Upside-Down Value Systems

Here is a little something out the ordinary for TOA. But not really. This is about food and values. Two things that are essential for human life. Two things that are what The Orthodox American is all about. Lets talk about it:

The home-cooked family dinner.

I heard about the Slate article before I read it. I read the title of the Mother Earth News article before I read it. But before I read either, I had taken sides. Knowing the source, and knowing, or not knowing the author, it was pretty easy and self evident. I like to give things a chance, but sometimes it's not worth your time to, just to find out what you already assumed.

Here they both are. You can read them first or just skip down to my ramblings.

Slate

Mother Earth News

Lets start with Slate. The author is an unknown, but that is typical. They take anyone who is semi good at grammar, votes the left way, and gives them a column. They are a left of center site. Sometimes they have a good point. Most of the time the back up the populist progressive/liberal talking points. If you had to put them in a box, which is not a hard thing, you could say they are or represent the Democratic Party, the Obama voter, the Hope N Change crowd. Not just simply, but complexly. They speak "for" the urban/suburban person. They are pretty ok with government, as long as it is being run by Ds. They weren't ok with government from 2000 to 2008. They are the high density places, the places that vote for Pelosi types. They are on the coasts. They are NPR and MSNBC. They thrive on excuses and blaming. Back to the article. It is a whinny bunch of excuses that jab at something the other half of the country holds dear. The family diner. They try to make a point of the unnecessary-ness of the family. Just as our ever growing, cradle to grave, welfare state government does. The disintegration/dis-assembly of the family unit (not my place to define but you know it when it's present and you know it when it's absent) is part of what is wrong with America, but that's a whole other post.

Now lets take a look at the Mother Earth News. A mag that has some very hippie tendency's, but they always comes back to self reliance and personal responsibility. Always. And it's why I love them. I actually only get pissed when they get all AlGore on us and fall for global warming climate change, but that is not too often. They have been around for years, like 30+ years. My parents, in their 60s now, grew up with dreams of "back to the land" fueled by Mother Earth News. Now on to the author of the rebuttal article. Joel Salatin. The Man. Now I am a man who does not have many, if any, heroes or idles. Joel Salatin is on a very short list of living people that I highly regard and admire. He is The Orthodox American. He is rural America. He speaks for the farmers and workers the middle of the country, the regular folks (Folks as in good-regular people, not the "folks" that Obama uses.). Fly over America. Here is the part where I should say he represents the Republican Party, the Rs, but I can't. Why, because I know (not personally) Joel Salatin, and he is a lover of liberty. He is, what all republicans should evolve to. A libertarian. A lover of liberty. Not just the part of the party that opposes the Democratic Party. That is just the lesser of two evils, and is half the reason where are in the mess we are in. He is a believer in ideals. In values. The same ideals and values Mother Earth News delivers to readers.

This post has gotten a bit jumbled and I am somewhere between rambling and mumbling, but I am ok with that. My commentary is just a bonus or a detraction to the source links I share with you. The only point I wanted to make, is what was written in Slate is a great example of what is wrong with our country. And what Joel wrote is all that is right with our country.

Eating a home cooked dinner with my family is a very important thing to me. I did it a lot as a kid. I enjoy it now as an adult. I have eaten hundreds if not thousands of dinners (some good, many not good) in really crappy places, chow halls, mess halls, on ships, in my rack, in tents, on the plane. Can you say MRE? Now that I am home more, I savor the time and the food. I appreciate my wife immensely each and every time we sit down and eat what ever wonderful dish she has made. She does most of the cooking. She does a great job at it. It saves money, it tastes great, it is better for us. I truly believe it is a positive thing for our family, any family, and I think my seven year old daughter agrees. I love it, and I know my wife loves it when the little girl says things like "this is the best dinner ever, I want to have the same thing for breakfast!" I think it sets a great example for her. For Slate to crap on that is just sad. It is typical, expected, and it's what is wrong with America.

P.S. Maybe someday I will do a post on my "heroes" living or no longer living. Maybe even throw in some fictional ones in there. Maybe try to spot light one each Friday or something. I'm just thinking out loud here. Don't hold your breath.

P.S.S. I know above I crapped on the dinners I ate while deployed, but I want to amend that slightly. Many of those crappy meals in crappy places are some of the best memory's I have of being in the Navy. Why? Because I ate them with some great people. Shipmates. I forged great friendships over a piece of beef that had been killed twice, once by the butcher and once by the cook. Had some great conversations sitting around the chow hall after dinner drinking my fourth Fanta. Talking about family's and dreams. Commiserating as sailors sometimes do. Sometimes eating in science because we were all just so hungry and tired from a long ass day. Sometimes eating alone when I needed time to myself. I just wanted to add that as bad as the food was or wasn't, the company was always top notch.