Is secrecy ethical? Is secrecy necessary? There are many reasons for secrecy; but are they all covered by the same reasoning? The best answer to a difficult question is to leave it open. It’s only when you close the door to questioning; that you open the door to oppression.
Cornithaca County’s “One thought, One taught – One voice, One choice” attitude is the essence of the oppression.
In these days of bashing for self-interest and self-profit — it’s time for some old-school bashing of those who profit at the expense of others. Cornithaca County has more corruption than you can shake a stick at . . . but give it a shot; you’ll feel better.
There’s a very simple [or maybe even stupid] answer to this page. Think outside the book . . . or look at the Solutions page [not included in this post.]
The brittle and harsh tone is meant to remove the comfort that would be natural in this setting.
Industrial agriculture is always unmoved and unchanged by the natural world, “like plastic bottles on the sea,” until, through its increasingly impervious influence; it changes the natural world itself.
It’s a world without beauty; permitted by an age without memory.
This singsong poem is a reprint of the end piece from Family Farm Fun. It’s the kind of repetitious word use that dispels fears. A rant that creates an obstruction, and reinforces the speaker’s beliefs against any threatening idea or thought.
The change in typeface is intended to slow the reader’s recognition and present the words like dropped stones.
In this CAFO version of the sing-a-long, the number keeps on increasing. 40,000 cow CAFOs already exist. Where will it end? 80,000 . . . 100,000?
Locally; the few remaining traditional farms and factory farms alike are being ploughed under as the biggest CAFO in New York State is continuing to spread like a shit stain across the rural landscape. It’s only a mile away.
I tried to keep what I loved about the flow of this great poem, and paint on some of what I hate about the flow of “nutrient” toxic waste. I think the addition of color effectively sets the mood for this reprint of the black and white version in Family Farm Fun.
This is the ninth song for “Bigotry: The Musical” so far. There are probably 6 or 7 more to complete the book. I’ve divided the songs into 3 acts and the plot line has become clearer: a rural couple are forced off their land by bureaucrats and are resettled into an urban world of subsidized poverty – jobless, powerless, and surrounded by criminals; they must try to survive the establishment of a secular theocracy.
As a kid; I looked through a book of sketches made by an army soldier in the South Pacific during WWII. Many of the drawings featured dead bodies; and the air around them was always filled with flies.
In rural Cornithaca County; flies, factory farms and death are certainties, but factory farms and death are never linked together. The high rural cancer rate is counted as a “lifestyle” issue.
A respirator that would once have been worn in a joke about barn odors; is now a life-saving protection from liquid manure off-gassing.
I remember an incident where a home exploded due to a natural gas leak. The leak was in a neighboring house; but the heavier-than-air gas flowed down into a lower level where it collected and ignited.
Factory Farms occupy a high ground of money, influence, and legal cronyism — so you know what flows downhill to their rural neighbors.
While I’m writing this; I keep hearing in the back of my mind: Jumping Jack Crack it’s a gas, gas, gas . . .
