Hood Games: Stop clearcutting the youth

Posted by Chris Schults (Guest Contributor) at 9:46 AM on 04 Jul 2006

Read more about: websites | TV | sports | California | green building

Over at Treehugger TV, there is a new video about Comet Skateboards (a green 'board manufacturing company) and their community event, Hood Games:

In addition to raising funds and for a sustainably designed skate park in downtown Oakland CA, Comet has collaborated with others to put on Hood Games. Hood Games 4 took place in Oakland, and brought together a truly remarkable gathering of the skateboarders, parents, and friends for a full day of music, art, and of course -- ecofriendly skateboarding!

For more information about Comet Skateboards, check out this InterActivist and this Current TV video. And of course, their website.

For story: Hood Games: Stop clearcutting the youth
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Whole Foods featured in a recent article is EVIL

They may claim to support farmers, however, they certainly don't care for the workers or ethic in society. Grist shouldn't get into the business of pushing their PR campaigns!

Whole Foods CEO Mackey Endorses Cato Book - No More Corporate Crime Prosecutions: Whole Foods CEO Mackey Endorses Cato Book - No More Corporate Crime Prosecutions

Russell Mokhiber writes about the CEO recently profiled on 60 Minutes which did not examine his political orientation. His commentary appears on CommonDreams.org.

Most people who shop at Whole Foods are liberal yuppies.

They have enough money to spend $9 on a pound of cherries.

They believe that shopping for groceries at Whole Foods instead of Safeway or Food Lion or Giant or Wal-Mart is the politically correct thing to do.

They probably believe that the President and CEO of Whole Foods is a liberal like themselves.

They of course would be wrong.

John Mackey is instead a libertarian with right-wing tendencies.

Mackey says that Milton Friedman is his hero.

He's a devotee of Ayn Rand.

He's opposed to national health insurance.

He's a union buster.

And he has recently endorsed a book published by the libertarian Cato Institute whose author concludes that no corporation should ever be prosecuted for crimes - no matter the corporation, no matter the crime.

by frank10b at 12:11 PM on 04 Jul 2006

About the Union Busting

The issue of Whole Foods and it's anti-unionism is a real issue in the retail world (the same applies to Walmart!).

For years, many of the major grocery retailers in the United States have been unionized, ensuring that their workers get access to health care and a living wage (among other things).

The anti-union retailers not only hurt their own workers, but also encourage the union retailers to put the squeeze on their workforces.

There is no need to sacrifice the basic living standards of workers to support healthy food choices. It is not an environmental requirement, but rather the indifference of the upper middle classes to the working and living conditions of their fellow Americans.

patrick

by bookerly at 5:08 PM on 04 Jul 2006

Whole Foods featured in a recent article is EVIL

Of all the retail food outlets Whole Foods should be held to a higher standard. In NYC I once saw the same conventional ag. strawberries for sale at Whole Foods for 7 dollars that one of those overpriced small shops on a street corner had for 3.50! Plus the Whole Foods had a sign in the window trying to explain its position against the empolyees of the store who wanted to vote for a union. Even in NYC their markups are excessive.

Why is the environmental movement soo elitest that it cares nothing for the lives of humans and only for the lives of other animals? Its like the environment without some of the creatures native or naturalized to it!

Is this a move by Grist to wring some money out of Whole Foods? Good luck!

by frank10b at 11:38 PM on 04 Jul 2006
[ Parent ]

caution

Thanks, Frank10B, I shall be sure to proceed with caution when dealing with Whole Foods here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It should be known that they occupy a new ultra-posh tower on Columbus Circle. Entering that building is rather like visiting a museum; or worse, like the Pentagon: everything up for show is intended to shock and awe.

At present, my attitude is hands-off of Whole Foods, until I read a good bill of health from Michael Pollan.

As for cute young divinely agile skateboarders, killing themselves for the sake of glory: well, we weep over all sorts of losses; God knows why they do this; God knows why God allows anything bad to happen to good people; we mourners wrap around ourselves, as did Achilles' mother Thetis, mantles darker-dyed than the darkest purple of the sea; and we compose epic poems in their honor.

Many of them appear, every night or so, at the end of Jim Lehrer's "Honor Roll": people who died in Iraq, believing they were dying for a real cause. Hard to tell their families, their friends, that "defending America" is a bit of a fiction. God bless America, and God bless them. But really, "supporting our troops" does not mean "staying the course," it means voting out of office the irresponsible jerks who got us into Iraq in the first place.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:53 AM on 05 Jul 2006

ADVERTISING POLICY

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