The Red Cross and Self Reliance

The importance of being self reliant during an emergency should be obvious to every mature person.
Hikingware.com reminds you that in time of disaster your first line of help should be your own resources. This means having sufficient emergency food storage to last at least several weeks, as well as has having basic necessities such as a source of light and heat, some emergency camping gear, and a compact medical kit for injuries, accidents, and illness.

Some people believe that they don't need to prepare for emergencies; that they will be taken care of by the Red Cross or some government agency. This is a dangerous assumption. Even a great organization like the American Red Cross cannot be on the scene immediately.

And in case you are unaware of what the Red Cross does do, here is a brief history:

Just days after the first local chapter of the American Red Cross was established in Dansville, NY on August 22, 1881, the American Red Cross jumped into its first disaster relief operation when they responded to devastation caused by major forest fires in Michigan.

The American Red Cross continued to aid victims of fires, floods, and hurricanes over the next several years; however, their role grew during the 1889 Johnstown flood when the American Red Cross set up large shelters to temporarily house those dislocated by the disaster. Sheltering and feeding continue to this day to be the largest responsibilities of the Red Cross immediately following a disaster.

On June 6, 1900, the American Red Cross was given a congressional charter that mandated the organization to fulfill the provisions of the Geneva Convention, by rendering aid to those wounded during war, providing communication between family members and members of the U.S. military, and administering relief to those affected by disasters during peacetime. The charter also protects the Red Cross emblem (a red cross on a white background) for use only by the Red Cross.

On January 5, 1905, the American Red Cross received a slightly revised congressional charter, under which the organization still operates today. Though the American Red Cross has been given this mandate by Congress, it is not a federally funded organization; it is a non-profit, charitable organization that receives its funding from public donations.

After World War II, the American Red Cross established a civilian blood collection service in 1948, has continued to offer aid to victims of disasters and wars, added classes for CPR, and in 1990 added a Holocaust & War Victims Tracing and Information Center.

Americans should indeed be proud of what the American Red Cross has done in the past to help victims of disaster, but controversy and rumors of mismanagement of funds haunt the organization.

"The Red Cross, due to its size, has had issues with efficiency in the past," said Ken Berger, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which evaluates non-profit organizations.

After the attack on the World Trade Center, the Red Cross confronted public outrage when the media learned of plans to divert donations to the Red Cross Liberty Disaster Fund for other purposes, forcing the Red Cross to backtrack. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the Red Cross was blamed for poor coordination of relief efforts.

Local Red Cross chapters have been victims of embezzlement. And ten years ago the Red Cross had to turn to Congress for a $100 million infusion after its emergency response fund was depleted.

Today, of every dollar donated, the American Red Cross says 91 cents goes toward aid, while nine cents covers the cost of running the non-profit, including salaries, administration, and fundraising.

Should you turn to the Red Cross for help during an emergency? Of course, if they are offering help in your vicinity. But remember, they, and other such organizations, my not be able to get into your area, depending on the nature and extent of the emergency.

Your first line of defense against disaster and emergency should always be your own food supplies and emergency kits.

Ben Franklin, in his famous Poor RIchard's Almanac, wisely said: "We depend on others at our peril if we cannot depend on ourselves."

And they see as they are seen

" . . . and they see as they are seen . . . "  Doctrine & Covenants 76:94.

I'm strangers with myself, as well as others all around.
Wearing masks, we stumble on the unbecoming ground.
But someday Christ will loose the scales; our eyesight will reveal
all we truly have become and all that's bedrock real.
Till then, O Lord, give me soft counsel to avoid the Pit
(or maybe with a two-by-four you'll need my soul to hit . . . )

How Safe is Your Food Storage?

Hikingware.com offers only the best, top quality food storage from Augason Farms. Their products are the gold standard of the food storage industry.
But what about other food storage companies? How safe is their product? The FDA has oversight over food storage production facilities, and recently they announced some disturbing news:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently sent warning letters to owners of two food storage warehouses — one in Minneapolis, MN, and one in Chester, PA.

Lavella BrothersFDA’s Philadelphia District Office told Lavella Brothers in a warning letter that “significant violations” of Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations were noted during a May 4-26 inspection of the company’s multiple food warehouse at 723 W. Third St., in Chester, PA.

These violations included not using safe water of adequate sanitary quality on food and food-contact surfaces and for other operations, FDA stated.

“Specifically, our investigator observed that your firm did not have running water in either the ladies or men’s restrooms used by employees,” the agency informed the company. “Further, the toilets and hand washing sinks were not functioning, and there are no other sinks in your facility. We note that you informed our investigator that you shut-off the water supply due to a leak in the piping that runs under the foundation of the building, and that there has been no water in the restrooms since January 2016.”

Lavella Brothers notified FDA on May 23 that water had been restored to the restrooms for use in toilets and hand-washing sinks, but the federal agency was not mollified.

“However, we continue to have concerns because this correction is a temporary fix and the water supply is being turned on and off at the main water supply line and the leak in the system has not been repaired. Further, we have serious concerns that your firm has been operating under these insanitary conditions since January 2016 and you only took action as a result of our inspection,” the warning letter stated.

FDA also had issues with inadequate cleaning of food-contact surfaces and utensils at the facility and inadequate measures to exclude pests from the processing area.

“On May 4, 5, 12, and 13 an orange and white cat was moving freely throughout the warehouse. Further, you informed our investigator that the cat was from outside and that you allowed it to enter the building,” the warning letter stated.

Rodent excreta was observed in the facility near stored food, according to FDA. The company informed the agency’s investigator that there had not been any pest control services performed in the facility for some time due to cost concerns, the warning letter noted.

Rusted equipment, wood and debris were seen within the immediate vicinity of the plant buildings, which “may constitute an attractant, breeding place, or harborage for pests,” the agency stated.

What appeared to be a “black moldy substance” was observed on the walls of two produce coolers, causing a “musty smell,” plus one produce cooler’s thermometer was not operational, FDA stated, acknowledging that the company later installed a working thermometer.

Now honestly, would you want to buy your food storage from that company?

Dreamland Trading Inc.In a June 29 warning letter, FDA’s Minneapolis District Office informed Dreamland Trading Inc. that agency inspectors had found numerous CGMP violations at its imported food storage warehouse and distribution facility at 3912 Dight Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

The inspection, conducted from April 29 to May 18 revealed that the violations could impact the safety of imported food products such as rice, pasta, packaged juices, edible oils, tea, spices and dates.

“On May 6, 2016, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) placed an embargo on food products held in your facility,” the letter stated. The company submitted a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) May 24, which was revised twice in response to subsequent letters from FDA.

However, FDA’s letter continued, “You stated that these activities will take place after the release of the embargo by MDA, and the destruction and reconditioning process is completed under the supervision of your GMP consultant. Your CAP failed to address the actions you will take to prevent recurrence of the violations.”

Problems observed during the FDA inspection included failure to take effective measures to exclude pests and to protect against contamination of food by pests on the premises as required by federal regulations, the warning letter stated.

“On April 29, 2016, the investigators observed a dead mouse on sticky paper against the south wall of the North Warehouse,” FDA stated, adding that inspectors had seen rodent excreta pellets, apparent gnaw holes and nesting material where bags or pallets of Basmati Rice from India or Aged Rice from Pakistan were being stored.

Gaps in overhead dock doors and main doors were noted, with “daylight observed beneath each gap.” The company had done some work to alleviate these problems, FDA stated.

“Despite these corrections, the investigators observed daylight between the bottom of the doors and the concrete aprons when the doors were shut,” according to the warning letter.

Metal cans containing dates were damaged and leaking, pasta packages were open and inadequately stored, pallets holding stored food had insufficient space between them and the walls, and motion lights in the facility were not working on two different inspection days in May, inspectors reported.

Here is another food storage company that doesn't sound too appetizing -- does it? 

If you would like to be kept up to date on other food storage facility problems and general food recalls, you can subscribe for free to the Food Safety News: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/subscribe/#.V4VjS7grLIV

My First Can of Pork & Beans

"Memories are bubbles that never pop."  Jerry Seinfeld.


In the fall of 1970 I went to live with strangers in a foreign climate. The cumulative realization that I had left the only home I had ever known to gamble my life on a deep-seated whim fell on me one Sunday morning as I was wondering how I was going to eat for the coming week:

I am in Venice, Florida, in an apartment I share with 3 other men at the Venice Villas. A soupy canal runs behind the Villas into the Gulf of Mexico. An alligator in it eats dogs, including the poodle owned by Ruby -- who manages the Venice Villas from her golf cart with a combination of Southern hospitality, suspicion, and gin.

I am from Minnesota, attending the Ringling Clown College. I am 17.

And that Sunday morning I squeeze the tears of anxiety and remorse out of my eyes so I can find someone to tell me what to do with a can of Van Camp's pork and beans. I have nothing else to eat for the rest of the week. I have never opened a can of food before. Not even dog food.

I meet one of my roommates, Phil, on the nearby beach. He tells me to empty the can into a pot, add some ketchup and mustard, heat it up, and eat it with bread and butter.

"No finah meal" he tells me, in his Tennessee drawl.

Phil is a professional ballet dancer. He's tall, and thin to the point of gauntness. He moves with a fluid assurance in pantomime class. He chooses a simple Pierrot white face makeup. I hate him.

I hate all my roommates, and most of my fellow students. They are older, college-wise, and filled with theatrical attainments and ambition. They talk passionately about Vietnam and sex, and they make fun of me because I pick my nose.

And, after I eat my pork and beans, I will have nothing left to eat.

I have money when I come to the Clown College. There is no tuition, but Ruby needs cash for the 8 weeks I'm staying at the Villas. Then I buy makeup, material for clown costumes, clown shoes made of real leather, and rent a bicycle. I buy smoked turkey legs and potato salad at the Winn-Dixie.

What's a budget? I'm rich, with my five hundred dollars that comes from an insurance policy my mother bought when I was born, and cashed in for me when I turned 17.

But now the money's gone and there's still 3 weeks of school to go.

I pour the beans in the pot, stir in half a bottle of Heinz ketchup and most of a bottle of French's mustard. The contents of the pot take on an unhealthy brown appearance. When little bubbles rise to the surface and go 'bloop' I take it off the stove and scrape it into a bowl. I steal bread and butter from my roommates, blushing as I do so although no one else is around. I draw a glass of tap water.

Everyone is down on the beach this Sunday morning. Except me. It's too raucous. A body of water, to me, should be a quiet lake with the scent of pine needles and the sound of mosquitoes whining in the cattails. Water should be a still life. This vast ocean roaring near my door, with gulls screaming and the taint of rotted fish and seaweed, seems crude and threatening.

I was taught to be cautious of loud smelly things.

The pork and beans are inedible. I spit them back into the bowl, then eat the bread and butter.

Disconsolate, I turn on the TV. There's an Abbott and Costello movie playing.

"Ah, this will cheer me up!" I tell myself brightly. But it doesn't. It's one of their later, tired, efforts; almost as indigestible as my pork and beans. I continue watching it, too drained of hope to move.

There is a flimsy knock at the screen door. It's Alice, one of the younger students, like me. Just out of high school. Like me. She doesn't talk about theater or sex. She wants me to come over to help her eat a quiche Lorraine she's made. I don't know what that is, but I'm happy to find out. At her place she lets me talk about anything I want without interruption. Because she doesn't know any more than I do. Is it love, I wonder, to find out that you like somebody?

Suddenly I'm so happy I want to kiss her. But instead I ask for a glass of milk. And she gives it to me, telling me there's nothing better than an ice cold glass of milk. This is better than love -- this is homogenized friendship.

Then her roommates come back from the beach, with a cooler full of fruit and seafood salad. Why don't I stick around and have some with them? Okay, sure.

When I return that evening, full of good food and girl talk, my roommates are eating pizza. Do I want a slice? I want. I wish I were a chipmunk, so I could stuff the cheese and pepperoni into my cheek pouches for later.

For the next 3 weeks there's always food around. From Alice. From my roommates. Ruby brings me oranges on her golf cart. Because, she says, I look kinda scrawny. On my birthday I get 3 different cakes.

How could I not notice all this food around me, and all the people who want to share it? And then my mother sends me twenty dollars. I spend half of it on the biggest bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken I can carry, and pass it out to anybody who wants a piece at the Venice Villas.

So I finally get it.

The people who say there's no such thing as a free lunch are full of crap.

At Fox they want beauty, not brain

At Fox they want beauty, not brain.
It's no place for smart Lois Lane.
But supermen, now,
they've got 'em, and how!
They fly ev'ryplace raising Cain. 

Letter. Sunday, July 3, 2016.

Hey there, Madel Paddle;

Howz by you? Hope everyone is healthy and busy, but not too busy.

I'm finally beginning to feel better. I've had 2 days in a row w/o pain or inconvenience, sleeping well, with a good appetite. It is a glorious blessing, after the last 5 weeks! I now take the Senior bus to and from the Rec Center for my lunch and for swimming -- walking in the sun and heat seems to always trigger something with me, so until the fall I guess I'll just keep using it. It's free, thank goodness.
I think I'll even be able to go to Church today.

This morning I was out on my patio to watch the sun rise over Y Mountain. I tended my little flower garden that the apartment building planted in front of my patio. There are 3 peony bushes, long past bloom but full of seed pods (Lance almost killed the biggest one by jumping on it hysterically several times the last time he was here; but it's recovered, although the stems are mostly on the ground). I pulled some weeds. I've set out an old wooden chair for the morning glory to climb up; I think it's a another weed, not planted by maintenance but sprouted from some wild seed. But the purple flowers are vivid in the morning as it climbs up the chair legs and onto the back. I hope they let me keep it until fall -- they get kinda picky about those kind of things.

Speaking of which . . .
I put up one of my clown signs on my front door -- the one that says "UNEMPLOYED CIRCUS CLOWN. PLEASE HELP PUT ME IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHERE I BELONG". Several old Hispanic ladies have scolded me for it, asking why I am begging for money, it's a shame, why don't I go out and work, etc. And the English speakers are no better. When I was walking through the lobby the other day several of them pounced on me to ask what the sign meant. I tried to explain how it's a bit of satire, but they didn't seem to get it. As soon as the Conventions are over I'll take it down, if the management doesn't ask me to first. I bet some of those old geezers have complained to them about it.

My poetic muse has been in overdrive this week. I went back to count and discovered I've written 27 poems this week alone. I'm not saying they're good poems, but I still think that's quite an achievement for someone who has been as sick as me.

I had your mother over for movies and popcorn Tuesday night; it was over 100 that day and she has no ac, so I invited her over to cool off. We had a good time watching Preston Sturges movies, but she couldn't stop herself from lecturing me about my diet. I didn't let it irritate me, just listened and nodded my head. She did have one good point, though; when I told her how much cranberry juice I was drinking she looked at the bottle and told me it was mostly grape juice, not cranberry juice. And by golly she was right! I was paying a fortune for grape juice, not cranberry juice. So the next time I went shopping for cranberry juice I found the 100% pure stuff. It's super tart; you can't drink it by itself -- so I mix it with orange juice and pineapple juice and lemonade.

I splurged on a small bag of frozen shrimp for my Sunday dinner today. I'll saute it in butter, with onions, garlic, mushrooms, and sliced zucchini to have over vermicelli. With a tall glass of cold pineapple/cranberry juice.  mmmmmm. It's making me hungry already!
Now I think I'll go make bacon and eggs, with lots of buttered toast (and some leftover black beans from dinner last night -- beans go good with bacon & eggs).

Your mother tells me that Ed has been assigned to the submarine U.S.S. Cheyenne, out of Pearl Harbor. But maybe you knew that already. I forgot to put that on FB -- I'll do it after I finish this. It's funny that your mother doesn't use FB. But then, she doesn't have wifi at her apartment.

Take care, my little petunia!  Love, dad.