A Healthier CVS

Today, while watching CNN Student News, I learned that CVS will stop selling cigarettes. I have a few things to say about that.

 

On the one hand, I think it’s great that CVS has stopped selling tobacco products. It’s true that cigarettes are not exactly healthy, and CVS is indeed a pharmacy. They have every right to stop selling something proven to cause illnesses. On the other hand, I find it odd that out of every unhealthy thing in their store (soda, candy, alcohol, etc.) they chose to stop selling cigarettes. They are still carrying junk food and other unhealthy things that are more harmful or can cause health problems at a much faster rate. Maybe the owner just really hates the way cigarette smoke smells.

 

Over all, it’s good for them to get rid of unhealthy items in their stores, but it would make more sense to me to start somewhere different. In the CNN article, it said that only 19% of Americans smoke cigarettes, and I have a feeling more than 19% of Americans eat junk food. Also, my 12 year-old person could walk into a CVS and buy fifty pounds of junk food and candy, but I can’t buy a pack of cigarettes, so getting rid of junk food would affect the youth. Maybe replace the candy aisle with healthier snacks. They could replace the alcohol with that weird squeezable applesauce or something.

 

-Grace<3

A Space Shuttle’s New Life

Tuesday, Discovery, a retired space shuttle, landed at Dulles International Airport to begin its new life as a museum exhibit.

 

Discovery was flown all over Washington,D.C., giving the citizens something exciting to tell their families about. It was on its way to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

 

Crowds of people stopped what they were doing and watched the shuttle pass over. They snapped pictures while drivers slowed to observe.

 

While Discovery might not reach the moon, it still has a way to go before the junk yard.

 

-Grace<3

 

 

 

 

Chocolate: How Evil Can It Be?

Part of Grace’s social studies work each week is to find, read, and summarize two articles about current events.  This week she found an article on a topic that is a very big deal in our home…the slavery and child labor used in harvesting cocoa and producing chocolate.  She wanted to share her summary of the article with you.  We hope you’ll join us in refusing to purchase brands that support and use these unforgivable practices.

 

Chocolate is one of America’s favorite candies, but the way it goes from plant to chocolate is more bitter than sweet.

 

About 70 to 75% of the world’s cocoa comes from farms in Africa. At those farms there are about 200,000 children that are forced to grow and harvest cocoa beans. To make matters worse, the average American eats up to 11 pounds of chocolate a year, mostly at Easter and Halloween.

 

Fortunately, some companies are working toward slave-free candy. For example, Hershey’s is  releasing a new line of Hershey’s Bliss that will be slave-free.

 

Also, there are some ways that people can avoid evil chocolate, like looking at the label for symbols like fair trade or rain forest alliance. This means that your chocolate is slave-free. Another way to get slave-free candy is to look at where it came from. If it was grown in Africa, it was probably grown by slaves. If it came from Asia or America, there’s a chance your eating slave-free chocolate.

 

If you want more information on how to get non-evil chocolate, you can look at the article from CNN by clicking this link.  (“The bitter truth behind the chocolate in your Easter basket”)

 

-Grace<3