Food for thought

In recent years, society has increasingly grown a demand to stop using artificial ingredients, saturated fats, fructose, sucrose, and other grosses in the food that we feed ourselves, our children, and (of course!) our pets. We now have 'natural food' stores being frequented by a wider range of people, not just "granolas," and organic foods offered in the everyday shopping experience. Fast food chains have switched to healthier oils to prepare unhealthy foods, and Food Network encourages their television stars to mention their preference of organic ingredients.

There are commercial wars waging, lately with the corn industry defending high fructose corn syrup as a healthy option (I'm sure they've taken a hit since that ingredient is in EVERYTHING) and parents protesting if the schools don't get rid of the vending machines of junk food. In short, society demands we eat healthier! Future generations depend on it!

Speaking of future generations, why are parents fine with their kids' education being full of 'artificial ingredients'? Textbooks are full of abridged versions of the truth, which are then re-abridged as they are re-interpreted for 2nd, 3rd, 4th editions, etc. Additionally, depending on what society (or, in large, the government) deems to be the "truth" that year, certain words are removed (i.e., God) and filled in with countless replacements. I've noticed, there really are no two public school (even private school now) textbooks with the same exact information...publisher #1 states history as going down differently then publisher #2.
American History before 20th century revisionism: a totally different ballgame. But it all stems from somewhere, right?

When I was in high school, my mom had me take four or five versions of the Bible- the Bible! Old-school high-school text book for the masses (pardon the pun), and compare them and the way they changed throughout the years. First, we started with an OLD family heirloom edition (I believe Douay-Rheims) Catholic Bible. No, we didn't get down to the direct translations from Arabic to Greek to Latin. But Douay-Rheims is a direct-from-Latin translation. Anyway, line that up next to a King James Bible, New International Version, Mormon, etc...totally, TOTALLY different interpretations of the truth. And each, as you get further from the Catholic Bible, further from the truth as each has biased translations depending on the person who translated it and their current relationship with the Catholic Church.

Today (literally, 11-12-08) there are at least five alternative Christian versions of the Bible (New American Standard, King James Version, New International revised Version, New Revised Standard Version, and Today's New International Version) in addition to all of the tracts each church deems necessary to leave on your doorstep. BUT, we are still able to purchase the Catholic versions and therefore be that much closer to the truth.

Future generations though...I'm not so sure they'll have this option. With recent elections bringing Barack Obama into the White House, our education system is about to be drastically overhauled worse than it already is. His strong focus on revamping the education system isn't going to improve anything, but rather will increase the indoctrination of our children. History will be written more fiction then ever, unless of course he takes the path of his predecessor and burns all of the schoolbooks to get a fresh start.

There's a positive to all of this though. At least our brain-washed, indoctrinated children will have healthy food to fuel their bodies & minds.

(Sorry for the rant. If I were still in high school I think my mom would have me use this as a research paper topic.)