An Open Reply to an Angry Citizen

An Open Reply to an Angry Citizen

Summary

An open reply to an angry, health-conscious consumer...
900 words

Citizens' Advisory

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by Eric Armstrong

A Concerned Citizen wrote:

> A friend of mine recently turned me on to your website (www.treelight.com/health).
> While I find that I relate to many of the problems you refer to, ... I find myself
> becoming angry as I read. Everyone gives us so much information but no proper
> way to process it all. For gawds sake can someone make it easy?
>
> I am overwhelmed by all the information available and end up getting angry that
> I cannot understand it well enough to get it to work for me....
>
> Its all well and good that eating better and taking supplements can help you but what
> about us folks that do not make much money? How are we to afford the special
> foods, the vitamins, shopping at all natural food stores and such?
>
> Everyone tells you to give up this, give up that but doesn't say how....Your site is
> the first I managed to get mostly through--but even then I was left with information
> overload! I don't expect you to have the answers - I just felt the need to vent.
> In any case- thank you for your website, its very interesting and I am glad my
> friend told me about it.

Dear Concerned,

I understand your anger, and your need to vent. I'm angry, too. I started the Citizens' Advisory website
to address the political side of the health equation.

The fact is, if government were doing it's job, it would not be NECESSARY for every single individual in the country to acquire an education in chemistry and biology to avoid the poisons in the food supply. And it shouldn't be necessary for them to spend even MORE money to get healthier food.

The situation is similar to the one that existed in China when they first learned how to mill rice. The white rice was very tasty and expensive, so the rich people paid extra for it. Then they started getting beri beri, so they paid extra for the pills they needed to cure it-- pills that contained the brown rice tailings left over after polishing. It's even worse here, though. Here, virtually EVERYTHING people normally eat is tainted.

I was once in a checkout line with a lady who said she was embarrassed that she didn't read food labels, and didn't know what to look for on them, even if she did. (The major things are partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup.) But SHE isn't the one who should be embarrassed It shouldn't be NECESSARY for her to understand all of these things!

The people who should be embarrassed are the politicians who claim we live in the "greatest democracy in the world" and that we have "the highest standard of living in the world", when the facts are:

Partially hydrogenated oils are illegal in Canada and Europe. The science is clear. They cause obesity and dozens of diseases. But it took us 10 years to pass a weak and ineffective labeling law that doesn't come close to solving the problem--especially when it comes to fast foods.
Genetically modified foods are illegal in Canada and Europe. We can't even get them labeled here.
Fluoride (a poisonous by-product of aluminum production that causes Alzheimer) isn't put into the drinking water of any advanced nation in the world, except this one. Experimental evidence that argued against the "cavity prevention" effect was suppressed, and government is STILL incapable of acting on the merits of the science (or lack of it).
People work longer and harder to live in this society than they do in any other society on earth. And they've been brainwashed into being proud of it. As though sacrificing all of one's family and leisure time fin pursuit of excess production and consumption is somehow a laudable goal.
Our laws are increasingly written, not for the welfare of American citizens, but for the good of the corporations who do business here--many of whom no longer even pay taxes, and who are increasingly are not even employing American citizens!
For example, witness the fact that it was recently made harder for citizens to declare bankruptcy, while nothing at all was done about the predatory lending practices that push them there--practices that used to be called "loan sharking", and produced jail terms. That's a law of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations--as most all of our legislation is, given that it is sponsored and generally written by highly-paid lobbyists.

The result of living in this purported "greatest democracy" with its "highest standard of living" is, therefore, the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer of any country, anywhere in the world. The proof of our failure is exhibited in waistlines all around us, yet politicians persist in ignoring the problems, along with the scientific evidence for their cause--and our democracy seems all but incapable of making them pay attention.

C. Evrett Koop was the first, last, and only truly courageous Surgeon General we had. But he had an advantage that current Surgeon General's do not--government was at least balanced in its concern for individuals and corporations, in those days. But today, the pendulum has swung almost completely in favor of the corporations.

That's the situation that makes me mad as hell. That's situation I'm trying to rectify, using the limited resources at my disposal.

--
Eric Armstrong
TreeLight Health, Citizens' Advisory
http://www.treelight.com/health -- nutrition/fitness/mailing list
http://www.citizensAdvisory.org -- politics, news feed
http://www.artima.com/weblogs -- software technology web log

About Eric Armstrong

Eric Armstrong is computer systems designer, writer, and philosopher. He is currently working on a book that uses the principles of General Systems Theory to explain how America's epidemic of obesity and disease stems from profitable, but unhealthy, ingredients in the food supply; how the corporate financial system (and our own retirement plans) are complicit in the problem; how the American political system allows it to happen; and how our problems with the environment, a dwindling standard of living, and even our problems with the global economy all stem from the same constellation of systemic interactions. At www.treelight.com/health, he focuses on nutrition and fitness. At www.citizensAdvisory.org, his forming non-profit is working to get the money out of politics. At www.artima.com/weblogs, he writes about software, web technology, and development tools.

About Citizens' Advisory

Corporate money has hijacked the ballot box. The Citizens' Advisory aims to take it back. Our goal is to put people in charge of the political process. The voting-advice system recommended by the Citizens Advisory lets people choose advisors they trust. Done right, that system will enable multi-party coalitions in cyberspace. The system appeals to voters because it's convenient. It appeals to social activists and their organizations because it levels the political playing the field and empowers them with a stronger political voice.