So I don’t know if
you’ve caught Jamie Oliver’s new show, but it’s on hulu and abc.com if you missed it. It’s called
‘food revolution’ and the premise is he’s a renown British chef and he goes to
most unhealthy city in the most unhealthy state in america… Huntington, WV.
He then tries to change the school lunch menu. The thing that makes this show
so fascinating is the human drama. Everyone he meets makes every argument not
to change, not on the basis that he’s wrong… but that the status quo is
easier/cheaper/more acceptable in some way. It’s such a microcosm of what is
going on in our nation’s politics. In this country, there is such an emotional
investment in the status quo in the face of dramatic and dire evidence that
it’s not working. It’s interesting to watch this national problem play out
with an inocous thing like eating habits in a public school. How much
investment do I have in the status quo despite all evidence that’s its time to
change. What do I defend staunchly for no good reason other than that’s the
way It’s always been done. Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see
in the world.” If I want to see change in this great country of ours, I have
to be willing not to defend the status quo and to let go of ideas, things, and
passions that lead to defense of the status quo.