October 1, 2007
I hope you took the time to watch Oprah’s wonderful discussion on healthcare in America. She asked Americans to consider who we are – we, the people. Not we, the corporation.
After much thought, I decided that I am sick of corporations deciding every aspect of American life. We are force-fed products, politics, and belief systems through the media. Consumerism is destroying our environment, driving the population toward bankruptcy, creating world instability, and driving wars through our practice of cultural imperialism, largely driven by corporate invasion of global markets against the prevailing wishes of the populace.
I expect my leaders to resolve this problem or maybe they shouldn’t be my leaders anymore. I did not send anyone to Washington, D.C., to get big, fat corporate paychecks. I sent you to ensure my freedom and access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (please note that “wealth” is not listed in the Declaration as a fundamental necessity of the human experience). The article below, and so many other sources of information, have told me that Congress is no longer protecting my issues – but those of Big Business, who, as I said above, no longer represent me, my family, or my future and may, in fact, be a threat to all three.
From the Los Angeles TimesThe White House vs. mother's milk
The report released in April by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a unit within the Health and Human Services Department, supports the claims made in the original ad campaign -- and then some. It assessed the research designs, methods and results of 9,000 studies, dating from 1966 to May 2006, on the health implications of breast- versus formula-feeding. The report concluded that there is a substantially greater risk of severe lower respiratory (72% higher), intestinal (64% higher) and middle-ear infections (23% to 50% higher) for formula-fed babies. Sudden infant death is 36% more likely among formula-fed babies."The problem with the formula companies is that they're marketing a product clearly inferior to breast milk," Gartner said. No formula can compete, nutritionally or immunologically, with something produced by eons of natural selection and tailored to the precise needs of human infants and their mothers. Women who do not breast-feed put their babies at risk…No mother should feel guilty. But she should feel angry that she wasn't told, in some clear, graphic and unmistakable way, what the health risks of formula-feeding are. The terrible thing is that our government had the information and for political and economic reasons chose -- and still chooses -- to keep that knowledge to itself.
Ay Carumba! Enough! Enough, enough, enough! Is the wealth of a few really worth the lives and health of the many?!
