We're 43rd, we're 43!

Arkansas is ranked 43rd among the 50 states in terms of the health of its residents. Washington State is 10th. I can totally see that. Here, in the natural state, the majority of people do not seem to go outdoors except to hunt things. OK, OK, that is a gross exaggeration, I am sure. But it is true that on all of the hikes Benjamin and I have gone on so far in this state, we have never encountered more than a handful of people, not even on the overnight hike. That is almost unheard of on many hikes in Washington. And I am sure the legacy of Southern cooking doesn't help either. Hush puppies, biscuits in gravy, sweet tea, fried catfish...I am making myself hungry. There is a surprising (to me anyway) abundance of locally grown food in Arkansas, but it seems that not enough people have access to it, or know about it. When Wal-Mart is the best grocery store in town, something is wrong with your food culture.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I don't exactly see why Arkansas can't move up the ladder a bit more: there are lots of places to get outdoors and exercise, and there are lots of opportunities for good, healthy food. Here in Little Rock there is a good medical school, so we should have enough doctors and nurses. More money for preventative measures (and people willing to be given those measures instead of seeing them as an imposition on their "freedom") would help. But, it takes some effort and will to change a culture, and one lone liberal voice blogging in the wilderness isn't going to cut it.

Addendum: Texas is 46th! Huh. Well, I guess we have a smaller population here in AR, so less infectious disease? Check out the survey for yourself at America's Health Rankings 2008.

An ugly alternate world

When we first decided to move to Arkansas, I knew that we were moving somewhere unlike anywhere we had lived before. Somewhere more conservative, somewhere in the Bible belt, somewhere with a very dark racist past. But I didn't know just how backwards people here could be. The local/state paper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, ran a story on Friday about a motel owner in the town of Huntsville who is flying a Confederate battle flag in protest of Barack Obama's election victory. He says it is because Obama is a Marxist, and has abandoned the (so-called) Christian values of the founders, not because Obama is black. But the (so-called) Christian founders (TJ for one was not Christian - he was a Deist) enshrined slavery in the Constitution, so their values do include racism. And how in the world can anyone believe that Obama is Marxist? He isn't even that liberal, as far as liberals go. (Well, I'll tell you how - they just don't pay attention to reality.)

As if that were not enough, the paper has had numerous letters-to-the-editor from people who are angry that anyone would criticise the motel owner. Apparently, anyone who does so is anti-Christian, anti-American, anti-Bible, and so on and so forth. Huh? I think Jesus would be highly offended by the use of a racist and hurtful symbol against anyone. I think that people who say otherwise are blinded by their own arrogance and ego. Not to mention just plain stupid.

Fabulous Food Frenzy

We had a weekend of good food. It started on Wednesday night, when we had buffalo burgers with homemade buns (courtesy of the bread machine and Benjamin). They weren't anything that special, but they were fresh, didn't have any high fructose corn syrup in them, and were made with love (aww...). Thursday, we had an organic, pastured chicken, raised less than 150 miles from Conway. We even know the farmer. It was very good - moist and tasty - and I bet it could walk around without falling over, unlike factory farmed chickens. We also had a homemade apple crostata, made with locally grown apples. Friday, we went over to Vicki and Clayton's for a post-Thanksgiving feast of bison steaks, cous-cous salad, homemade foccacio, and pumpkin pie made from a sugar pie pumpkin. Saturday we had grilled cheese sandwiches using locally produced raw milk cheddar. All this was capped off on Sunday with green chile tacos - made with locally grown poblanos, the left-0ver chicken from Thursday, and homemade tortillas. Yes, I made corn tortillas from scratch. It was a lot easier than I would have guessed. And I am making stock from the chicken carcass - it smells great. Next weekend, we plan to make chicken tortilla soup. Ahh...food.