My wife and I recently saw Food, Inc., a documentary by Robert Kenner. We were stunned to find out the lengths to which the public is kept in the dark about the food we eat. This is an even more important issue given that we are in a national obesity crisis.

One thing that I found particularly disturbing was the ways that food companies like Tyson, Perdue and Smithfield keep the farmers under their thumb. The farmers must continually buy expensive new equipment or face termination of their contracts with the companies. This keeps them heavily and constantly in debt.

Since most people love white meat, the food companies have genetically modified chicken so they have bigger breasts. This is achieved by injecting them with hormones. Naturally these hormones make it into our bodies, causing any number of health problems for us.

Our beef has also been tainted because cows have been taught to eat corn feed instead of grass. This deprives the beef of the natural nutrients that grass fed cows have long provided. In turn, it affects our bodies in a negative way.

What we took from the film was the need to know what is in our food. We cannot assume that our best interests are being looked after. Knowledge is the best weapon.

I had lunch today with a dear friend and she asked looked at me with weary eyes and asked, “why is hate winning”. I much as I didn’t want to admit it, she had a point. As bad as September 11^th was in 2001, our rush to war and vengeance has cost many more lives as well as the treasure and the reputation of our nation. Had we stopped, and I am including myself, to think about what we have all been taught in our Christian Churches throughout the land, we might have taken a different view.

“Vengeance is mine says the Lord” comes to mind now that I look back with 20/20 hindsight. But I guess we as a nation didn’t really trust God to do that or we would have taken a different route. Why do we find it so easy to send men and women to war and so hard to make sure our neighbors and fellow workers have health insurance so they might live better and longer lives? Why are we so quick to judge and listen to those who are spewing hate and just as quick to label those who talk peace as pansy’s and wimps? What does it say about us when we sit back and let hate win? I like my friend am starting to wonder why IS hate winning?

If we lived in a perfect world then everyone would be in favor of the following;

• Take care of the poor and the sick
• End war
• Stop the icecaps from melting
• Employ everyone that wants to be employed
• Pay little or no taxes
• Make Healthcare available to everyone
• Freedom of choice
• Freedom of expression
• Civil liberties and rights for everyone

I could go on with this list but you get the idea. When you sit and ponder what a perfect world would look like it can make you either happy or sad. The happy part is that we have something that is wonderful and good to aspire as a nation and world. The sad part is how far we have to go to get there.

What has me confused more than anything about this list is that I can see only one thing on it that people from both sides would readily agree about; pay little or no taxes. For a country that claims such high ideals and moral fabric, you would think we would be willing to pay more taxes for all the other things on the list. But as I was reminded today at lunch that means we would have to sacrifice a little of our own to help the whole and while that sounds great in a Star Trek movie, currently, it’s not the American way.

I had a very interesting thing happen in a business meeting the day after the President’s press conference on healthcare and have taken a few days to really think about what it all means. One person just asked if anyone watched it when one of the older participants chimed in with a comment that went something like this; “Why would anyone watch that? I turned on Fox News after it was over and they said Obama told nothing but lies.”

I asked a simple question, “How does Fox News know he said nothing but lies”? The same person shot me the look of death and stated, “Anyone who listens to CNN or MSNBC is an idiot!” I looked around the room and everyone else just looked down at the desk then I said, “No sir, anyone who doesn’t listen to all sides and do the research to find out what is true or not is an idiot.” Needless to say, the meeting was over before it started and it’s the first time I have ever felt that I lost business because I just didn’t fall lock-step in line with the one handing out the contract. What happen to the right to free speech without repercussions? Why can’t we just get along? I have no affiliation with either party and have been an Independent for the last 20 years and have never felt I had to change the way I think and believe to make a living. God help me, because I won’t say I believe something just to make a buck; this is America!