Dr.Who
Well-Known Member
Jefferson said in different language that it is the nature of government to expand it's power and for individual rights to decrease. He was right two hundred years ago and he is just as right today. He was right when they made sodomy laws and he was right when they censored books and he is right as they are making the law described later in this post. This is why I think it is important for everyone to champion all rights and not just their own. It is equally important for people to actually understand what a right is so that they are not duped into championing a cause presented in the name of rights that actually decreases rights. The right you champion today no matter how small or irrelevant to your life is the blockade to the erosion of your own most cherished rights.
Take for example the small battle taking place not on the US Federal scene, not in the courts, and not even in the legislature, but in a committee in Illinois:
In Illinois there is a committee comprised of a majority of large diary representatives who make the rules which will be enforced by the Department of Public Health. These rules need not have any relationship to public health nor even to make sense. They only need to make life better for those who make the rules regardless of how it effects those who must submit to the rules and regardless of the principles that are violated.
One such rule being proposed now is that certain diary farmers must sell no more than 100 gallons of milk per month. Clearly the intent is to make it impossible for a small dairy operation to exist since if it sells less than one hundred gallons it could would have to close and if it sells more than 100 gallons it would have to become a large scale operation rather than a mom and pop type cottage industry. Do we want an economy in which the only businesses that exist are the large corporations? Or do we want an economy in which there are all sorts of business models each offering whatever product they and their customers think best. This rule would drive small operations out of business and limit consumer choice to drinking milk produced by mega corporations or not drinking milk at all in some cases if a person does not like the large scale product.
We here on House of Politics are a small community of politically active web posters and even when we disagree we do all find value in each other more than one would expect. I have posted this in the US politics section because it does in fact reflect on major policies in the realm of US politics. However, this also, as indicated in the example, is about local politics and even about the individual lives of a small number of people who would be effected by the rule, including your friend - me.
Here are some more details: The super large corporations have been pasteurizing milk for a bit less than a hundred years now and when you operate a dirty disease ridden dairy that pasteurization is a wonderful life saving thing. For the thousands of years before pasteurization humanity drank their milk raw with all of its enzymes, vitamins and pro-biotics intact. Today they make milk that can sit in a box on a shelf for six months and not go bad and people think that is good for them. You may not agree with me that this milk is unfit to drink but I am not asking you to agree. Drink whatever you want but please help me to make my own choices about what I am going to drink. In contrast to the milk that sits on a shelf for six months consider human breastmilk for babies. When a human mother is healthy and disease free her breastmilk is the best thing a baby could drink and in comparison when cow's milk is created by healthy cows it is just as safe. The pasteurization is not important at all if the milk starts out clean - it is only important when the milk starts out dirty. Do you disagree? Then by all means buy your milk at the gas station, I won't stop you.
Some time ago, as an experiment, my wife tried some raw milk to see if it would help with an autoimmune disorder she has. Unfortunately, it did not. However, we did discover that the milk from the breed of cow at that dairy had a great and wonderful impact on my son's health. The great thing about the milk was not even that it was raw but that it came from Guernsey cows rather than from the Holstein cows that are milked by 99% of the dairies in this country. Our choice for our family was simple - stop drinking milk from Holstein cows and buy all of our milk from a local dairy despite the one hour drive to get it and the three times higher price tag. Yes it is coincidentally raw and yes it is coincidentally organic. And yes raw milk in this country has captured about 5% of the market share of all milk sold. Which is why those who sell milk in bulk are getting worried. Which is why they want to make rules that would have no benefit at all in improving the quality of milk but would drive small dairies out of business and in the process of creating one-size-fits-all rules harm what is at present about 5% of milk drinkers by denying them their choice.
I believe those who see dangers in large mega corporations and the control they have over our legal system should want to help. I believe that those who call themselves Libertarians or Conservatives or Liberals should want to help. I believe that those who value some right of someone should want to help. And I believe that those who value the principle that rights in general are important should want to help. This is not just a small matter effecting a small group of people in Illinois - this is an example that is one part of a national problem.
I hope that I have influenced some of you to see that there is a slow creeping expansion of government power which is not always about creating better government but is just as often about creating more powerful mega corporations. I hope that many of you will become more politically active on the national level and that is an intent of this thread. I also hope that some of you who are my friends or simply champion rights will send an email to Molly Lamb, the Chief of IDPH's Division of Food, Drugs and Dairies. Ask her to leave the law the way it is now and NOT to issue a regulation on raw milk. If she sees that this is not an issue cared about ONLY by the very few who drink raw milk; that it is cared about by people of other views, she may change her mind. her email address is molly.lamb@illinois.gov. Consider this email to be an act in support of a national issue of your choosing.
Take for example the small battle taking place not on the US Federal scene, not in the courts, and not even in the legislature, but in a committee in Illinois:
In Illinois there is a committee comprised of a majority of large diary representatives who make the rules which will be enforced by the Department of Public Health. These rules need not have any relationship to public health nor even to make sense. They only need to make life better for those who make the rules regardless of how it effects those who must submit to the rules and regardless of the principles that are violated.
One such rule being proposed now is that certain diary farmers must sell no more than 100 gallons of milk per month. Clearly the intent is to make it impossible for a small dairy operation to exist since if it sells less than one hundred gallons it could would have to close and if it sells more than 100 gallons it would have to become a large scale operation rather than a mom and pop type cottage industry. Do we want an economy in which the only businesses that exist are the large corporations? Or do we want an economy in which there are all sorts of business models each offering whatever product they and their customers think best. This rule would drive small operations out of business and limit consumer choice to drinking milk produced by mega corporations or not drinking milk at all in some cases if a person does not like the large scale product.
We here on House of Politics are a small community of politically active web posters and even when we disagree we do all find value in each other more than one would expect. I have posted this in the US politics section because it does in fact reflect on major policies in the realm of US politics. However, this also, as indicated in the example, is about local politics and even about the individual lives of a small number of people who would be effected by the rule, including your friend - me.
Here are some more details: The super large corporations have been pasteurizing milk for a bit less than a hundred years now and when you operate a dirty disease ridden dairy that pasteurization is a wonderful life saving thing. For the thousands of years before pasteurization humanity drank their milk raw with all of its enzymes, vitamins and pro-biotics intact. Today they make milk that can sit in a box on a shelf for six months and not go bad and people think that is good for them. You may not agree with me that this milk is unfit to drink but I am not asking you to agree. Drink whatever you want but please help me to make my own choices about what I am going to drink. In contrast to the milk that sits on a shelf for six months consider human breastmilk for babies. When a human mother is healthy and disease free her breastmilk is the best thing a baby could drink and in comparison when cow's milk is created by healthy cows it is just as safe. The pasteurization is not important at all if the milk starts out clean - it is only important when the milk starts out dirty. Do you disagree? Then by all means buy your milk at the gas station, I won't stop you.
Some time ago, as an experiment, my wife tried some raw milk to see if it would help with an autoimmune disorder she has. Unfortunately, it did not. However, we did discover that the milk from the breed of cow at that dairy had a great and wonderful impact on my son's health. The great thing about the milk was not even that it was raw but that it came from Guernsey cows rather than from the Holstein cows that are milked by 99% of the dairies in this country. Our choice for our family was simple - stop drinking milk from Holstein cows and buy all of our milk from a local dairy despite the one hour drive to get it and the three times higher price tag. Yes it is coincidentally raw and yes it is coincidentally organic. And yes raw milk in this country has captured about 5% of the market share of all milk sold. Which is why those who sell milk in bulk are getting worried. Which is why they want to make rules that would have no benefit at all in improving the quality of milk but would drive small dairies out of business and in the process of creating one-size-fits-all rules harm what is at present about 5% of milk drinkers by denying them their choice.
I believe those who see dangers in large mega corporations and the control they have over our legal system should want to help. I believe that those who call themselves Libertarians or Conservatives or Liberals should want to help. I believe that those who value some right of someone should want to help. And I believe that those who value the principle that rights in general are important should want to help. This is not just a small matter effecting a small group of people in Illinois - this is an example that is one part of a national problem.
I hope that I have influenced some of you to see that there is a slow creeping expansion of government power which is not always about creating better government but is just as often about creating more powerful mega corporations. I hope that many of you will become more politically active on the national level and that is an intent of this thread. I also hope that some of you who are my friends or simply champion rights will send an email to Molly Lamb, the Chief of IDPH's Division of Food, Drugs and Dairies. Ask her to leave the law the way it is now and NOT to issue a regulation on raw milk. If she sees that this is not an issue cared about ONLY by the very few who drink raw milk; that it is cared about by people of other views, she may change her mind. her email address is molly.lamb@illinois.gov. Consider this email to be an act in support of a national issue of your choosing.