Now is the time for change

My first teaching job was on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation. When I arrived in late August they told me that the high school was brand new. Almost as quickly they reported that they had built one earlier in the year but that because of improper construction, it had fallen down almost immediately. Thankfully no one was hurt.

More recently the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. This time the human toll wasn't so fortunate. 13 died, 145 were injured. People grieved, turned angry, turned to the courts. And rightfully so. It was known as early as 1990 that the bridge was structurally deficient. So are 75,000 other bridges.

You get what you pay for.

It seemed quite obvious in the time immediately after the bridge disaster that more attention--and money--is needed to build our nation's infrastructure. For some it seemed to strengthen their resolve that we should invest in building at home, not destruction abroad. And it took 13 lives wasted to make the point.

For less than $10 you can stuff yourself at a buffet within five minutes of my house. You can go by yourself, go back for "seconds" as many times as you like, and most likely no one will even look at you twice. Or for $10 you can have a slice of vegetarian lasagna and small salad at the local co-op.

You get what you pay for.

What exactly do we get for the cheap food in this country? Well, we now have about the same amount of people dying from food and non-activity related illnesses as we do from smoking (about 400,000 per year). We get diabetes and obesity. We get farm animals raised in such a manner that if your neighbor treated his dog like that you would call the police. We get a ton of chemicals added to our soils and waters. We get what we pay for.

The election may be over (well, not counting the Minnesota senate), but now is the time to vote for real: with our money.

"But I can't afford to eat organic."

"It costs too much to eat meat that isn't treated cruelly."

"Does it really make any difference?"

Now is the time to stop the excuses. Now is the time to do what you know is right. Stop whining and just get on with it. You get what you pay for, and if you continue to support cheap, fast, non-nutritious, non-sustainable, non-ethical food, your body and our environment will pay.