STRANGE PRIORITIES

     I paid a visit to a friend, an old lady who recently turned 95 years old.  She said to me, "Connie, I never thought I would end up like this."  She lives in a nursing home.  I'm Connie Palmer and I have know Miss Lydia since I was a little girl.  She and her husband never had children and since I found out she was in a facility, I make it my business to check on her.

     When she first went to the nursing home, it was clean, comfortable and full of seemingly caring and competent people.  I later learned that new management took over.  They began to cut corners on patient care.  They laid off aides and nurses and removed some of the management staff.  In other words, they made big changes for the worse.

     The makeup of the aide staff seemed to change every week.  The low morale meant that they constantly argued among themselves, often in the halls where the patients could hear.  The food was inedible.  There were shortages of gowns and towels, and medical equipment was so inadequate that patients who needed special help waited for hours.

     On that particular day, I found Miss Lydia in her room crying softly as she sat in her wheel chair.  By this time, she had grown feeble and requirement assistance for most of her needs.  The next day, I made new arrangements for Miss Lydia.

     I know you're asking what this has got to do with me, the reader.  Just this:  the cost-cutting decisions of that facility were made on a profit basis.  I directed my anger from the aides to administrators and government regulators.  The aides were expected to give basic care--duties that were often distasteful to them and demeaning to the patients--for paltry pay.  No wonder staff turn-over  was mind boggling.

     We say we respect our elders, just as we give lip service to the preciousness of our children.  Yet, workers who care for both children and the elderly are sadly underpaid.

     I enjoy a good burger as much as the next person, but if i were going to fight for anyone's pay to be raised, it wouldn't be for fast food workers, but for those workers who take care of our most precious resources, our children and the elderly.  Let's get our priorities straight.

DO YOU WANT BEER WITH THAT?

This is Bea Bell, and I think that I’m a fairly tolerate woman who accepts quite a few things that the Twenty-first century has to offer.  I struggle with technology but I still try to keep up to date with it.  Yet, I’ve got to say that there are some changes in this modern society that just get me riled.

I recently found out that the retail store, Dollar General, is test marketing beer sales in their stores.  In Indianapolis, Indiana, 30 stores have applied for liquor licenses.  I’m all for good business practices but liquor sales in this particular chain store is totally irresponsible. The majority of the 30 stores that are doing the test marketing are in low-income areas where there is no shortage of places to buy alcohol already.

This chain store defines its mission as "For Customers... Price, Quality and Great Prices; For Employees... Respect and Opportunity; For Shareholders... A Superior Return; and for Communities... A Better Life." Call me crazy, but I don’t see alcohol sales as providing a better way of life for communities.

Unfortunately, this chain of stores is not alone with the liquor sales. The White Castle hamburger chain is getting into the act.  The ninety-year old burger chain is testing beer and wine sales in Lafayette, Indiana, which is home to Purdue University.  According to a Bloomberg Business Week article, customers can buy a glass of wine for $4.50 or a domestic beer for $3.00. Can you believe that this is White Castle I’m talking about? 

It doesn’t stop there.  Burger King recently opened “Whooper Bars” in Miami, Las Vegas and Kansas City, and these bars sell beer.  Even Star Bucks has begun to sell beer and wine in a few of their Seattle stores.  Beer goes for $5.00 a bottle and wine can cost as much as $9.00 a glass!  

Even though these stores claim to be giving the customers what they want, my guess is that the real reason for these liquor sales is that they’re trying to get a bigger share of our limited dollars.  My concern is that there may be no place left in America that can be considered a family establishment.  If kids can sit in a White Castle or Burger King and watch the adults drink I think there is a negative message finding its way into young minds.

Alcohol sales in fast food restaurants are nothing new.  Pizza Hut has been doing it for years in their dine-in restaurants, but I don’t believe we need more places where children are exposed to alcohol.   Just think about it.  If you’re a kid who is under-aged and wants to drink it’s much less conspicuous getting an older person to purchase beer for you from a Dollar General store than it is waiting for them outside of a liquor store. 

Millions of people drink responsibly, but I really don’t want the irresponsible element taking their bad habits into family-friendly establishments.  I understand that business is based on the dollars you can bring in and not the high-sounding message of company mission statement as in the case of Dollar General.  Business is about money and these businesses are making it obvious that the welfare of our children does not count.  The slogan must be:  more drunks mean more money, so bring ‘em on.

I know that I’m ranting, but I just can’t help it.  I have some fond memories of White Castle as I was growing up.  I do recall seeing drunks came to White Castle to quench their thirst, but for the munchies not for a beer or wine.  Of course I might be concerned for nothing.  If  these places keep marking up the price of beer hard drinkers won’t be able to afford the burgers and the beer anyway.

Just muse on it.