The Value of Value

An Exploration of Food

I had six months of unemployment (without unemployment pay) to get very strongly acquainted with money saving techniques. One was to carry scraps of paper around, write down anything I use regularly or anticipate needing soon, and stop at every grocery store I pass. I made a rule never to drive more than 1/4 mile out of my way, so I wouldn't waste gas.

At the store, I would jot down the price of the foods I regularly consume: Kamut Puffs, tofu, flatbread, peanut butter, soy milk, coconut milk drink, canned coconut milk, bananas, and apples. I would note the store name and repeat for each different store I passed. Eventually I learned where to find the bargains: Trader Joe's has bagged avocados, store brand firm sprouted tofu (the only kind I find palatable), and store brand coconut milk drink far cheaper than other stores even when I get a coupon. Whole Foods charges less for their organic bananas than I've found anywhere else. Kamut Puffs seem to be priced the same everywhere, but I get gas points at Stop and Shop and find the cheapest pure 100% peanut butter and canned coconut milk there. If I'm way out in Northborough, I can get a fantastic flatbread at Wegmans, as well as the cheapest artichokes I've ever seen at $0.89 each, if I feel like spoiling myself.

My most bizarre find was flax oil: an extremely expensive supplement, flax oil is the only treatment I can use to control my cholesterol levels, since being vegan didn't fix this genetically determined health issue, and a liver tumor prevents use of statins like Lipitor. Unfortunately, flax oil hasn't been popularized, so lack of competition means the price is unlikely to drop to affordable levels. When I scrape together enough to pay for it, I skip right past Whole Foods and go to Especially For Pets. Yes, you heard me right: if you read the label and get the right kind, the oil from the pet store is vegan, human grade, and cheaper per ounce.

The only catch in shopping for price is in areas of quality. Price comparison can tell us which brand, ounce for ounce, costs less, but what if we have to eat more of the cheaper one to get the same nutritional value? What if there are other factors, such as hidden food allergens? I'm fortunate not to be allergic to sulfites, however, I try to avoid them in case I'm cooking for a friend. Sulfites are one of the top 10 most common food allergens, and are not required to be listed: they can be included under the generic "preservatives" name. Many of these foods may be sulfite-free simply by default, but since they don't bother to record it accurately, people with the allergy have to pay two to three times as much to get organic or items labeled "sulfite free."

Other intangibles become obvious after you buy the food. I'm not even going to go into details on ethical shopping, since there are so very many articles out on why you shouldn't get your groceries at WalMart, but I will talk a bit about quality issues.

My most recent experience was with coconut milk.

I picked up a can of Native Forest organic coconut milk from the natural foods section in Stop and Shop. Strangely, it cost a little less than the one in the main section of the store. I stashed it in my fridge for the next time I had company for dessert, so I could make Whipped Coconut Cream. Later, I wandered the isles of Wegmans and found several different brands of coconut milk in different sections. I checked each to make sure it was not the "light" variety, made sure nothing was added to it in ingredients, and brought home the one with the lowest per-ounce price. This turned out to be the Grace brand.

How come whenever I try to open a coconut
it ends up in dozens of pieces all over the floor
instead of  as an elegant bowl shape?

After a few days, I removed both cans from my fridge and scooped out the cream to make my recipe. To my surprise, I discovered the Native Forest can was much thicker, with the cream leaving behind less than 1/4 can of water after separation, while the Grace brand left behind a can more than half filled with water! I suppose there are no industry set standards for coconut milk heaviness, but if I were to name the Grace brand, I would call it "light" or at least "medium light."

At least it wasn't a waste. I made nummy coconut-water rice.

In most recipes this probably would not be an issue. If I were to make chowder, a curry, or fudge, the Grace coconut milk would be adequate and would save me a bit of money. But it was enough of a wake up call to inspire me to start listing comparative prices and quality issues of my favorite items in my blog, so look out for product exposés.

Obama Accomplishments pt25: Artist Corps

Obama Administration Accomplishments List

Previous

• Accomplishment:  Created an artist corps for schools.


• What does it mean?
  As part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which President Obama signed on April 21, 2009, the Education Corps was required to provide "skilled musicians and artists to promote greater community unity through the use of music and arts education and engagement through work in low-income communities, and education, health care, and therapeutic settings, and other work in the public domain with citizens of all ages" (Pleva).

• Why does it matter?
  As I discuss in my National Endowments for the Arts post, art and music skills help with memorization, mathematical ability, and careers such as architecture. Additionally, the arts can help children work through trauma, according to Cora Dunham, by allowing them to release anger through music (Center for American Progress). Music can be a fantastic outlet, and children living in poverty, who may deal with far more challenges and frustrations, usually
  
  With an artist corps, children in poor areas will have greater access to skilled musicians and artists in order to experience and learn the arts. 

References

Center for American Progress. Artist Corps Informance. Center for American Progress. Web. 22 Apr. 2009.
Pleva, Lukas. Artist program included in Kennedy Serve America Act. Politifact. Web. 01 Dec. 2009.

Maths

It's no secret that my math skills are somewhat lackluster.

I could make the claim that I had crummy teachers during my early education, or that I'm very right-brained, and I'm sure both are some part of why I have so little math ability. But to be honest, the majority of the gap in my knowledge is simply because I dislike the subject. True, much of that dislike has to do with a fourth grade teacher who openly mocked me in front of the class when I struggled during a quiz, but if I had made the effort, I probably could have overcome my aversion. I simply decided it was easier to ignore the halfhearted efforts of my math teachers and concentrate my efforts on more interesting subjects.

I like to inflate my self-esteem by shifting the focus to my creative skills. My vindication for my pathetic inability to perform more than the most basic math skills was my amazing, award-winning novels. Okay, so my novels haven't won any awards yet. Okay again, so I haven't actually completed even my first novel. Regardless, I take pride in writing and proofing, as well as my rudimentary music and artistic skills, and I research continually to improve my grammar and word choice.

Still, there are moments I feel a pang of embarrassment about my preteen level math skills. Usually this happens when lack of sleep or distraction serves to emphasize my deficit in a noticeable way, such as by causing me to pause for an unreasonable span of time while making change for a customer. (During my good moments I usually can do simple addition and subtraction in my head, as well as a small amount of multiplication and division.) Usually, however, I succeed in camouflaging these pauses so no one realizes I'm secretly attempting to subtract $3.70 from $20.00, while pretending I'm really pausing to express interest in how their day went.

There are moments, still, when my ignorance is about as subtle as the giant Citgo sign glowering over Fenway. Today was a prime example of one of these moments. I surprised my dad with a hug, congratulating him on his five-year anniversary of remission. Later, my mom found me and, kindly, pointed out that 2012 - 2008 = four. Um. Oops.

My only consolation was that my father, the literal genius, with a bachelor of mathematics and habit of performing equations for entertainment, made the same mistake.

I decided the kind action was not to point out his mistake to him. After all, a math major messing up on simple subtraction is as embarrassing as an English major mixing up who and whom.

Oh wait: I do that all the time.

Flu

I've been fighting the flu for a couple days, so unfortunately lack both the concentration and ability to sit up for long periods of time required to research and write my posts.

I apologize for the delay. When I'm feeling better I'll do a few extra to make up for the missed ones.

More funding for... what?

Last night, I ran to my car, threw my purse in my passenger seat, and started the engine, fumbling with the dials to find WBZ newsradio. I had left work a few minutes late and was concerned I might have missed the introduction to the President Obama's State of the Union address.

Fortunately, there was a slight delay, and I was able to hear the entire speech from start to finish. Unfortunately, about a third into the speech, I reacted so viscerally to one statement that I was unable to absorb any of the following words until the second time I listened. What did our President say, you may ask, that I got so upset about? Did he announce a huge increase in unemployment rates? No. Did he decide it was time for our country to get involved in another war? No, again.

"I am proposing that every state -- every state -- requires that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18." That was the statement that I heard. That was the moment my stomach plunged through the floor of my car. While the audience and most other listeners were cheering, I was numbly driving home, vaguely wondering if I should turn around and retrieve my innards from between the potholes on route 126.

It probably seems like a very, very unusual reaction to a statement advocating more education, especially coming from someone who has petitioned, volunteered, and advocated better funding for our schools, and certainly it warrants explanation.

At age thirty, I have spent close to the same amount of years out of school as in. And most of the time I spent in school, I experienced ostracization, verbal abuse, and physical abuse from my peers. We now call this bullying, but while I was in school most people called it "being picked on."

I don't remember clearly how old I was when it began, but I know by age thirteen the emotional trauma had accumulated enough that barely a day passed without me wondering if I could find the courage to just end everything. If I hadn't realized my atheism at a fairly young age, I probably would have. Even so, there were a number of times when I wondered how I could possibly make it to sixteen. If I had been forced to endure the torture for two more years, I might not have been here to write this at all.

So naturally, the thought of removing the one last avenue of safe escape, after all attempts failed to make school work out, was abhorrent to me. How could our President think this was fair?

Of course, after I stopped and took a couple deep breaths, I remembered the dire need for quality education in the United States. Despite a more urgent drive than ever for America to be have a highly skilled marketplace, only roughly thirty percent of Americans have an undergraduate degree (Saenz). Unfortunately, most children who drop out of school are not fortunate enough to have the resources and drive to self-educate and continue on to college, as I did. For me, college was education's saving grace: the example that demonstrated that school really could be a healthy environment, if properly funded and staffed with quality teachers (while sprinkling in a bit of freedom of choice in educational focus). If I hadn't gone, I probably would have lived the rest of my life under the perception that school existed only as a feeding ground for little two-legged piranhas, seeking out any difference and rending you limb from limb when they find it, with little-to-no redeeming educational value to compensate for the emotional and physical torture.

I've heard stories from friends who faced similar agony, and from friends who endured bullying on a level so terrible I could barely comprehend, even with my personal experience on the subject. I hear about different methods used now, such as: children posting mean photos on or hacking into Facebook, sending messages to large groups of kids instantly, or tweeting disparaging comments. Bullying, or picking on someone, has changed in so many ways, yet still is so much the same. Is it worse? Better? "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" (Stein 187).

Giving schools "the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones" (Obama) is more important than I can properly express, but we absolutely must remember when we send our children to school, this is not a situation wherein blinders are placed on their heads and educational materials are absorbed with no other factors. In fact, in many schools the teachers are the ones wearing the metaphorical blinders, and almost all schools engage in activities which actively encourage antagonistic, group bullying behavior.

In 2004, a few schools finally recognized what is probably the worst sanctioned bully mechanism, dodgeball, as an inappropriate activity, and banned it (Gormley). This wise and kind step in the right direction was heralded as a huge triumph by bruised kids and compassionate people everywhere -- except for a few callous pundits, who portrayed the game in a soft light haze of innocent, clean fun, relative to playing a videogame (Broder). Broder conveniently neglects to mention that, in videogames, children don't form a group and collectively wail on the "weak" kids until they're sitting in a corner, clutching a bloody nose (at least, not yet) while the gym teacher pretends not to notice.

More attention needs to be paid to making school a healthy, nurturing atmosphere. Yes, we need better funding for materials and to attract quality teachers with higher pay. However, one of the measurements for quality teachers and administration needs to be evaluating their ability to discourage and discover bullying behavior, as well as emphasize cooperative athletics and friendly competition. In second grade, when I told the teacher on recess duty that a boy had just slammed my head back into a brick wall, this teacher told me, "you shouldn't tattle: two wrongs don't make a right." I would hope by the new millennium teachers who prefer to use self-imposed blinders rather than intervene against bullying would be screened out, but the news stories of 2010 and 2011 did not trend that direction.

Today was "No Name Calling Day" (Thompson) in Massachusetts. Schools featured programs focused on kindness and children wore black. It's good to see the occasional moment when the public is reminded bullying still is an issue, but one day a year is not enough when children spend the other 364 flinching at shadows. The Facebook group "Massachusetts: Black Out Bullying" encouraged users to change their icons to all black on January 25. A related group, "Stop Bullying," shares news, videos, and photos against bullying on a year round basis. I've observed small organizations cropping up, theme days in larger groups, and discussions in Girl Scout meetings (I talked about this in my post, Broken, which I posted in December), with the focus of educating children against bullying, and teaching compassion and empathy. These smaller, private ventures into an evolved human psyche must be added to our public education philosophy. Otherwise, throw as much money as you want at the school system, but don't expect much improvement.

Works Cited

Broder, David. Dodging back to the playground. Toledo Blade. Web. 15 Jul. 2004.
Gormley, Michael. New York lawsuit kicks dodgeball into court. Cape Code Times. Web. 28 Nov. 2004.
Obama, Barack. State of the Union. The White House. Web. 24 Dec. 2012.
Saenz, Arlette. More Working Women Hold College Degrees than Men. ABC News. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.
Stein, Gertrude. Sacred Emily. Geography and Plays. Boston: The Four Seas Press, 1922. Digitized by Google.
Thompson, Elaine. No name-calling today, or any day. Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Obama Accomplishments pt24: Pension Relief Act

Obama Administration Accomplishments List

Previous :: Next

• Accomplishment:  Pension Relief Act, also known as the "Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010."


• What does it mean?
  Allows employers employers with underfunded DB plans may elect to amortize funding shortfalls for any two plan years between 2008 and 2011 either over a 15-year period or by making interest-only payments for two years followed by seven years of amortization"(BusinessWire). The changes are in Notice 2010-55 and Notice 2010-56, which apply, respectively, to single-employer pension plans and "multiemployer defined benefit plans"(Staff Writer).
  
  Basically, the changes made by the bill mean if businesses are in danger of losing their plan, they now can choose to pay it off slowly.
• Why does it matter?
  The new rules allow benefit both employees, companies, and the economy: companies that were in danger of losing their pension plans may be able to keep them. This makes the companies more attractive to skilled employees.
  
  A lot of employers were hit hard by the economic downturn. However, "by temporarily easing the effects of new rules plan sponsors were supposed to be using to calculate plan funding levels and contribution requirements"(Bell), the bill helped many employers keep their pension plans.
  
  Marty Schwenner, chief financial officer of Renewable Energy company Magnetek, summed up what this act means to his company: "We are very pleased with this development in pension relief. [...] We expect either funding relief option would provide us with improved near term cash flow due to expected lower pension contributions"(BusinessWire).
  
  One last benefit I would like to mention is goodwill. Think about this: if you hear a company is cutting benefits for their employees, and you know of another company that presents a similar option for the same, or close to the same, price, would you choose the company you know to provide their employees with better benefits? Many consumers receive information from email lists, or simply by word of mouth, and opt-in to companies that make special effort to treat their employees well (I've personally witnessed a large shift of consumers to Wegman's rather than other grocery stores, even if it adds an extra 30 minutes to the drive, for this very reason) or will blacklist certain chains known to mistreat their workers (we all remember the WalMart scandal after news reports were released on the women's wage gap and making workers work off the clock). By giving these companies a chance to keep their pensions while striving to recover from the economic dip, this new act also provides them with more opportunity to retain favor in the eyes of the public consumer.

References

Bell, Allison. IRS Answers Pension Relief Questions. LifeHealthPRO. Web. 20 Dec. 2010.
Business Wire. Magnetek Expects Improved Pension Outlook With Passage Of Pension Funding Relief. Business Wire. Web. 1 Jul. 2010.
Business Wire. Pension Funding Relief Could Provide Between $19 Billion And $63 Billion Reduction In Required Contributions Over Five Years, Towers Watson Analysis Finds. Business Wire. Web. 2 Aug. 2010.
Staff Writer. IRS Starts Implementing Pension Relief Rules. LifeHealthPRO. Web. 2 Aug. 2010.

Obama Accomplishments pt23: Women's Reproductive Rights

Obama Administration Accomplishments List

Previous :: Next

• Accomplishment:  Stood up for women's reproductive rights.


• What does it mean?
  On Sunday, President Obama spoke on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, reminding the American public of the importance of women's reproductive rights, and pointing out "that government should not intrude on private family matters"(Diamond, Marie).  Much of President Obama's speech mirrored his earlier statement on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (Obama), with one notable difference: since 2009, Obama has allowed his actions to reflect his statements.
  
  The Affordable Healthcare Act, which I discuss more completely in my Affordable Care Act post, includes requirements for health insurers to provide free access to birth control, a point Obama reaffirmed on Friday, to assuage fears that he may cave in to pressure and change his mind on this August 2011 mandate(Margolis).
  
  Most importantly, Obama made a point of all the methods of preventing abortion that do not impede women's reproductive rights, including to "encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption"(Herb). According to the CDC, "The removal of cost as one barrier to correct and consistent contraceptive use might contribute to a reduction in the number of unintended pregnancies and consequently the number of abortions that are performed in the United States"(Margolis).


• Why does it matter?
  39 years after the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, women's right to reproductive health still is under attack. 92 abortion restrictions were enacted through 24 states in 2011(Volsky) and the "Republican-led House passed bills in 2011 that would restrict federal subsidies for abortion"(Herb).
  
  As restrictions on contraception coverage grow, unintended pregnancies increase. Financial restrictions disproportionately affect women already struggling to support themselves. If an unintended pregnancy results from a woman's inability to afford contraception, she is far more likely to be unable to afford the basic healthcare to cover her pregnancy, not to speak of supporting a child.
  
  Having to get an abortion is nothing any woman looks forward to. The procedure is traumatic both emotionally and physically. Unfortunately, in addition to lack of coverage and availability of contraception, other unforeseeable circumstances can lead to the need.
  
  On Sunday, at the Worcester, MA Jane Fund Annual Meeting, featured speaker and Jane Fund President, Andrea Miller, told about a woman in crisis the Jane Fund had helped.  This woman of 40 years had a medical emergency necessitating a hysterectomy. There was, however, one tragic complication: she was pregnant. With an abortion, her life-saving procedure could be performed; without it, both she and the fetus would die. Her insurance approved her hysterectomy but, under current laws, her insurance was not required to pay for the abortion. They chose to deny coverage, leaving her with a sudden and urgent need to come up with $3,000, which she did not have, or die. Fortunately, Jane Fund volunteers were able to make emergency donor calls and quickly generate donations to fund the abortion(Miller).
  
  Sadly, there are many women who lack the ability to get contraception or abortions specifically due to lack of financial assistance. One of the important features of the Affordable Care Act was to require insurances to provide coverage. However, it is important for us to realize individual measures can chip away at this coverage, and pretty quickly at that. We must remember that our voices are a huge component of whether the measures enacted by the Obama administration remain to work to our benefit, or are crippled or even overturned by opponents.

References

Diamond, Marie. On 39th Anniversary Of Roe v. Wade, Obama Pledges To Defend ‘Women’s Health And Reproductive Freedom.’ Think Progress. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.

Herb, Jeremy. Obama defends Roe v. Wade on anniversary of Supreme Court ruling. The Hill. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

Margolis, Dan. On Roe v. Wade anniversary, a big win for women from Obama administration. People's World. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.

Miller, Andrea. 22 Jan. 2012. Untitled Speech. Speech presented at Maxwell Silverman's, 25 Union St, Worcester, MA.

Obama, Barack. Statement of President Obama on the 36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Office of the Press Secretary. Web. 22 Jan. 2009.

Volsky, Igor. Report: 24 States Enacted 92 Abortion Restrictions In 2011. Think Progress. Web. 6 Jan. 2012.