Letter to a friend

Boy, now you've gone and wound me up...

As far as cigarettes go, I don't think the California mentality of avoidance at all cost is a good idea. This only creates the necessity for rebellion. If a smoker is seen as a rebel then by nature, soon many people will smoke. This paradigm never reverses because there will always be enough religious zealots and health freaks to keep the rebels rebellious. A healthier approach is to consider tobacco what it is: a mild natural drug that, like most drugs is bad for you in quantity and ceases to be any fun anyway. Occasionally, however, it gives you a fantastic calming rush to the head. I'm having about 1-2 a month on average. I try to smoke them on top of mountains or on my back porch listening to the stream ripple by. I refuse to give money to American tobacco companies, though. They need no encouragement. The cigarette break can be sublime. I prefer the coffee break but I'll admit that Architecture (school) and coffee are like natural mates. Not unlike coffee and cigarettes (sans jarmusch's dumb ass)
And now that i'm going you'll have to bear me out.
McDonald's is maligned more than perhaps they should be. They never have been the least healthy fast food alternative. Just the most successful. I disagree with their practices regarding animal treatment but that has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the greed-based system that is capitalist democracy. That in conjunction with a nation wealthy enough that a microscopic percentage have any dealing with the food we eat pre- cooking, combine to create a system that values efficiency above humanity. If we had to kill our own meat there'd be more vegetarians and a lot more humane ways of putting an animal to the blade. I'm no animal rights activist, I just think things should be done well.
Walmart is dangerous because they are nearing the point where they can dictate what we buy simply by carrying nothing else. Remember their "Made in the USA" campaign of the mid nineties? They claimed only to sell american made products unless there really was no alternative. They did a good job of it until they ran most of their competitors into the ground. Have you looked around there lately? Hardly any american goods to be found. This is because in most american towns, there is no longer an option. There is no other place to shop. People take what they can get even though it's their very own jobs they're screwing themselves out of rather than drive the, in most cases super long, distances it would require to come across a real alternative. Also, these are the same people who are becoming poorer at a fast clip (because their jobs are in mexico and now they have to work for wal mart) so they can only afford to pay the lowest possible price to get the goods they need. What can these people do? Not much now. I would argue that people who really are poor have few choices but to buy where they can. Once a person does have some discretionary spending money, however, i feel like it's their duty to shop elsewhere if for no ther reason than to keep our options from homogenizing any more than they have. I have spent most of my life being poor (compared to americans, not the chinese) so i too am in the habit of buying shit from walmart. now that i have a little more money though, i'm trying to stop; to buy in town; to use other options. i dont ever want to be in the position where walmart controls what is available to me.
how's that for rambling. i should write this somewhere else rather than make you read it all. i shoul d put up a blog or some shit. feel free to tell me i dont know what i'm talking about. you'd probably be right.-m