polymathopoly

Remembering Betty Ford

2011-07-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

When she died this week, I felt rather sad, remembering her, having met her only one time. I had just moved to California and was getting acclimated, including getting situated with AA meetings. At one women's meeting, I happened to meet a photographer who had worked in the Ford White House, an alum of the Betty Ford clinic, and as an apprentice for a very famous photographer. After I was done with the bar examination she mentioned to me that she needed some assistance carrying her camera bags to a Betty Ford event, it was an all day seminar in Santa Monica, where the former First Lady would appear and speak. It was on behalf of her foundation that this event was occurring to assist those who were accredited addiction counselors get their Continuing ed credits.

So, I spent the day carrying camera bags and attending the program which was wonderful, meeting dynamic and exciting women, and having the opportunity to hear Betty Ford tell her inspiring story of addiction and recovery. At the end of the day we were allowed back stage for photographs and speaking with her and her secret service detail, who clearly adored working for her and her husband. It was a memorable day with a class act. She will be missed by many whose lives she touched and saved.

Using US credit cards in Europe now a major problem

2011-06-30T10:01:00.001-07:00

this is a must read for US travelers heading overseas this year.

We have never had a problem traveling in Europe or anywhere with US credit cards, but this year we have already hit problems at the toll plazas and one grocery store. We had no idea why, but reading this article from MSNBC explains it all.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43582483/ns/business-consumer_news/

Thoughts on 9/11 years later

2011-05-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

After learning of Bin Laden's death, I was again revisited by memories of 9/11. I wasn't there in downtown New York, but like many others, I was supposed to be.

That morning was a such a beautiful fall day. Clear skies. Lovely temperature. I got dressed and drove my son to school. He was in kindergarten, then only 5 years old. It was a Tuesday. I had just begun teaching at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, legal writing and research for first year students, 1L. We were supposed to do the library tour that day, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ending at 9:50 a.m. But I was also scheduled to be at a mediation at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan. It was my plan, to finish the tour, then walk across the street to the PATH station at Penn Station Newark, and be downtown by 10:15 and walk to the courthouse. I had informed everyone I would be late.

For anyone who knows me, I had being late. It is a neurotic pressure that I feel about being on time. Growing up with a mother who was forever late to everything, leaving me and friends standing on street corners waiting. Always the last one picked up from anything. So I am neurotically on time or early.

Had 9/11 been any other day but Tuesday, I would have been at the World Trade Center at 9:00 a.m. to get to the courthouse early, to walk, get a starbucks, and get my game face on for the mediation. I would have been walking when the second plane hit.

Instead, I was in the law library at Seton Hall, which looks out toward New York. We could see smoke in the sky, but not what it was from. Students began to approach us and tell us that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. I asked one, "you mean light aircraft?" He replied "no, 737s, big planes". A student asked me, "what do you think it is." Without thinking, I instinctually answered "Middle eastern terrorism" knowing how obsessed certain groups are with the financial district, since before the 1993 WTC bombing. As soon as I said it, I was upset with myself.

What if I was wrong? I just started this teaching gig and I am saying something that is politically incorrect. Did I just make a big mistake?

I continued the tour, while we watched the smoke on and off. Not realizing what the magnitude of what was happening. I was thinking in the back of my mind - what do I do? Do I still go to New York? We had not seen the pictures yet.

By 9:50 when the class was over, the Law School Dean gathered everyone in the lobby of the school, to discuss what was happening. The PATH trains were shut down. No one could get in or out of New York. Cell phones were not functioning. I could not call my husband, and he could not call me.

I recall offering my guest room to the Dean, if any student needed a place to stay who could not get home. I then headed for the car and began listening to the uncovering story. I recall a report of a bomb at the Supreme Court. I recall a report that the first tower at collapsed.

That seemed beyond my comprehension. I remember as a child the towers being built. Watching them rise over the New York horizon when we would go in and out of the City. I recall when they were lit up at night, being able to see them, as I watched planes come and go from the airports at night from my bedroom window, high on the hill in South Orange. I recalled how I took my ex-husband's nephew to visit New York and go to the observation deck there. But I also remembered how, around 1985, I did some secretarial temp work there for two weeks on the 87th floor. I was terrified. I could feel the movement of the building in high winds. One day at lunch, the local elevators were shut down, and we had to walk to the 75th floor to get the express elevators to get lunch. I always recalled thinking how dangerous these buildings were if a fire started. I recalled the 1993 bombing and how my fears were confirmed.

But now the towers were crumbing. I drove west down Route 280, still unable to get my husband on the phone. I thought to stop at my house, just off the highway on the way to my office. He was there, with the tv on, frantic because he had not been able to find me, and knowing that I was supposed to be in New York. I saw the fires and the people running and was transfixed by the horror, and the fear. It was surreal, worse than any horror film of mass destruction.

I called my office to tell them I would be there later, but my husband and secretary both jumped at me. She said the office was closing, don't come. My husband said that we are under attack and we are not going anywhere. We debated about picking up my son, who was only a few blocks away, and decided to leave him at school, that he would be safe there. We watched the day unfold. We picked up my son at 2:30, and walked him home to discuss what was happening before he saw it on the television. We didn't know if he would even understand it.

The next few weeks were equally surreal. In October, I began a trial in South Jersey and would drive on the Turnpike South every day at 7 a.m. As I approached the Turnpike from Route 280, I could see the smoke was still rising from the pile and it was as if someone had punched a hole in the sky where the towers and other buildings should have been, and where the people who had died should have still been working.

It made no sense to me, that much hate. That much evil. We are all people trying to survive, to do the best for our families, to educate our children, to keep them healthy and safe. Why can't we find common ground? Why is compromise viewed as weakness? These are questions that continue to resonate with me, nearly ten years later.

This week's news that Osama Bin Laden had finally been found and killed, was surprising. Like many I believed we might never find him. Like many I don't believe that anyone can really have closure from this even in our history, but many now, we can begin to move forward more, than look back. To plan the future, rather than worry about what we didn't finish in the past.

Hong Kong Article

2011-03-22T19:25:00.001-07:00

The Times again:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/travel/20hours-hongkong.html?hpw

Two-Tiered Society

2011-03-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Many days I am in court, representing indigent children who are wards of the state, foster children. My job is to ensure that they are cared for properly and have a voice in the courtroom. Over the years, I have worked as a prosecutor enforcing domestic violence laws, hate crimes laws as well as white collar cases like Medicaid Fraud. More and more each day, I believe that we have created a two-tiered society. Clearly, the upper tier contains those we have managed to get an education and find a job and maintain some semblance of a family life. Naturally at the upper end of that tier are the very wealthy. At the lower end are those who have scratched and clawed their way into the tier and are hanging on for dear life.

But then, there is the remainder, the other tier, and that is what concerns me. We have created a permanent underclass of our society, our country who costs us millions and billions, for foster care, programs for mental health, addiction, domestic violence, for therapists for these abused and neglected children, for incarceration of parents who engage in the abuse or neglect, or for the children who grow up repeating the cycle. The movies and television shows cannot accurate depict what is truly happening in our court system. Every so often we will hear about a particularly horrific case that captures our attention for a brief moment before Charlie Sheen or Lindsey Lohan comes back in the news. We send money overseas to fix other societies but don't fix our own.

The crazy part to me is that no one really studies this. What works? What doesn't work? What is less expensive and better? Wouldn't long term studies make sense, especially in these economic times. It seems as though we just keep throwing money at the problem without really knowing what works. Birth control - shouldn't there be a requirement if someone is receiving public assistance and so much economic and social support? Don't we need to stop having children when we can't support them physically, emotionally, financially?

I know, I know, what the Supreme Court says. Forcibly sterilizing someone is wrong. Too much big brother is wrong. But somehow we need to rescue our society from this mess. We need to really study this, as did Daniel Patrick Moynihan at various times in his career. Not some presidential commission, but social scientists, sociologists and psychologists, and MPAs and figure out what works, where to put our money, how to stop this freight train of disfunction.

Stop.

Social Security Rescue?

2011-03-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

Isn't it interesting that no one is discussing, as part of the remedy, having those earning over the current cap, to continue to contribute, and perhaps having no cap on income for contributions? I know there are those out there that want to see it go under Privatizing would certainly tank it. Are we really saying that some millionaires can't space a few thousand more a year? Get over yourselves and be part of our society.

If incomes continue to decline, you will not find good workers for your companies, no one will buy homes, appliances, cars and other goods because they can't.

What a mess.

Bob Woodward on Rumsfeld's book

2011-03-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

Very interesting:

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/01/how_rumsfeld_misleads_and_ducks_responsibility_in_his_new_book

Bad Idea to Cut Science Funding

2011-03-01T06:42:00.001-08:00

Shows again we have to get our heads, collectively, out of the sand and look at what is going on in the world. What is Congress (i.e. GOP) thinking???? If even a Bushie says this is a bad idea:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/bush-official-raymond-orb_n_829342.html

Duh.

Definitions

2011-02-28T09:46:00.001-08:00

Every day we all here words being used but no one really says whether or not they are used correctly - what does it all really mean:

Facism: I will go with the Webster's dictionary definitions:

Definition of FASCISM

often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralizedautocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge>

— fas·cist noun or adjective often capitalized

— fas·cis·tic adjective often capitalized

— fas·cis·ti·cal·ly adverb often capitalized

See fascism defined for English-language learners »

Examples of FASCISM

the rise of Fascism in Europe before World War II
From the first hours of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, the propagandists on both sides of the conflict portrayed the struggle in stark, Manichaean language. The totalitarian nature of both regimes made this inevitable. On one side stood Hitler, fascism, the myth of German supremacy; on the other side stood Stalin, communism, and the international proletarian revolution. —Anne Applebaum, New York Review of Books, 25 Oct. 2007
[+]more

Origin of FASCISM

Italian fascismo, from fascio bundle, fasces, group, from Latin fascis bundle & fasces fasces

First Known Use: 1921

Is this really what President Obama is - Hitler or Mussolini? Don't think so.

Socialism:

so·cial·ism

noun \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\

: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property

Again, it is not what the Obama administration is trying to achieve. Let's just get our facts straight.

Instead, we have corporations and extremely wealthy individuals with a political agenda controlling our government, controlling elected officials (isn't that corruption in its purest form?), controlling our media (Fox and Murdoch?) with claims of patriotism, but when the discourse is just the opposite? Even Henry Ford (racist that he was) understood that he had to pay his employees enough so they could afford to buy his cars.

The hostility we see right now toward government employees is horrific. As a former such employee, I can tell you that government work is not easy, and we were regularly underpaid (as I was not in a unionized position) and we all viewed the wonderful benefits like healthcare and a pension, as a payback for earning less than we would in the private sector.

Thus, although I do not condone illegal activity, I can certainly understand what "Anonymous" has done in hacking the website of the Koch brothers' backed organization that is funding truly anti-American activity, by trying to undermine our discourse.

So I ask you, how many more people will have to die before we act responsibly? If it was a drunk driver, there would be no question that we would tighten the laws and make the penalties more harsh. But because it is a gun, we stop, afraid of attack by the NRA or other such groups. When does it stop?

Swirling Extremists?

2011-02-22T09:33:00.000-08:00

I've been sitting back the last few months watching the world swirling and devolving into insanity. Here are home we continue to demonize each other and have a government so bogged down in rhetoric, it is at a stalemate where none of the nation's very substantial problems can get solved.

The more bizarre the claims made become, the more frightened everyone becomes and nothing gets done. There is no science in any of the claims, or true expert advise and studies, just allegations and claims. Can't we just find some common ground, agree on the issues to get resolved that everyone agrees are the issues, and work toward those common goals? Isn't the point of public service to serve the public and your country, not your party and some corporation?

On the list of major issues:

1. jobs

2. economic growth

3. climate change and world population growth

4. potential water shortages

5. health care

6. senior care of aging population

7. transitioning economy to 2100 so we can gear our education system to those goals

8. the affect of corporate money on elections

9. energy independence

10. our tax structure - meaning where people are paying taxes but corporations are not.

11. Immigration reform - big and difficult issue.

12. How developing economies - specifically China and India - are affecting ours and what do we do about it?

People tell me I should be running for office, but it is too polarizing out there.

I watch what is going on the Middle East and am concerned, feeling as though I live in some Orwellian world where black is white and white is black, or so the government tells us, as they monitor our telephones and internet without warrants. Isn't it all just too big brother? Maybe it is not 1984, but certainly by 2004, we had arrived. We were at war with Afghanistan and then Iraq,but why we were in the wars kept changing. Isn't it all really about the oil?

If we truly believe in spreading democracy, isn't one of the fastest ways is for us to become energy independent, so we are not supporting and propping up petro-dictators?

Weren't we supposed to be the moral leaders of the world and not torture people and show them the way to better living by example, morally, scientifically, personally? Lead by example? What ever happened to that?

I do believe that we have forgotten service to our country and responsibility to others. Perhaps instituting a requirement, as many countries have, that all students, after finishing high school, either serve a term in the military to volunteer for public service for one or two years. Maybe that would hurt colleges in some temporary way, but ultimately, won't it help this country. And we can all agree that we need major help. to find the common ground, get our feet on it, and stop swirling.

Family - Is it worth it?

2010-10-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

You have to admit, that more often than not having family is stressful and not gratifying. How many movies do we watch and studies do we read that talk about family support and how important it is, but as a family do we really act that way? What does it all mean?

When I was younger I used to think that my family was very dysfunctional. Eventually, I achieved the belief that my family was equally as dysfunctional as everyone else's. Unfortunately, it has gotten even worse lately, deaths, disputes about money and possessions. I remember being little and wanting to run away from it all, just walk down the street to somewhere unknown. These days, Paris sounds good. At least I've matured and evolved in some way, even if other members of my family have not.

So, although I feel very positively about my husband and son, I take what I like and leave the rest, meaning forget about the rest of them. There is nothing positive going on there, just a drain emotionally and physically. A relief found in letting them all go, and releasing them to the universe, but not mine.

Dog as Baby

2010-09-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

How do we all treat our pets - like children. Sometimes substitute children for those who don't have any, or even don't want any. We no longer name our dogs Spot or Ginger, now when I go to the dog park I hear people names, Lynn, Zach, Brooklyn, Dakota.

So, even though I have children, I always talk about my dog as a big, 30-lb, furry, scruffy baby, a love hound. She acts rather like a toddler, always trying to get my attention and love. Annoyed when I pay too much attention to my husband or son. I am definitely not allowed to talk on the telephone or pay attention to other dogs with out a hound intervention.

She is very active, and sometimes quite bored. Going to the park on Sundays, and the farmer's market on Saturdays, and a walk every day is just not enough. I remember the days when my son was little and I was happy to drop him off at day care on Mondays after a long weekend of trying to come up with enough activities to wear him out while still getting done everything I needed to do over the weekend. I was paying for it, but at least he was worn out by the action at day care.

Now, with the dog, she is rather the same. If she is bored and not tired enough, she wakes me up in the middle of the night to go outside in her fenced area, do her business more from boredom than need, get a piece of treat, like a baby who wants an extra bottle because it is restless and can't sleep.

She takes her treat, and happily goes back to the bedroom and goes to sleep, while I struggle to sleep again, and wake up exhausted. The dog is too cute to be mad at, just like a sleeping child, on its back with the legs in the air, content and safe in its bed and in its home, with its family.

It truly is a dog's life.

In sickness and in health

2010-09-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

When we get married do we really consider that part of the traditional vows. We hear those words so often in tv shows and movies. But what does it all really mean.

As I watched my father die this year and my parents marital difficulties, they were certainly together in health, but not in sickness. Whatever problems existed before his illness were just magnified 100-fold with each day he was ill.

So now that my husband is ill, not severely, but certainly with a long-term debilitating illness, there is no question in my mind that I will take care of him and do for him everything I did for my father and more. It is easy to love someone when they are vibrant and healthy and they can take care of you. But when someone is ill and needy, not to mention difficult, grouchy, and scared, it is that much harder to love through it all.

Climate Change Doubters

2010-08-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

In the dog park on Sunday speaking with someone young and fairly intelligent who admitted to me that he doesn't really believe in global warming. He believes that the earth is getting warmer and humans merely speeding up a natural process.

It got me thinking, what would the earth be like without humans. Would it be heating up if we took us all out of the equation?

Animals would not be knocking down trees, deforesting the earth, destroying the ozone layer with fluorocarbons, laying down black asphalt, polluting the ocean, burning oil to keep warm and drive our cars and so on? How is it possible that we are not affecting the earth in every way.

It is logic, pure and simple logic.

Teenage eating machines

2010-08-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I've heard about it and read about it but I am now finally experiencing the amazing 14 year old teenage male eating (and growing) machine.

It is a truly insane thing to experience and watch, a child growing literally sometimes overnight, be it a shoe-size or other clothes, while eating huge quantities of food, three donuts, five pancakes, ice cream, pasta, bottles of milk, lemonade, gatorade, cookies, candy, macaroni and cheese, fruit, and who knows what else. A child who can literally eat you out of house and home. I see the future and it will include a food bill escalating by about $50 per week this school year.

I remember when he was little, maybe two or three years old, and one evening he wanted Cheerios and milk for dinner. He proceeded to eat three big bowls of Cheerios. So I asked him that all important question, where did it all go? How could it be in his small belly? He responded "well, mommy" (as if I was stupid), "it is in my arms and legs and fingers and toes". If only.

iPad blogging from the car

2010-06-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were driving to Boston for my reunion - 30 years which is impossible to believe. And we were stuck in traffic, crawling on route 84 east for about two hours with no reason in view, no accident, no construction, but endless traffic. So sitting the passenger seat, I was using my husband's ipad to surf, to email, and to blog. It was pretty amazing, the relative speed of it, the clarity of the screen, the intuitive nature of using it, all impressive. I may finally succumb to the iphone when the 4g arrives in two weeks.

On the drive, I began to contemplate my college years, and the speed of modern life, encapsulated in that ipad. Do we use technology to avoid life or enhance it? Probably a little of both.

Poem-MOTHER'S DAY PAST

2010-05-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

MOTHER’S DAY PAST

ON MOTHER’S DAY

AREN’T WE SUPPOSED TO HONOR

THE PERSON WHO BIRTHED US

AND RAISED US

WITH UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

KINDNESS AND CARING

SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT

BUT WHAT DO WE DO

HOW SHOULD WE FEEL

WHEN THAT WAS ALL ABSENT

WHEN THE VOID IS STILL SO LARGE

IT COULD SWALLOW US WHOLE

IN ONE GULP

TO DROWN IN THE WELL

OF SORROW

FOR A CHILDHOOD LOST

WASTED IN NEGATIVITY

AND HOSTILITY

ANGER AND RESENTMENT

BUT INSTEAD WE CAN CHOOSE

TO FIND OTHERS TO PROVIDE

ALL THAT WAS LOST AND MISSED

TO FILL THE HOLE IN THE DONUT

AND BY BEING A BETTER PARENT

THAN WE WERE GIVEN

TO PROVIDE ALL THAT

WE NEVER GOT

AS A WAY TO HEAL

SO ON MOTHER’S DAY

WE HONOR WHO WE ARE

AND WHO WE HAVE BECOME

AND LEAVE BEHIND

THE PAST AS PASSED BY

AND FINISHED.

Evolution of fatherhood

2010-05-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

So, I'm in Starbucks the other day, a Saturday, on line and standing for a while listening to two young men behind me on the line.

And I'm thinking how different life is today, expectations of work and life, then when I was a child pre-Title IX, pre-women's rights. When I was in elementary school, young girls were told you could be a teacher, a nurse, and/or a mommy. Doctor, lawyer, Senator, President, were not in the realm of possibility. It began to change thanks to brave tough women who worked hard for Title IX and women's rights. So, by the time I was in 7th Grade (the year Title IX was enacted) the world began to change. By 4th grade, I was even allowed to wear pants to school, but not shorts, no jeans (and this was public school). Back then children went home for lunch because the expectation was the mom's were home waiting for them. There was no breakfast or lunch program. There was no after-school program. Families could afford to live on one salary and live a solid middle-class life.

So, I am in Starbucks thinking about life, watching young families around me, and listening to these two men discuss work/life balance, childcare issues, diapers, toilet training (or as I call it house-breaking) and marveling that they are involved enough with their children's lives to even consider these issues. My father might have thought about discussing education and school in some highly academic way, but was never involved in the specifics. Toward the end of his life, he definitely got it, that the world had changed, and balancing work and real life was difficult.

He watched me as I tried to be a good, involved parent, and work a full-time job and career, and manage a marriage, and how impossible it is. That feeling that we can do it all, but some part of our lives is always unfinished, incomplete, or imperfect. For we women perfectionists, it is a difficult pill to swallow.

Where we have come since 1972 is leaps and bounds, not the slow evolution of Darwinism which takes millions of years. It has moved at modern speed like the development of mainframe computers to laptops and smartphones and ipads in 40 years.

So, although my husband grew up with a stay at home mom, my son did not. And one day I hope he will be talking with a friend (at whatever his version of Starbucks will be in 20 years) about the same issues, and hopefully finding that there is more affordable better childcare than exists now, that paid family exits and is mandatory, and that he has a wonderful partner to share it all with.

Poem-Soaring

2010-04-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Soaring

Watching as I drive always

For the birds flying high above

Hawks and eagles

With swings broadly spread

Soaring and swooping

Floating on currents of air

Flying free from earth boundaries

As if above the fray

From daily weight

Holding down

While here on the ground

We humans struggle to survive

Weighed down by life’s obstacles

Preventing us from soaring

Rather than moving down the road

In heavy cars

How I wish to fly free

To soar based on instinct alone

No thought

Just air, space and light

freedom

Poem

2010-03-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

My Father in a Box

What is left when someone dies?

Memories good and bad,

emotions of loss and sadness,

maybe even anger.

Fear of the future

stuff - possessions rife with memories

surrounding each item

some meaningless,

others important to some.

So when my father expired,

as he did not pass violently or suddenly,

but passed peacefully

inhaling and exhaling his

last breath with calm peace

and the sweet and sour smell of death.

His death was not shocking

nor was the upheaval in the aftermath.

The only shock remained in how little

was left.

A mass of memories

and help given to many others.

Kind words and thoughts

but so little, so few things.

His body went in the casket

and was lowered

into the ground on a cold

winter day while we stood

outside shivering.

And I kept wanting to cover him

with a warm blanket, imagining

him shivering and cold all

while knowing that this was just

his body.

His vibrance and life gone

and all that was left

for me were a few items

placed lovingly in a cardboard box.

Then the box placed neatly

like him, as he was always neat,

in the basement closet

where it will remain,

like his casket in the grave.

This huge presence

who pervaded my life

reduced to a box in the basement.

My father in a box.

Food notes

2010-02-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

As my husband knows, I am obsessed with reading labels, particularly when shopping for food. I want to know what I am eating, how it is processed, so I can not buy items laced with salt and high fructose corn syrup, and chemicals I can't even pronounce. One of my personal rules, if I can't pronounce it, I can't eat it.

So, in thinking about food, isn't it odd that although we want to promote buying American with cars or clothes, but almost never with food? We want imported italian tomatoes, pasta, olive oil, swiss chocolate, french fries or toast, but do we really want American cheese - that processed tasteless mess? As American as apple pie?

The reality is that most American food is not good, it is over processed, loaded with salt and sugar, sprayed with chemicals and essentially awful.

Put side by side organic apples or cherries versus commercially process fruits and there is no comparison. But in traveling to europe there is no question that the food tastes better, unprocessed, tastier, easier to digest. So here, I don't even eat certain foods anymore, especially wheat because I can't digest it. Beef because it is so laced with antibiotics and because the cattle is fed other cattle when cows are supposed to be herbivores, our food system is a mess.

We as a culture are so divorced from the sources of our food, we just want it ready to eat and not to think about it too much. It can't last and won't last as our environment collapses around us. I guess Donald Trump will believe in climate change when it is too late.