1.      Where’s the Beef?

2.     A Not-So-Divine Comedy, Part 11

3.     Announcements

4.     Fun Facts about Missouri

5.     The Flashback Quarterback:  When Your Bad Credit Is Not Your Fault   

6.     Beware and Share:  If You Wait for Government, You Are at Risk

 7.     About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”

Where’s the Beef?  

Last month, there was a bit of a sensation about a slaughterhouse in Chino, California, which mistreated cows and used the beef from “downer” cows.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the largest beef recall in its history Sunday, calling for the destruction of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef produced by a Chino slaughterhouse that has been accused of inhumane practices.  

However, the USDA said the vast majority of the meat involved in the recall -- including 37 million pounds that went mostly to schools -- probably has been eaten already.  Officials emphasized that danger to consumers was minimal. …  

The action came nearly three weeks after the Humane Society of the United States released a video showing workers at the plant using forklifts and water hoses, among other methods, to rouse cattle too weak to walk. In addition to issues of animal cruelty, the video raised questions about whether so-called downer cattle were entering the food chain in violation of federal regulations.  

Although the Humane Society said at least four non-ambulatory cattle had been slaughtered for food, the USDA had repeatedly said it had no such evidence. On Sunday, federal officials said for the first time that they had evidence such cattle from Hallmark had been processed for food. … Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2008.

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization.  

1. What is the essential lesson here?

(a) Our government is not doing enough.

(b) We should not depend totally on government for our health and safety.

(c) It is good to have private citizens involved as watchdogs.  

2. What is the best thing for us to do to improve our health and safety?

(a) Demand that government do more monitoring.

(b) Support, even join, private citizens who become our watchdogs.

(c) Increase the penalties for endangering health or safety.

  No one can earn a million dollars honestly.
William Jennings Bryan, 1860 – 1925,
an American lawyer, statesman, and politician, three times the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.

The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods.
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Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest [sic] of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
John Maynard Keynes, 1883 – 1946,
a British economist whose ideas, called Keynesian economics, had a major impact on modern economic and political theory, as well as on many governments’ fiscal policies.  

So far, we have noted many deficiencies in the capitalism which we practice.  The purpose behind such a look is to encourage thought and action about how to make capitalism work better.  So we look at more deficiencies. 

The community lesson in this issue of E-News talks about the largest beef recall in United States history.  One source has reported that the slaughterhouse intentionally violated the law when the government inspector assigned there was away on other business.  “Flashback Quarterback” in this issue talks about the difficult situation for patients who try to understand medical billing.  On Sunday, February 17, “Sixty Minutes” talked about Trasylol, a drug manufactured by the medical mastodon Bayer.  One doctor who was interviewed said that a thousand deaths occurred for every month that Bayer delayed pulling Trasylol from the market.  

The fundamental problem here is threefold:  

·        first, the relatively unfettered pursuit of wealth;  this is aggravated because of the relative lack of funding which would keep our US Department of Agriculture and our US Food and Drug Administration, “FDA,” independent and alert;

·        second, the accumulation of wealth by a relatively few;  in Bayer’s case, this would be its shareholders;

·        third, our lack of information about options, e.g., there is a much cheaper alternative to Trasylol, and our inability to identify emergencies quickly, e.g., we do not know how bad a drug is until the FDA choose to tell us.  

As for the first problem, the capitalism which we practice in America never tires of seeking out new markets.  It would be impossible to say, “You do what you want in Nevada, but leave us Californians alone.”  The second problem is difficult to address because those who have wealth become the shareholders, and the shareholders become more wealthy, excluding a large number of people, of stakeholders, from participating in decision-making and from sharing in the wealth.  Finally, the lack of information to make informed choices and to react quickly to emergencies is aggravated by the lack of transparency in the corporate sector and the unrevealed inducements, like commissions, to medical practitioners to collaborate with corporations.  

Making capitalism work for the community is very much an uphill battle, a steep uphill battle.

Missouri was named after a tribe called Missouri Indians.  “Missouri” means “town of the large canoes.”  

Missouri is known as the “Show Me State”.  The “Show Me State” expression may have began in 1899 when Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver stated, “I’m from Missouri and you’ve got to show me.”  

The most destructive tornado on record occurred in Annapolis.  In three hours, it tore through the town on March 18, 1925, leaving a nine-hundred-eighty-foot wide trail of demolished buildings, uprooted trees, and overturned cars.  It left eight hundred twenty-three people dead and almost three thousand injured.  

At the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, Richard Blechyden, served tea with ice and invented iced tea.  

Also, at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, the ice cream cone was invented.  An ice cream vendor ran out of cups and asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling up waffles to hold ice cream.

St. Louis is also called “The Gateway to the West” and “Home of the Blues”.  

Warsaw holds the state record for the low temperature of -40 degrees on February 13, 1905. Warsaw holds the state record for the high temperature recorded, 118 degrees on July 14, 1954.  [Interesting.  Nobody thinks of Missouri as having a desert.]  

Kansas City has more miles of boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city except Rome.  

The tallest man in documented medical history was Robert Pershing Wadlow from St. Louis.  He was 8 feet, 11.1 inches tall.  

During Abraham Lincoln’s campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat named Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri, swore that he would never shave again if Abe were elected.  Tapley kept his word and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November, 1860, until he died in 1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches.  [So, was Valentine in favor of slavery?]  

President Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, May 8, 1884.  

The most powerful earthquake to strike the United States occurred in 1811, centered in New Madrid, Missouri. The quake shook more than one million square miles, and was felt as far as a thousand miles away.  [That was big, but what about the Alaska quake of the 1960s?]  

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, writer of Little House on the Prairie, grew up in Missouri.  

Soybeans bring in the most cash for Missourians as a crop.  [Have you read about the possible dangers of soybeans?]