Fries with that?
Little Mac had skipped lunch in the school cafeteria so he could buy a Fun Meal on his way home. Learning the multiplication tables was hard. He thought he deserved a break today.
On his way to O’Connells Little Mac was bounding along merrily thinking cheeseburger and fries when he was startled by a strange sight. An open fire hydrant was gushing forth water but the ground under the hydrant was completely dry. The grass, the sidewalk, the street. Nothing was getting wet. Still the hydrant gushed.
When God saw Little Mac gaping at the strange sight, God called to him from the hydrant, “Little Mac! Little Mac!”
And Little Mac said, “Here am I.”
“Do not come closer,” God said. “Take off your Nikes, for the place you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of Frederick Douglas, the God of Lao Tzu and Harriet Beecher Stowe, of Rachel Carson, Bob Dylan and Maya Angelou.
At this Little Mac hid his face, because he didn’t have a clue who these people were.
The Lord continued, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people caused by O’Connells lack of concern for the environment. I have heard O’Connells employees crying out for liveable wages and better working conditions. So now, Little Mac, go home and tell your people.”
Little Mac protested, “I want to be happy. I want an O’Connells Fun Meal.”
The Lord commanded, “Look at the billboard across the street and tell me what you see.”
Little Mac looked and answered the Lord, “I see a beautiful tropical rainforest filled with colorful birds and wild animals roaming free.”
The Lord spoke, “The trees of the Amazon contain 140 billion tons of carbon equivalent to approximately 14 decades of global, annual, human induced carbon emissions. The Amazon is home to one out of every five mammal, fish, bird and tree species in the world. Approximately eight trillion tons of water evaporate from Amazon forests each year, with enormous impact on global atmospheric circulation. The rainfall entering the Amazon basin flows into the Atlantic Ocean and is 20% of the worldwide continental freshwater runoff.* Now look at the billboard again.”
Little Mac shook with fright, “I see horrible monstrous machines knocking down trees and scrapping the land bare of plants and frightened animals and birds fleeing for safety.”
The Lord spoke, “Up to 91% of Amazon destruction is for livestock or livestock feed. Each year, O’Connells buys as much as 1.9 billion pounds of beef that it packs into patties for millions of Fun Meals and other beefy sandwiches that requires the company’s suppliers to slaughter over 7 million cattle, and that comes at a steep cost to the environment. Raising cattle is an undue burden on the Earth because the industry pollutes the land, consumes excessive amounts of water and spurs deforestation.** Now when you pass O’Connells tell me what you see and hear. I will be with you.”
As Little Mac approached the home of the Fun Meal he saw angry protesters outside the restaurant marching and bearing signs that read Fight for Fifteen.
Then the Lord spoke for the last time. “Rather than attempt finding a compromise with workers O’Connells is spending money spying on them. Employees who seek higher wages and a reasonable work environment have been branded as "security threats.” Despite decades of efforts to unionize, O’Connells workers still don't have bargaining rights. O’Connells has been actively monitoring employees it believes are involved in organizing. This includes analyzing their social media. ***
A sadder but wiser Little Mac walked on home with an empty stomach, his cafeteria lunch money still in his pocket, but determined to tell all his friends the truth about the not so Fun Meal deal at O’Connells.
*Berkley University 11/10/15 Indira Joshi
**Guardian US 12/10/21 Tom Perkins
***INPUT.2/24/21 Mehreen Kasana
