Before we begin this blog, we should mention that the opinions expressed below are personal opinions, NOT positions of the Church of Wicca. Why? Because legally an exempt organization is not supposed to take political positions. Would it were true for the rest of the nation's churches and ministers in this election year! The law governing the expression of opinions by an exempt organization is one (of many) honored more in the breach than in the observance. Remember "Render unto Caesar" ? Anyway ...
News channels on TV are showing food riots in several nations of the world. The Wall Street Journal says that food prices in the States have risen 83 percent in the last three years. If we remember accurately, they have gone up about 50 percent in the last six months.
At the checkout counter today, I watched an elderly lady stock up on dog and cat food. She doesn't own a dog; she doesn't own a cat. The cashier had known this woman for years, and was close to tears at the sight. She left her register and brought a sack of apples, giving it to the lady. Once the lady had departed, the cashier confided to me (next in line) that the lady was on a fixed Social Security pension, and that the dog and cat food was all she could afford to eat.
The shopper looked as if she was somewhere in her eighties, and actually looked pretty healthy.
Of course she had traveled to the grocery store in the senior citizens' bus, because she could no longer afford to operate a car. That means a dramatic drawing-in of her horizons. Our small town does not have a movie theater, for instance, or (since a recent fire) any quality clothing store. A shoe store? Forget it. Optometrist? Same story. Dentist? You're kidding.
We all know what has happened to the price of fuel. The problem is a very simple one; that is, that people on federal Social Security get a cost-of-living increase each year--but that increase does not acknowledge or figure in the prices of food and fuel. Apparently the federal government (our elected officials) thinks that life does not require either of these commodities.
Something needs fixing. It's only going to get worse, and your own retired parents and grandparents will end up eating cat and dog food--relying on the pity of a supermarket cashier for fresh fruit.
Write your congressman. Write your representative. Hell! Write to the candidates. Ask what they're going to do about it all. We ourselves have given up on the AARP. That body now seems to be part of the establishment, assuming that the biggest decision we currently have to make is how to manipulate our comfortable retirement funds.
So blessed be anyhow. Gavin and Yvonne
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In Haiti, food is so high, a good many people are reduced to eating "dirt cookies". Literally, cookies made out of butter, flour, salt, and dirt. Of course, dirt is not bio-degradable, and so people are ending up with stomach problems, with dirt in their stomachs. Some people can't pass it as well as others.
I have always been a proponent of farm subsidies. It provides the farmer with a steady income and at the same time stabilizes food prices. It is one of the few socialist policies that make sense, and doesn't take too much in the way of taxes to support it.
It also can be a boon to the seasonal farm worker. All in all, people are always going to need to eat, so this is one area where extra care is needed and appropriate.
I can say that i have seen food prices go up.. Myself being on a fixed income have seen something as simple as a low end package of lunch meat go from 89 cents to 2 dollars..And yes HEALTH CARE is still to high..2 28 pill treatments for staph infection would have cost my mother over 5 thousand dollars..56 pills. I wonder are they made of gold. They luckily only cost her 6 dollars.This trend of higher medical costs is why i support a european form of socialized medicine
Regarding the high price of Corn, wheat, and other commodities.I think corn should be taken OUT of the ETHANOL loop. Sugarcane, soybeans , and switchgrass will do the same in bio fuels as corn would do.It would then drive the per bushel cost down..I live in Missouri a farming state.. Subsidies thru the FMHA was what kept many familys i knew afloat for many years. So yes i see the impacts.. Now its time to do something about it..By the way, a barrel of crude oil closed at 113.99 yesterday.. Lets hope we dont end up eating dog food
About the AARP-
They've turned into just another PAC, pretty much. Sure, they do some good (they would have to do some good to justify their salaries and expense accounts, courtesy of fees charged to members), but for the most part they depend on things not getting too much better. That's the dirty little secret of all PACS. If they actually solved problems to a great extent, there would be no need for them.
Art Linkletter used to promote a group for seniors, but I don't recallthe name, nor do I know how good it is or how much good it actually does. For that matter, even if it still exists. If it does, it might be worth looking into as an alternative to AARP.
A little competition among these PACS is what they all need to get the lead out, methinks.
In many countries theree is no Social Security. The young in the family take care of their aging relatives. One day we may all have to revert back to old ways of doing things.
Computer models predict the human population on the Earth to peek in the year 2050. Then it will start declining rapidly due to food shortages. Yes, believe it or not, the population on Earth is still increasing.
Food and water shortages will eventually cause the demise of many people.
"In many countries theree is no Social Security. The young in the family take care of their aging relatives. One day we may all have to revert back to old ways of doing things."
I've always believed that's an integral though secret part of the extreme right-wing agenda. Get government out of people's lives, and "God" and family back in.
"Computer models predict the human population on the Earth to peek in the year 2050. Then it will start declining rapidly due to food shortages. Yes, believe it or not, the population on Earth is still increasing.
"Food and water shortages will eventually cause the demise of many people."
There will eventually be another "bottleneck" in the human population. That's the way nature works. It's a part of the evolutionary process, and actually accounts for our last evolutionary advancement, according to one theory that makes a good deal of sense to me.
7,000,000,000 people is way too many.
I'm outraged at how food and fuel are not factored into the cost of living.Are the powers that be trying to brainwash us into believing that our robber-baron corporate masters with their never-ending streams of widgets and trinkets come first, and our personal survival is a non-issue? just a thought...
We are are moving to a more self satainable way of life we live in suburbia but the neighbors may remember a few things. We have 5 adults living in the house all of us have jobs and we are sharing 2 cars. The plans and practice is garden, garden, garden...If they feel uncomfortable with all the tomatoes and potatoes then we will offer to share, defuse them with kindness. Charge up the tomatoe with with unity and brotherhood and give it to them with with a smile. It that not what we are to be doing? The renagade teenage tribe that drumms circle ever other week are planning operstion chicken. I will let you know how that turns out.If we can get folks to reduce lawn mowing the chickens stand a chance they are pretty mean but a little stupid when it comes to rain the silly things hold ther heads back beecks open and drownd them selves. The kids will have to hide hucthes in the weeds and wooded areas. Gass boycott's are being talked about at work and around towm. Yes, I have heard both sides of this story, but we have to send a message. Less is all ways less and more is all ways more. Look we are the people who are the one to be doing something about all this we are wasting our time talking and talking and talking. "We Have the Force" "Just Do" Master Yoda.
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