Welcome back

So, yesterday was a good "Welcome Back" to the United States. One good thing and one not so good thing reflected the somewhat paradoxical opinion I have of being back in the states.

First, it was cold enough that I had to wear a sweater. Now, cold for me is anything below 75, and it was really only 55 in the morning, but that is freezing for me. It was one of those rainy drizzly, cuddle up with a cup of tea kind of days that I havent experienced in almost 4 years. So, thats exactly what I did. Came home, put on some warm pajama pants, curled up with a book (homework, not the most ideal, rainy day reading) and a cup of earl gray. It was wonderful. I know that this whole delight in coldness wont last all that long, since a nebraska winter is upon us and I will be craving anything about 30º, but for now, I will take pleasure in the crisp afternoons of fall.

Second, I recieved the American Community Survey. Its like the pre-census sent out by the Census bureau, and I am "required by law" to fill it out. When I opened the 20 page survey that I hardly have time to fill out, my inner cynic asked, "hum, can't they just tap my phone lines to figure all this out? Wont my library record be illuminating enough for them?" while my good ole American decided to put up with the buracracy of my country and that even though I really dont feel like it, and sometimes wish it weren't so, I am part of the American community.

Not to mention that all these things coincide with my struggle that I feel I am going through about having left Panama. Funny that none of these regrets happened when I had two months off and had time and energy to think them through. Nope. Cultural adjustment hits you when you can least take it. Maybe thats why these two rather frivoulous happeneing stand out as poignant enough to blog about.

So, welcome back. Three months late.

The Glass Cieling

It is frightening. Frightening to think that once again, Americans will be outdone by hideously obvious political maneuvering. In a move that is the epitome of the knee-jerk reaction philosophy of the republican party, McCain picks Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, to run on the GOP ticket. Its the talk of the nation. I call it reactionary because its hard to seperate such a radical choice from the words of Palin's own acceptance speech: "If Hillary can't break the glass ceiling, we republicans can" (my paraphrasing).

In other words, in a move to shatter that glass ceiling, lets pick someone without a penis to not hinder those 18 million cracks in the cieling from becoming voters for us, not considering that just any other creature without a penis will not fit the bill. I mean, becuase the dems cant do it for ya, we will. Well, sort of.

Political anylists are saying that this move heralds feminists teachings and will win over all those bitter dems and independents who are still sore from not having their Hillary, and I am sure that is what McCain in thinking in picking someone as a ticket mate with no national experience. However, if shattering the glass cieling means making Joan Cleaver the next vice president, I doubt, in terms of women's rights, that this so called shattering is what Americans are hoping for.

Unfortunately, many American's won't realize this. They will see her as the figure of triumphant American "exurbanism", as Howard Fineman puts it. They will see her as the loving mother of five, from the fringes of our cities where trimmed lawns are still valued and somehow reflect a neighborly conjuviality, where consumerism is admired if not slightly worshipped, and where the traditional family can live its life far from bustle but close enough to "catch a ballgame". They will see her as provident from a place where social conservatism is not only the norm but the expected way of life. (If you need to know my opinion of this ideologically and geographically stifilling concept, please refer to my other blogs on cookie-cutter suburban life). As Fineman puts it, in ExUrban America, Amercans can get as close to "'Leave it to Beaver'America as most middle-class folks can afford or even find." So seeing "one of their own" as it were, succeed in mainstream politics can be rather affirming and it will be comforting to know that someone like themselves is running the country. Knowing that the vice president wears her pearls and knows what a struggle it is to have dinner on the table when hubby gets home gives them some sort of validation of their own daily lifes (no offense to pearl wearers: I myself find them extremely sexy, nor those who are stay at home moms: I was raised by one).

But it would really be the case of one step forward and three steps back. More like 20 steps back. Instead of presenting a VP canidate that might proffer real change and be committed to real politics, we are thrown into the vortex of bad political maneuvering: I mean, becuase the dems cant do it for ya, we will, sort of. We will give you your woman: a woman who is firmly against abortion, and will work hard to get Roe vs. Wade overturned. All hail the downfall of even the most basic of women's right. Hows that for no more glass ceiling?

Hopefully Americans will realize all this and stick to something that will make this country better, not ask for another 4 years of crap. And after 8 years that have lead us to the position that we are in now, it is hard to think, and frightening to realize, that a small maneuver like this might sway Americans to think that another 4 years wouldn't be crap. Not saying that either candidate is the most prepared for the job, or that promises made from both sides will pull our country out of the hole we have dug ourselves into--better said, that we have been drug into-- but this knee-jerk reaction to have a female VP is more transparent than the glass ceiling it presupposes to shatter. And hopefully Americans will realize that trading a glass ceiling for a brick wall is hardly worth it.

Crossing the Red Sea

Moses did it with the help of God and one bad-ass rod...methinks these are the tools necessary for the job, because I sure tried it yesterday and it did not work. That's right, I foolishly tried to make my way about downtown Lincoln yesterday when I didn't realize that the inauguration of Husker football season meant the complete shutdown of everything. But it did. Flags everywhere. Not one person who didn't have some kind of red, black or white in their clothing, on their warpainted faces, or on their big foamy hands. At 10 in the morning I was surprised to find tailgate parties going strong a few blocks from my house (mind you I live about 15 blocks from the stadium), complete with beer gardens that had their own TVs and somehow access to cable. People coming in and out of bars at 12. Everyone making some sort of pilgramage to Vine Street, and culminating the day with the reason on the insanity: Nebraska vs. Western Michigan.



I ask myself why I went out. Having parents who are both Nebraskans, I am not unaccustomed to this sort of Huskers fever. I actually knew that it would be bad. But, also being someone who doesnt really care for sports at all, I guess I was still surprised at how intense it actually was. To what degree the city (read: state, as I beleive the entire state converged on the stadium as if it were the gates to some epherial world) was devoured by red clothed addicts. Its not just a game, its "our tradition" as signs throughout the city claimed. And an inevitable part of life in Nebraska, becuase even the cash register looked at you and instead of saying having a nice day, said, "Have a good time at the game" like it was some presumption that everyone she talked to was going to the game. And while I was questioning who Bo Pelini is, heaven-sent brochures were passed around claiming "the start of a new era" under the new coach, Tom Osborne's heir and savior to the Husker Nation. I am not surprised if at the game the spectators actually got down on their knees, facing the direction of their Mecca, Tom Osborne's office, and observed a moment of silence in commeration of the football god manifested on earth.

And I would bring up the seeming contradiction that it is the football team that is most recognized at our university, which to me is the embodiment of contradiction since the general idea of football (brutes attacking each other) goes against the very idea of a liberal education, but that would be moot. The whole football academic debtate will continue to be a contradiction and me raging about it will never change anything: the university needs it money, the NFL new recruits, and the American public their entertainment manifested in the form of violence. It will always be a contradiction that football players will get their books for free under their scholarships, although it is unlikely that they will read those books, and those who have comitted their lives to the study of said books and along with it have taken upon themselves the shackles of voluntary poverty (aka grad students) are expected to buy the books themselves with the little money with which they are compensated, so why rage about it here? Like I said, moot.

I dont even know who won the game, but will hear echoing in my head forever, "Go Big Red!"

Freud for kids...

We stand in opposition...

Today, in a headline from MSNBC (great source, I know),I read that on the eve of the Olympics, George W. Bush made it very clear, as he always does with those who clash with his fundamentalist doctrines and in his non-intellectual, Neanderthal manner, that the United States stands in "firm opposition" to the way the Chinese Government oppresses its people.

Oh please.

Now, we don't live in a country where outward physical oppression reigns, and as far as I know, Bush isn't such a tyrant that he is killing others (wait a minute...Guantamo?), or at least those who are good, white-blooded Christian, patriotic, gas guzlling, out of control consuming, Bible Belt Americans. Yet, this statement really seems like a highly diplomatic manifestation of the kettle and the pot. You know how that goes. The strongest leaders of fascism are often those who seem normal: Hitler, Mousillini, Franco (we are studying the Spanish Civil War, hence the easy throwback to facism) all seemed, at the time and only for a time, like good people just answering the will of the masses, whose abuse little by little amounted to the control that we have learned corrupts. And the fundamentalism that these leaders used is often terrifyingly similar to the propaganda we are fed daily from the idiots in charge.

So in honor of the spirit of Global Unity and the Olympics (Olympics, Global Unity? HA!) and just to be a ranting liberal, here are some of the injustices of which we (well, at least I) stand in opposition:

We stand in opposition of wiretapping.
We stand in opposition of our government knowing what books we check out from the library.
We stand in opposition of "misinforming" the public.
We stand in opposition of using said misinformation to wage a war.
We stand in opposition of religion being used as another piece in political chess.
We stand in opposition of our sensitivity toward terrorist attacks being abused.
We stand in opposition of a strategic plan that involves killing innocent people.
We stand in opposition of no real solutions.
We stand in opposition of knee jerk reactions that don't solve anything.
We stand in opposition of speeches with words like "misunderestimated".
We stand in opposition of denying our current economic situation.
We stand in opposition of the promotion of our over-consumptive society.
We stand in opposition of our President asking for more oil instead of making real strides.
We stand in opposition of the continual mistreatment of people of other races and creeds.
We stand in opposition of any kind of thinking that comes from Texas.

Maybe I am more irratated than usual about this because I see some of the same things Franco did in his government that are happening to this day in our country, or maybe because our high and mighty thinks he still has the authority to "firmly oppose" oppression with his right hand while he oppresses with his left, or maybe the fact that most people don't seem to understand or admit or even care that the freedoms they hold so dear, cling to and wear on their sleeves are merely illusions. Anyway you look at it, the more I think about it, the more fundamentalist and stupid and unfounded and of its rocker this whole administration looks, and the more stupid most people look for just sitting by and taking it. (Thanks their Bushy, want me to bend over so you can give it to me up the ass again while you ask for another cumshot of oil from Saudi Arabia? (thanks for the imagery Greta)).

And just for the hell of it, nothing like ending a blog rant with a call to stand in opposition of what we see, with a call to enlist in the fight against the jolly green fascist monster (yes, another thing I picked up from the Spanish Civil War, sorry, like I said, its what we are studying).

It says "Friends! Enlist in the Iberian Column. You will reenforce the battle against facism!" And I say the same thing today.

Fremont: Where bigotry can be your next door neighbor

Survive in America? Thats the question. Fremont wants them out. But why should they go? Because we cant move past our bigotry and misconceptions? Becuase they aren't Americans? Check this: Guatamalan Carlos Garcias holds the flag in a show of his affection for his adpotive country.

All the tension of the national immigration debate descended on Fremont, NE, yesterday as the town met in its series of three town councils to discuss whether or not the city should enact a ban on renting to and hiring illegal immigrants. I read the headline and just about shit my pants. I mean, I am slowly becoming accustomed to the inexperienced world view that most outside the limits of Lincoln and Omaha seem to cling to with all their force, but honestly: the middle ages are over and Fremont isn't that far outside the limits of what seem to be human decency.

Rundown: a ban was proposed that would severely punish anyone who harbored, hired, or gave housing to illegal aliens. A town split in two. Thankfully, human goodness won out in a debate that I am sure was highly based on misconceptions, with the mayor the city breaking the head-locked 4 to 4 city councilmen in opposition to the ban. The ban would have yanked city licensing and grants to any business that did not participate in an electronic verification of employees immigration status, and fined any landlord that housed illegal immigrants would be fined, as well as initiating a program that would require all renters, regardless of race, to buy a permit of occupancy that would verify their legal eligibility to be in the country.

People from the city lined up and took their turns at the microphone, going back and forth. It is reported that those in support of the ban (of whom it is reported wore t-shirts that said "where's the fence" and toted signs that read "Secure our borders") cited crime, disease and abuse of public assistance as reasons to push the ban through. I was surprised that loss of jobs wasn't on their list because that misconception is about as tenable as their evidence that illegal immigration spreads disease. WTF? Is this the middle ages? We have to be careful not to mix with those mexicans becuase they carry some kind of disease (on an ironic note, read the latest studies that are proving the numbers of Native Americans throughout the continent who surely saw our "great" ancestors as illegal immigrants were much larger than originally thought, and the disease that came from Europe was more anialating than first thought)? Why don't we just build a quarentine on the border and move in our bovine disease inspection headquarters so we can at least detect what diseases they have even when they are trying to get into this "blessed country" illegally. Sound ridiculous? Because it is. But still, people buy into these arguments that reduce humans (and ironically those who are trying to make a "better life" for themselves, a very "american" tenant.) to animals.

Somewhere we got lost in our own insecurities and the need to place blame on something that immigrants become nothing more than intruders who need to go and who threaten our conceptions. Somewhere we turned into bigots.

Clearing the air, please realize that most illegal immigrants work in job that Americans wont take becuase of our sense of WASP entitlement, and that 70% of the agriculutral industry depends on immigrants, and for salaries usually signifcantly less than those that would be paid to Americans. So be careful, Fremont, when you say you want an "illegal-immigrant-free community", because it might mean that you have look at the garden in your own fenced in back yard and secure your own produce to put dinner on the table. It would definatly mean that you would not have the rich cultural and intellectual experience of having others with worldly perspectives in your community, which is even more valuable in a place where most people don't have the means to get that experience themselves.

And maybe there wouldn't be such a high crime rate among immigrants if they were given the chance to become registered, and not just put on the backlog of papers and immigration appointments that is a long as heaven is grand, if there were assimilation programs where they could get plugged into culturally appropriate communities, if they were given some kind of chance and not to relegated to some ghetto where drugs and a life of crime is the only opportunity that awaits them (or heres an idea, if the government would invest in sustainable programs directed towards eliminating the ghettos all together). But that is too much to ask: include them? We want them out of our community, so instead of making it easier for them to become successful and fulfill the dreams for which they most likely came to this country, well, we are going to make it impossible for them to focus on anything other than surviving under the radar.

But above all these misconceptions, what makes me mad is the knee jerk reaction that is so dominant with this fucking government. Our borders need to be secure, WHAM! build a damn wall. Confirm everyone's perception of our bigotry. We need to make sure our national security is in order, WHAM! blow up half the Middle East. Make our absolute intolerance ring throughout the world. We need to make sure Americans can continue to live in their greedy, insatiable live-beyond-your-means lifestyles WHAM! cut interests rates every five months WHAM! make economic stimulis checks WHAM! pass emergency bills to bail out Americans who got in to far in over their heads. Continue to deny that we are a huge repression. We need to become more energy independent WHAM! drill in Alaska. Keep filling up folks, its still there. Continue with your life as normal, without restrictions or stings of regret. And unfortunately, these come from the top and when the people see government and the ignorance it employs to fix its own problems in a way that is only good for itself and for a short time, they too think it is okay to wish immigrants away, and to ask wheres the fence and to beleive that some stupid wall is the key to our security. These knee jerks don't allow for the dialouge that is needed to get anywhere with this complicated issues. In the reign of and absolutist government, its us against them, and the people see that and live that out to the letter: I am sure that some of you have just written this off as some liberal ranting, just what the government does. Its bad, its not for us, therefore it is wrong.

There was a group at Fremont that I think got it right. They passed out flyers that said "Build Fremont's future together". On the nose. Unfortunately, to work together we might need understand what it means to share a lawn with your neighbor, to live without a fence and not just always react knee jerkingly to be secure in our intolerance and our bigotry.I don't think many of us are ready for that, as my dear fellow Nebraskans so eloquently demonstrated.

Adjusment Reflections: On the clock

In his book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson comments on American efficiency and innefficiency. He raves about how impressed he was to receive free coffee and donuts on a casual trip to the post office, but was baffled by the same post office's inability to deliver mail when a small error in zip codes was committed (which when you think about it, one would wonder how we worked ourselves into dependency on a set of 5 numbers designated to a post office and our ability to think of towns and cities beyond postal codes may be a reflection of American individualism at its core).

The same kind of paradox is my daily life. Getting used to American perceptions of time is quite difficult after years of rooting out pesky habits like checking my watch and arriving on time or even a few minutes early, knowing that no one else would be there. Living on the hora panameña meant always leaving a 15 minute to hour buffer on any kind of meeting, arriving on time was at least 30 minutes after you said you would be there (or calling from your house with no intention of leaving for about 45 minutes and saying that you were on your way).

Not so in America. Buses come on schedule. Efficiency. They only come once every two hours. Inefficiency. Meetings start at the appointed time. Efficient. There is usually 10 to 15 minutes of pointless banter like "How are you?" (this one I can understand) and "Your wife's hemorrhoids?" (this is pushing it). Inefficient. Buildings and homes are torn down to build straighter, more direct roads. Efficiency. Nothing is done to make sure everyone can take advantage of said roads (aka, lower gas prices, easier financing options for those with limited credit, etc.) Inefficient. Work is set out, prioritized and handed out to employees. Efficient. Employees do what they want, in the order they want to do it. Inefficient. We plan our days in PDAs and iPods and Outlook and Palms. Efficient. We spend most of our time synchronizing our webcalanders, PDAs, Laptops, Servers and Personal Intergalactic Satellite Uplinks. Inefficient.

Another ambiguous American attribute (yeah for alliteration!).

Adjustment Reflections: America Walking

In his book, I am a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson dispares about how, in a situation where he could have walked from one store to a store just 50 meters away, the design of the area he was in actually prevented him from walking, and made driving a necessity, and how American's today consider walking the movement their heel makes when pressing down the gas pedal.

As a recent arrival from Panama, I am used to the gasps and looks of horror when people find out I walked home from my job every night. It is much the same here, when people find out that I live in the land of wide roads and asphalt pavement and do not have a car.

Some people ask how I survive, and I will admit there are some sacrifices, however these are compeltely outweighed by the benefits. Trips to Wal-Mart become highly coveted, but there is no dealing with living in suburb hell, with its cookie cutter neighborhood, carpeted houses (think about it: carpet is just disgusting...how many people's hair and skin cells and just general grossness has been ground into that shit?) and perfectly manicured lawns and five-mile drives to the nearest anything. And while taking public transportation is often seeing the "underbelly of American society", as a friend put it, surviving on foot, bike, and bus has this satisfying, self-sustaining boho kind of feel to it. You get to see certain people every day in their daily lives and ponder why they always sit with their head cocked to one side, or what unseen ventures they attend to every day when they get off at 27th and Superior. You get to see nature in its elements, exercise and feel like some Sierra Club member in the midst of raging traffic.

With all these benefits why do Americans drive everywhere? Are we lazy? Well, yes. But, deeper, it just shows the idea that luxury is commonplace here. To think that over 80% of the worlds vehicles are in this country, the fact that dishwashers come standard, and its not hard to see why we think that we shouldn't be exposed to any work or conditions that is unnecessary or gratuitous. So we have our fridges automatically dispense ice, cell phones dail numbers at the command of our voice, and cars carry us two to three blocks. All these are examples of things that, when considered, would not take a great deal of work or exertion on our parts. Walking to the TV to change the channel isn't a big a curse as we make it out to be. But they are the luxuries that we live with. And don't separate us from our luxuries. We might meet new people, see new things, become healthier, have a more positive outlook and overall generate less waste.

But here I sit, raving about the benefits of living a simple life while I am soaked, bread is soggy and my groceries are inundated because I had to walk home ten blocks in the pouring rain. Be careful what you ask for, I guess!

Adjustment Reflections: I just want a hamburger

In his book, I am a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson relays the store about how, when he first arrived, going to restaurants was quite a shock for him. I have been there.

I have gone to a few nice restaurants since I have been back, and for me, used to my solitary, into the fast food restaurant and out to be devouring food in front of the TV in five minutes routine of dining, I was excited to go out and actually sit at a sit-down restaurant. Arriving at the restaurant, apparently ever staff person whose path you cross was under military orders to greet you with their best Cheshire-cat grin, with at least three or four people adamantly welcoming you, apparently from their ears because their mouths were cranked open in so big a false grin that talking seemed entirely too laborious a task, if not an impossible one. Sitting down, the server whisks a jar of water to your table with the cheer a midwife must feel when delivering a new born baby to its mother's arms. After the ten minute obligatory introductions (Hello, my name is Jane and I am originally from Boston, but I came here to test my luck in the firefly catching industry, but decided that I needed some kind of education first, so I took this job to help offset the costs of my classes, living expenses and firefly catching equipment, because the university doesn't offer competitive scholarships in our department, and I will be your waiter tonight...), I just wanted to cut her off and order my hamburger before she even got the chance to ramble off tonight's specials and ask if this was my first time in the restaurant, what profession I dedicated my life to (what would have happened if I said truthfully, "unemployed") , if I had ever vacationed in Tahiti and to inform me that the kitchen staff would be around shortly to take requests of which traditional Irish jig I would like them to preform. When I do end her mid-sentence, she just smiles and says, "Ok, just a hamburger" and eventually accepts, smiling none the less, that I am a social inept, incapable of sharing anything about myself.

And even on the street, people seem to take an unhealthy interest in others' lives. People on the bus know at least one other rider and ask questions like "How's Rita, your second cousin twice removed?" One bus rider asked me what I had bought at Wal-Mart and looked confused when I didn't offer a show-and-tell.

It's all done with a smile, and I know that it is just a part of our culture, especially here in the Midwest, but sometimes I just want to catch them off-guard by saying "homicidal" when they smile at me in that "how are you?" questioning sort of way, and other times I want to put a sign on my book that says "I am reading this uninteresting article with a look of enthrallment so that you don't ask every detail of my life while we ride on this bus¨ just to get it across that if you don't really care to know (which you don't), don't ask. So pervasive is this attitude of ask-but-don't-really-care that even at my job, as I was editing a "Hello Handbook", a guide of sorts on American culture and academia in general that we offer for new international students at the University, I come across a tip that says (and I quote): "In the United States, people often say, 'Hi, How are you?' or 'How are you doing?' This is a polite phrase, like saying 'Hello' and is usually not meant as a question in which you would tell them all of your feelings for the day."

And I understand that people do genuinely want to hear "fine" and genuinely introduce themselves because it is more familiar, but I just want a hamburger. This familiarity leads to a feeling of warmth and June Cleaver-ish happiness, but it also leads to the falseness that many Americans have bought into that life always has to be happy, or at least happy enough that you want to share it with others, this falseness that covers anything bad. This is why it frustrates me. It's AMERICAN KITCH!!!

So here is my ambiguous ending, with no exortations, no rants, no positive encouragement, no clear opinions. I don't want to say that I have caved in and can comfortably smile, nod my head or say "hey" to every passer-by, but I don't want to discredit some people's genuine cheerfullness as cultural falsity. So in good adjusting fashion, I will end with that I just want a hamburger. As to my opinion, I will keep that to myself and you will just have to smile and accept it.

Adjustment Reflections: Junk Food Attitude

In his book, I am a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson raves about his excitement of the junk food he found available for pure ravishment when he returned from England. Having spent more than twenty years abroad, frozen pizzas, hot pockets, and smore flavored pop-tarts were all novelties for him. He ate it all, and at once, becuase it what everyone was doing and was the greatest thing.

I experienced the same when I came back from Panama, only with a modern twist. The junk food that so ravaged Bryson's digestive system (the temptation of so many new pleasures was just too much to resist) has now been replaced by the exact opposite: one runs the aisles of stores lined with "healthy options", "lite choices" and "energy booster that will taste good and still help get rid of that pesky cellulite". Flavored water now comes in "lite" and I wouldn't be surprised to hear someone say, "honey, this isn't low-fat toilet paper." Even McDonalds, not known or even meant to be slightly, the least bit, in the smallest fashion "healthy", now offers lite salad dressings, and salads that I don't even think most grazing animals would find appetizing. After much hustle and bustle to "healthen" their image, it would be no surprise to find that happy meal toy options now include two free hours of personal training, an appointment with Bob Greene, Oprah's miracle worker, or a entry ticket in a drawing for a treadmill (or more approriatly some more modern contraption that is a more effective calorie burner than those treadmills that are so 1990s.)

Not that these healthy options get to me. The thing is the attitude behind it. Are all these healthy options any healthier anyways? I mean, grocery stores fill their shelves with healthy options, but really, aren't they still frozen dinners? And Tyson's organic chicken breasts are still bigger than my head, and I don't think there are such things as Philistine chickens. Even Bob Green seems to have plumped up and changed his rhetoric to "its not how you look but how you feel." And lite water? I didn't think water had calories, but we have figured out not only how to pump it full of them, but then how to reduce all those calories to make it healthier than before, but still not as good as the real thing.

But disdain the person who buys regular soda. I mean, really, don't you know that soda is bad for your health. At least you are only coating your teeth with fake sugar when you drink lite soda. And you won't say it, but you know you judge that person who has the audacity to super size a combo or eats a chocolate bar for a snack, while you eat your power bars or Healthy Choice Devils Food Cake Cookies that has passed through just as many assembly lines.

And it doesn't stop at food. Stamp something "eco-friendly" and consumers will eat it up, even though the fraction ounce of plastic that was in the bottle is just pushed into the plastic celophane wrap around your Sam's Club cube of bottled water. Put "fair trade" on a bag of coffee and people will be willing to pay an extra three or four dollars on top of already-starbucks-highly-overpriced coffee, when the person who really made that cup of coffee will still just be making $3 a month.

I guess all this ruminating about junk food has just lead me to hope that people would make some real change, or at least not live in this lip-service to honorable causes just because they are the fad. Don't say your green because you bought the most expensive made-of-self-sustaining-cork coffee table. Don't say your healthy because you ate a lite Banquet dinner. Don't say you exercise because you walk to the car every morning and after work. Turn off your lights and your computer when you aren't home. Grow your own produce. Walk down the block.

And most of all, don't listen to those fad mongers telling you what to do to be green or to be healthy. :)