Sunday, December 2, 2018

"Lettuce all Romaine calm..." An interpretation of CNN article by Adelaide Willert

"Is it now safe to eat romaine lettuce? Not yet, FDA says"

According to a recent CNN article written by Ashley Strickland, the FDA has not given the official "OK" to eat romaine lettuce after it was discovered that many of the E. coli cases popping up in the United States and Canada were linked to this type of lettuce. Thus far, 43 people across 12 states have contracted E. coli in the recent outbreak, as well as an additional 22 in Canada. Research has shown that the outbreak could be related to the romaine being produced at the end of the season and/or where it has been produced (mainly in the northern and central parts of California, and some regions in Mexico).

Now here's what I find interesting. Four people - so far - have died as a result of this E. coli outbreak. 65 people have contracted the virus. 13,381 people have been killed and 25,863 have been injured in shootings, just in the United States in 2018. As we are nearing the end of the year, I think we all need to take a long, hard look at what we have in front of us. The shootings of immigrants, the use of tear gas for torture, the tens of thousands of deaths from shootings, and, lest we forget the most important of all of these, the terrible tragedy of the banning of romaine lettuce.

All sarcasm aside, we do need to look at what's in front of us. Four people die from romaine lettuce, and no one can eat it for weeks, possibly months, but when hundreds of thousands of people die from shootings across decades, our president denies that guns are the problem when it comes to shootings. What are we doing?

8 comments:

  1. I agree with you. After all of the shootings that we have had and continue to have that kill many innocent people everyday, people in power still seem to think that gun control is unnecessary. That’s completely absurd. This was an excellent connection to other historical events! Lily Philips

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  2. Chloe Meinershagen - I really appreciate your satirical look at what Americans value most. Awesome analysis!

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  3. Great blog, I like the point of view you took on the shootings.

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  4. Wow, Great analysis! I never thought of it that way, your right.

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  5. this was really well written and i agree with your analysis. i really enjoyed your point of view of this and connecting it to the continuous shootings.- gracie zytynski

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  6. I agree with you soo much! Some problems are just swept under the bus, and never addressed. Gun violence has been a huge issue for such a long time, yet somehow none of the significant officials have addressed this matter. And yet, out of all the other natural disasters, terrorism, shooting, bombs, etc... we care about the romaine lettuce.

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  7. You are so right when you say how insane this is. Yes, the fact that people have died from eating lettuce, an act none would even think twice about, is a tragedy. But we, as a nation, cannot continue to ignore the truth that gun violence is widespread and nothing long term has been put in place to curb it.

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  8. This is a really interesting take on this issue. I never even thought of it like this!

    Mary Kate Madden

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