Where To Buy Fair Trade Chocolate

by Janet Ritz

Given chocolate's status as a conflict substance, it's important to know that ethical (and tasty!) chocolate is readily available. 

Why is this important? 

With Fair Trade chocolate:

•  Forced and abusive child labor practices are prohibited

•  Farmers earn a price that is adequate to meet their basic human needs

•  Environmentally sustainable production methods are required

Where to buy fair trade chocolate and other fair trade goods?

• List of Fair Trade and Organic Chocolate (slave free)

• Fair Trade Chocolate (Global Exchange)

• Fair Trade Certified

• Fair Trade Labeling Organization International

• Fair Trade Federation

• Fair Trade Resource Network (Fair trade flowers)

• Fair Trade Foundation, London

For more links to healthy foods, see resources.

That Age Mocking Super Bowl Ad

by Sherman Yellen

Okay, maybe I’ve lost my sense of humor in my seventies but there’s one Super Bowl ad that I hated, and it’s the one that is getting the most attention.  It featured the elderly but ever game Betty White as a football player who gets tackled and trounced on in the field, only to be transformed into a youthful male player when given some magical energy by a Snicker candy bar.  The joke ad has an additional payoff when the young player is tackled again and turns into the seriously old Abe Vigoda.  

What’s the ad saying?  That it’s a young man’s worst nightmare to get old, first - God help him - as an old woman, then as a decrepit old man, both lying in the mud,  looking weak and ridiculous - only to be rescued by the magic of cheap chocolate covered candy – one that is sure to rot his teeth and his mind.    I can see the geniuses at the ad agency thinking that one up.  Gramps and Grandma tackled, roughed up and lying face down in the mud  - the decrepit duo knocked down and messed up by young football players – America’s gonna love that one.  Well, here’s an American who didn’t.   Continued...

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Barack Obama, Please Stay Home--Healthcare Reform is Dying To Hear From You

By Terry J. Leach, R.N. Esq.

Barack Obama, welcome home. Now, please stay home. We need your undivided attention, and brilliance. We need your ability to connect with the American people. We need your wisdom to elevate the parochial concerns of lawmakers facing re-election next year, to craft something many American presidents have tried to do, without success.


Those of you with insurance who think you don’t have a dog in this fight: Listen up. Your health care costs are rising three times faster than your wages for a reason. For every 1% uptick in the unemployment rate, approximately 1 million Americans stand to lose their health insurance. Uninsured folks still receive medical care; only it’s expensive care, typically provided in the emergency department, when the problem is more extensive, and therefore, more expensive, than it should have been. Those of you with healthcare insurance---you and your employers are footing this bill through cost-shifting so you need to care, because employers are facing tough decisions: Get rid of your job or your health insurance, or raise your out-of-pocket costs…again. Or all of the above. You need to pay attention to what’s being hawked by insurance companies and, unfortunately, some lawmakers who cannot, or will not take the time to get into the weeds as proposals are coming out of Congress that could further segment the urban poor from everyone else. Continued...

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