CORRESPONDING WITH MOM
ABOUT THE CORPORATE MENACE

Every now and then my mom will send me an email with what she believes to be helpful information. Usually it's something religiously themed, but today she sent me something quite interesting. On its face, it appears to be simply an essay on one individual's experience with aspartame (a.k.a NutraSweet) poisoning--of course, the essay originally came from some Bible site. I don't know much about this topic, but if what the essay says is true, Diet Coke drinkers are royally fucked. However, what really grabbed me was this passage:

There are now over 5000 products on the market that contain this deadly chemical and there will now be thousands more introduced. Everybody wants a "piece of the Aspartame pie." I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians? This has been recently exposed in the New York Times. These Associations cannot criticize any additives, or convey their link to MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their products.

Click here for the entire essay.

Another passage goes after Monsanto's relationship with the FDA. I was like "Wow! Mom's sending me anti-corporate propaganda!" I couldn't believe it. I've tried sharing my political views with her before, but I don't think I've done a good job of getting across the substance of why I hate corporate power and why I think American democracy is dead, so I've kind of given up on trying to convert her. But this was just too much. I emailed her back right away:

Hey Mom,

Thanks, by the way, for sending this article. I found it to be informative, and as I pointed out in my reply a little while ago, it's a good thing I drink "The Real Thing." Anyway, I was looking the article over again and noticed something that sailed right by me before:

Stevia, which, which is a sweet herb, NOT A MANUFACTURED ADDITIVE, helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics. It has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA. It is known that for many years the FDA outlawed this true sweet food," due to their loyalty to MONSANTO chemical Company.

Mom, I already knew this. Not about this product, exactly, but about the fact that Federal regulatory agencies have been staffed for years by people FROM THE INDUSTRIES THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO REGULATE!!!!! Needless to say, that's a huge conflict of interest. It was bad under Clinton, who is a "liberal" in name only, but it's gotten far, far worse under Bush. This is but one small example of why I just cannot support Republicans or Democrats anymore: both parties have been essentially bought by powerful corporate interests, and they govern on their behalf rather than for the citizens of our country. If you're interested, I could send you thousands of examples of how this has been working--the sky high air toxicity levels on Houston's east side that you've probably been reading about in the Houston Chronicle are simply one of those thousands of examples; the government, run by politicians who are thoroughly beholden to their corporate campaign donors, has allowed the petrochemical industry to blast cancer causing chemicals into Houston's air for decades now.

Generally, I wouldn't beat this dead horse for you, because I've told you what I think about this before, but when I read that excerpt from the article you sent me, I just couldn't resist. We really do not live in the reality that most Americans think we live in. Most Americans depend on news from corporate sources like the New York Times or CNN or NBC or Fox: the corporations don't want their power and influence known. Consequently, their power and influence don't make it into the corporate news. Consequently, most Americans have no idea what's going on. It's pretty ironic that Tom DeLay may very well be indicted soon for his connections to corporate cash while most people have no idea that this is really just business as usual. DeLay may go down, but, mark my words, the corporate mastery of U.S. government will continue for the foreseeable future. We may have freedom in America, but we no longer have democracy. This aspartame thing illustrates that well.

Just a thought.

Ron

She hasn't responded yet, and may just ignore my whole rant, but I'm very curious about how she'll react. I mean, she sent me this article. Maybe my tirade will bear more weight because of that. I don't know. Here's hoping.

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