The Price of Ignorance

We went out to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for lunch today. Being the creature of habit that I am, I was going to order my usual: a vegetarian enchilada with a spinach, mushroom and squash filling.

Txrad suggested I ask them about their spinach supply or consider ordering something different. When our waitress came to take our orders, I asked for the veggie enchilada, and to inject a little humor I added, "and could I get that without the E. coli?"

The waitress had no idea we were in the midst of an E. Coli outbreak linked to spinach. I suppose I take for granted all the news I know since I read at least two papers every morning and then sit here at my desk reading news for several hours each day. However, I was alarmed that a waitress in a restaurant would not have been exposed to this news either via the web, a newspaper, a televised newscast, or as a last resort, by restaurant management.

The more I thought about this, I wondered how many millions of people in the country were unaware of, or could care less about... other critical news.

If you wondered why Bush seems to be driving this one hard, check out the video on the C&L link. It's enough to give you watery diarrhea and bloody stools.

cross-posted at B3