for the life form and wish us to treat
it with some respect.
Not to mention the health implications to us humans.
These type of farming and animal processing techniques are just 100 years
old.
The industrial revolution brought a factory mentality to our way of life.
We are beginning to see the effects of this type of production in our
health and the quality of our environment.
The topsoil is eroding. Fast. As a matter of fact the decline of many
civilizations came about to topsoil erosion. Due to bad soil management.
Plus driving a plant or animal hundreds of miles to market is a waste
of energy.
We waste a lot of resources importing and exporting food.
Did you know that in 2000 we exported 324,000 tons of potatoes?
cool huh?
Yeah - but we imported 356,400 tons. How does that make sense?
And the government hands out huge subsidies to these big AG companies
to create an unfair playing field in the global market.
Do you guys still raise cattle? How many hormones did you inject.
You probably did not have to since your operation was so small.
But the Biggies - Like Con Agra and Tyson are big time polluters.
The huge hog farms in the Carolinas are destroying river ecosystems with
the waste alone.
You can ignore these things if you want. I choose not to.
I am angry about the state of our world. And i think we are failing.
No the red states are not bad. I was just pissed off. But you guys better
wake up out there.
cause the big corporate government you just put back in office will not
fix these things.
_______________________________
Yes, we're aware that there's been a large Mexican immigration into Northwest
Arkansas. That's the case in a number of southern states. Florida of course
has always attracted Hispanics.
And you're right about the work ethic of immigrants. Our country has
been revived at various junctures in our history by the arrival of people
who had the enormous courage it takes to leave home behind and strike
out for a new place. I think each immigration wave has given us the best
of the country the people came from. A hundred-some years ago, millions
of the Irish stayed home despite the potato famine. But some of them had
the courage to get on a boat and come here to become the Kennedy family.
But if Bush has his way, people like your plumber won't be able stay
here. Bush's plan for immigrants is to let them stay for only three years
provided an employer will vouch for them (talk about an invitation to
slave labor) but send them back well before they reach a point where they
could obtain legal residency status. Use 'em up and spit 'em out, send
in the new crop. That's not going to do much for our country. It will,
however, do a lot for the corporations who want to underpay foreign workers
while not employing Americans.
And yes, I'm keeping all our emails back and forth. Barring computer
failure, we've got ourselves an interesting little scrapbook of history
here that would not have been possible in a less advanced age.
But we're still not shopping at Wal-Mart. ;-)
-Macy
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REPUBLICAN RESPONSE FROM ARKANSAS:
You don't live here. We have more and more hispanic people moving to
NW Arkansas and it is only strengthening our area. Our economy is great
(thanks in very large part to WM). When people lose jobs that are being
phased out it is a shock to their lives and then they find new jobs, usually
but not always better than the ones they left. We may be unique but it's
a great place to live. Besides the factory work we have so many private
hispanic businesses opening up all over town. I don't know how many Mexican
restaurants we can take but they seem to be doing very well. Almost everyone
I know eats Mexican food 2 or 3 times a week. Many many of the people
who come to work here for minimum wage work very hard and their kids end
up going to college. Very little unemployment here. Sorry if that makes
me a naive optimistic jerk but thems the facts.
I called Allied Plumbing the other day to get someone to check our water
heater. They said they would call back. In about 30 minutes a man with
a thick hispanic accent called and said he would be right out. He was
incredibly polite and knowledgeable. As he was about to leave we got to
talking about NW Ark and he said he had moved here from LA. I asked how
he had come to our small town from such a big city. He said, "It's
a long story but the short story is that my wife moved me!" I found
out he has 2 small boys. I didn't pry any more but after I gave him my
check he shook hands with me. He is looking for a better life and he is
getting it. The hard-working immigrants who come here are welcome.
One thing I am wondering is: Isn't the coming of the mega-stores like
Wal-Mart something like the progress in transportation when the development
of the automobile squeezed out the blacksmith and buggy-maker and horse
breeder? Sure it is bad for those businesses but things either stagnate
or change. The people in the old businesses have to learn new ways of
making a living.
Also a lot of us get tired of tromping over 5 acres in a WalMart store so many
smaller stores are popping up again to fill the niche for what people
want. Of course this happens when people actually have enough money to
pay for the convenience of a smaller business. It's good to have the choice.
I have a friend who is a wheat farmer in Oklahoma and their
production is great. The only thing that really effects their crops is
too much or too little rain which changes every year. Farmers are more
protective of their land than anyone else. In other words the west coast
will fall into the ocean from an earthquake before the middle of the country
will go hungry or die from mad cow. I think your view of what will happen
to us in the next decade is unfounded. Some things will get better-some
worse. We don't know, but I'd rather be living right here than anywhere
else in the world.
It will be interesting to remember this correspondence in 10 years.
-Shelly
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