I enjoyed reading the piece entitled "Can you afford to be a Liberal?" by Sarah MacMillen. Having lived in South Bend, I can attest to the cost of trying to live in consideration of others. It puzzles me that many food chains drastically raise the prices on organic and traditionally farmed foods to fool the consumer into believing that sustenance farming is more expensive, when in many cases, it is just the opposite.
How is it that in Los Angeles, arguably one of the most expensive places to live in the United States, I can find organic or traditionally farmed foods for cheap? Indiana is practically America's breadbasket, and yet I cannot ever remember seeing a farmer's market advertised in South Bend, or seeing anything organic or traditionally farmed under the price of five dollars. I go to the Brentwood Farmer's Market and buy an entire sack of fresh vegetables and eggs that are organic or traditionally farmed for those same five dollars. I can also go to the Santa Monica or Beverly Hills Farmer's Market and do just as well there.
The mere fact that this article was equated to living as a "liberal" (I see the categorization of people still persists under the Dome) tells me something. Are the people of the Midwest so conservative that they no longer support the old adages of farming? When was it "un-cool" to mill about the fresh wares of the farming community on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon? I buy my chicken and eggs from a family at the Brentwood Farmer's Market every Sunday afternoon. Even though it takes an extra two or three minutes of my time, I like hearing their son tell me how he is now old enough to harvest the eggs without his mother's supervision.
The fact that I buy organic or traditionally farmed foods, in my eyes, makes me very conservative. I support those who farm in ways that enrich God's earth, rather than hurt it. I support the littlest guy out there - the single family farmer. I support those who know no other way of life but farming. I like seeing the boy at the market smiling at me, as opposed to seeing the smiley face of Walmart infiltrating my living room every evening. And I have to say that buying my food while basking in the sunlight sure beats shopping under the cold hum of fluorescent lighting.
The Notre Dame and Saint Mary's community prides itself on being socially aware. However, the mere fact that Domers and Belles equate being environmentally, dare I say economically, aware with being "liberal" sends shivers down my spine. It shouldn't be liberal or conservative. It should be considered Christian. The Bible instructs us to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." That is exactly what I intend to do. God bless.
Holly M. James
Saint Mary's alumna
Class of 2002
March 15
