Vegetarian

 
 Updated today 2/7/2016


Well, its been 3 years and I'm still a Vegetarian. I never thought I could do it but once I make up my mind to do something I usually do. The benefits are, I'm getting slimmer around the waist and I feel much better physically. Its taking too much time to lose the weight (like I want everything done yesterday) but my stomach is really disappearing and I'm not as tired. I have lost a few pounds of fat around my waist line. (34 inch waist line now) I do not miss eating meat. They make all sorts veggie burgers and food for us. Its a big market and getting bigger.
        When I was very young I asked my Dad what was in a hot dog? He was a part time butcher at the A and P (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company) supermarket before it was called a supermarket. It was more of a neighborhood market on our street. I remember walking to the store when I was very young by myself, when the streets were safe to see what and how he did the meat. I remember thinking that. “How he did the meat” At the time you could eat meat safely because it was just meat. It wasn't injected with steroids, hormones and chemicals and the livestock wasn’t fed tainted grain. It was a time when they butchered the cows and pigs with a reasonable semblance of dignity, if there is such a thing. I said, and I don't know why? When I was very young I was painfully curious like most kids are. The "How comes" and "Whys" were part of my vocabulary. I said and I remember saying this , "Dad what's in a hot dog"? He said, after a moments hesitation he said, "Lorenzo, they put anything and everything they can sell on a cow". (Now I realize what that is.) He went on to say, "They don't waste anything". I said, Oh, but how do they make them? How come it looks like that? Pointing at them in the from behind the counter in the show case. I was so short I could barely see over that wooden cutting board into the show case behind the counter. He hesitated, and did have a look on his face like. Should I tell him this stuff? Well, he did tell me that guts are intestines and they are stuffed with ground up cow parts. I don’t want to say what parts but if you think about that today and how its all about making money you can just imagine.
        A year or so later I seen my Grandfather making Genoa Salami in the cellar of his house from a butchered pig. As time went on I have vivid memories of my Grandmother killing a very young Lamb in the garage for Christmas dinner and hearing it scream. I watched her as she held it upside down to drain the blood out of its slit throat into a pot. I can still remember my Aunt Mary chasing me out of the garage. I have never in my life eaten Lamb or Sheep after seeing that.
        That was years ago and now with the way they mass produce chicken, cattle and pigs and the way they slaughter them I will never eat meat again. The Beef and Pigs are injected with growth hormones to mass produce them. The same thing with Chickens. They are locked in small cages suffering and crying used only for their eggs and then slaughtered for fast food nuggets. Believe me they mince and feed you everything on that chicken including the fat and skin. It’s the same with fish. Did you ever see how they make fish sticks? The same as hot dogs. They grind up every thing they cut off the fish including the eyes and guts...The oceans are poisoned with Mercury. Remember the Mercury warnings? They don’t tell you that anymore. Its worse now. Now its oil, radiation and what ever else they dump in the ocean. Don’t you ever believe that they care because they don’t. Remember when you could trust the producers of food. Well don’t! Look at all the over weight people from eating McDonald’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy’s limping around this country. Believe me, No one cares! I call them the FFF’s …. Fast Food Fat…