...Introduction According to the Human Rights Watch, “the meat packing industry is considered as the most dangerous job factory job in America.” (Human Rights Watch, 2005). People employed in slaughterhouses are exposed many types of hazards on a daily basis that can jeopardize their health. Since the 1900s, there has been a significant incline in the demand for meat within the United States, which requires more people to work in production. (2013). A majority of these employees are classified as being a minority, having low socioeconomic status, and living in poverty. The conditions of these slaughterhouses are hazardous and dangerous and many employees are prone to exposure to more diseases due to the high rate of unsanitary factors such as animal bodily fluid on floors, hooks, walls, and tools. Injuries often occur in this work environment are due to quick speeds of the process lines and the amount of time employees are given to slaughter each animal. (Food Empowerment Project, 2014). These employees are also vastly underpaid. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “In May 2012, the median annual wage for slaughterers and meat packers was $24,330. The median annual wage for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers was $22,830 in May 2012.” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). These people endanger their lives every day due to the high volume of work, extended hours, and contact with biological, physical, and chemical agents. This environmental injustice raises...
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...The time preceding, and during, the Progressive Era led to many economic and social changes that greatly affected American society. The Progressives emerged when reacting to problems that were caused by the massive growth of immigrants into large cities. Progressives, at first, concentrated on improving the lives of people and immigrants living in the poorest areas, and then on getting rid of corruption in government. (Constitutional Rights Foundation) Journalists of this time took advantage of the opportunity to show the American people how corrupt many of the health systems were. In 1902, magazine publishers discovered that their sales increased dramatically when they highlighted popular stories of political corruption, corporate misconduct, or other offenses. (Gilder Lehrman Institute) The novelist Upton Sinclair also played a large role during this new era in the fight towards socialism and in exposing the harsh realities the American people were blind to. Socialist Sinclair wrote the highly controversial and appalling novel, The Jungle, after the turn of the century in 1906. His novel bared the cruelty and misconduct of the meatpacking industry and all its components. This ultimately changed the integrity and dynamics of the meat packing industry that are still working today. Sinclair used this novel to show the gruesome realities of the industry and how it affects the lives of immigrants and the American people. Upton Sinclair Jr was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September...
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...After the Pittsburgh Penguins captured the Stanley Cup in 2009, dynasty talk began. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in their prime, lesser known heroes like Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis contributing, a sound goalie in Marc Andre Fleury and a strong defensive core with a growing stockpile of prospects developing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the future looked very bright for the black and gold fresh off of raising the Stanley Cup. But the next six seasons didn't quite work out that way. Even after very strong regular seasons from 2009-2015, the hockey demons haunted the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they were ousted each year before reaching the Finals. Pittsburgh’s playoff struggles culminated after another disappointing end to the 2013-14 season, losing in the second round of the to the New York Rangers after relinquishing a 3-1 series lead. Three days after the series loss to the Rangers, Penguins ownership fired general manager Ray Shero and hired Jim Rutherford to the same position three weeks later. Rutherford began his tenure by ousting head coach Dan Bylsma and bringing in Mike Johnston to replace him. Johnston took over for the Penguins for the full 2014-15 season, which again ended prematurely after falling in the first round to the New York Rangers yet again. Still, Pittsburgh kept Johnston around for the start of the 2015-16 season, where the Penguins' playoff hopes looked dim. Johnston, a defensive-minded head coach, watched the Penguins’...
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...Austin Zimmerman All through United States History, laws and amendments have been passed to benefit the American society and citizens socially, politically and economically. These laws and amendments often have a positive affect on society. Two major laws and amendments that impacted American Society were the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the 19th amendment giving woman rights. The United States industries were all growing in the late 1800’s and this caused the way food was produced to change. Before the industrial revolution most American’s were farming and growing their own food. If they didn’t grow their own then they would get it from a neighbor or small town store. Because it wasn’t easy to preserve food it was generally eaten soon after the animals were slaughtered or the food was harvested. However, with large monopolies forming they began to produce mass amounts of food to sell to the public. With the growth of cities, food had to be sent long distances to get the people in the cities. Food manufactures needed to come up with a way to preserve this food while it is on the long route to get to the cities. They began to hire chemists to find ways to preserve the food, because there were not many laws that dealt with the distribution and preparation of food products they were able to put preservatives in the food. However, if the meat spoiled they would also put a dye in it to make the color back to normal and would sell the spoiled meat. The meat packing industry...
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...The Great Game Called Hockey It is 3-3 going into overtime, it is the Chicago Blackhawks versus the Philadelphia Flyers vying for the most coveted trophy in sports- the Stanley Cup Trophy. The Blackhawks have a 3-2 series lead. If they win this game, they win the trophy. It is “do or die” for the Flyers, force a game seven or go home. Then it happens, a few minutes into overtime, Patrick Kane, a young superstar on the Blackhawks skates down the rink, takes a shot, and he scores! Just like that, the game is over. The Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup! … The Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup! I, together with millions of other fans watching this nationally televised game, witnessed this great phenomenon live. Now you might wonder why millions of other fans and I tuned in to see the game. The answer is because millions of fans and I love and appreciate the game of hockey. In my opinion, it truly is the most exciting game both to play and to watch. While playing hockey and watching hockey are obviously two very different activities, they have at least one thing in common; they are both very fun. Let us take a closer look at each activity individually and see why so many others and I enjoy it so much. I sincerely enjoy the thrill that I receive while playing hockey. I am not alone about this feeling. If you were to ask someone that plays hockey, as to why they play, one reason he or she will almost definitely tell you is something along the lines of that...
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...painful experience was the time he joined the hockey team in Toronto and was isolated by white society. Saul was an Ojibway, and it was the reason why he was caught by white to the residential school. He talked about the residential school: “St. Jerome's took all the light from my world”. The life in St. Jerome's was dreadful and dark. The only thing could bring him a breath was hockey. We could see how he loved hockey. However, he was not able to play games because he is an Ojibway. The society not only took Saul’s childhood away, but also took hockey from him. That time is the most painful experience I think. Saul was a gifted hockey player. Due to that, he got a rare chance that was a chance playing for a feeder team of the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, it was the hard life started. Saul became the target of laughter. White put bias on him, criticized and hit him. The paper even said he was “rampaging redskin”. All the people and crowd told him hockey was not belonging to Indian. I could not even image his life during that period. The entire world pushed him out just because of his race. He said: “ I’m the Indian. That’s all they see”. The society was cruel and impersonal at that time. Saul did not have a chance to change it because he had no power to change his race. No matter how hard he did, people detested him. Finally, he was despairing and exhausted. He started to drink in order to hide himself from the cruel society. Fortunately, Saul met Erv who waked up him. Erv made...
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...BOBBY ORR - LEGENDARY NHL DEFENSEMAN Bobby Orr: A Biography Presentation by Peter Stylianou REMARKABLE ATHLETE: Bobby Orr is considered, along with Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, to be one of the three greatest hockey players of the modern era. Emerging from Parry Sound in Ontario’s near-north, he redefined the defensive style of hockey; there was nothing like it before him. He was the first to infuse the defenceman’s position with offensive juice, driving up the ice, setting up players and scoring some goals of his own. He was drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1966 and quickly won the Calder Memorial trophy as the league’s most outstanding rookie. After 12 phenomenal seasons, Orr posted a total of 915 points in only 657 games. He was almost re-writing record books as he was setting so many at such a fast pace. He was the first player to win three straight MVP Hart trophy awards and eight straight Best Defenseman Norris trophies. He was the first defenseman to score twenty or more goals in a season and the only defenseman to lead the league in scoring, and did that twice. His most famous goal won the Boston Bruins the Stanley Cup in 1970 – against the St. Louis Blues in overtime – and led them to a second Cup in 71-72 against the New York Rangers. Just how great, how early? For the 1962-63 hockey season, Orr joined the O.H.L. Oshawa Generals as a bantam-aged 14 year old playing against 19 and 20 year olds, and he was a star. Stephen Brunt...
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...Impacts of The Jungle on American Society As Judith Lewis Herman exhorted in her novel, Trauma and Recovery, "The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness” (“Trauma and Recovery Quotes”). However, a nationwide nerve was struck when the grotesque meat- packing industry was revealed by Upton Sinclair. He blazoned to Americans across the country the lurid details of the industry though his novel, The Jungle, a novel which changed American history. [This scathing review on the meat packing industry with socialist undertones brought an advent of great social and legal change to the United States.] With its stunning entrance into American literature in 1906, The Jungle created an uproar that has endured over a century since its publication. Upton Sinclair was an ardent proponent of socialism in America and yearned to reform the ailing country (Fogel). His novel was produced as a metaphor, comparing a jungle directly to the corrupt meat packing industry based in Chicago. Sinclair sought to expose the unknown atrocities hidden in the meat packing industry, which was not forced to obey any form of regulation (Shafer). Sinclair wrote that, “It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory” (Sinclair 56). This fictional piece of literature brought America to a screeching halt. Never before had such a bold statement been made about an industry that affected almost every single American. Upton’s...
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...Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was an American industrialist. After immigrating to the United States in 1835, he amassed a fortune in the steel industry making him one of the world’s richest men. His rags-to-riches story epitomizes the immigrant success story. While Carnegie was a firm believer in the importance of philanthropy and the potential of the laboring class, the rise of business and industry created a widening gap between the rich in the poor by the late nineteenth century. This discrepancy of wealth and unjust activity within business and political enterprises became commonly discussed in writings of the day. Over the course of seven weeks in 1904, journalist Upton Sinclair entered Chicago’s meatpacking industry and worked undercover as a factory operative. Taking the true form of a worker, Sinclair donned overalls and slipped into the packing plants to gain firsthand knowledge of the work. He sought out social workers, police officers, physicians and others who could tell him about life and work in Packingtown. Local socialists introduced him to their people who were knowledgeable about the community and work. The following year, his exposé, The Jungle, was published in the newspaper Appeal to Reason. In February 1906, it was released as a novel. While Sinclair’s purpose was to expose the problems that arose among the working class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, his graphic and nauseating descriptions of the meat packing industry...
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...Upton Sinclair where art thou? The job of the muckraker responsible for the bane of high school literature students everywhere, The Jungle, has created more vegetarians than famous vegetarians from Gandhi to Pamela Anderson combined apparently is not yet finished. After the 1906 publication of The Jungle, a disgusted public offended at the thought of eating a line worker as part of their potted meat began to clamor for safer food and safer working conditions. Many years and many pieces of legislation later, if the statistics can be trusted, it would seem like the more things change in the meat packing industry the more they stay the same. During the 1970 creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the meat and meat products industry received the dubious distinction of being designated as one of the five classifications with the highest injury rates (Sparks Companies, 1999). Now almost forty years later the industry is still considered one of the most dangerous. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the meat and meat products industry had the nation’s highest industrial injury for the five consecutive years from 1980 to 1985 (U.S. Department of Labor, 1988). Much the same as it was in 1943 (Horowitz, 2008). It was into this arena that Human Rights Watch decided to step. On its website Human Rights Watch describes itself as an independent organization dedicated to protecting human rights by exposing violations and trying to end abuses (Human Rights...
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...5 Th i n gs t o Do i n Can ad a Th at W i l l Su r p r i se You 3.Un cov er a Di n osau r There? only one city in the world where you? s ll find an 86-foot-tall, 151-foot-long dinosaur standing at its center. You may think you know a lot about the country that shares America? longest s land border. But if you? only been to ve iconic spots like Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains or the CN Tower, then you? re missing out. WELCOM E TO CA NA DA Welcome to Drumheller, the city situated in what has become affectionately known as Dinosaur Valley. The first dinosaurs were unearthed here in the 1800s, and they? been finding them ever since. ve 4. The American Eagle Vacations Here: 1. H ow l W i t h t h e W ol v es . In Canada,This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Wolf Howl in Algonquin Park. Each year, guests to the park watch park rangers call out to the area? s packs with their best howls. 2. W al k on t h e Ocean Fl oor : The Bay of Fundy is home to the world? highest tides. s At their peak, they can reach 54 feet in some areas. after the 100 billion tons of seawater have receded for the unique experience of walking on the ocean floor. From the age-old fossils to the water-carved rock formations with names like ? mother-in-law? and ? the bear,? you? find plenty to marvel at. When the ll water starts to lap at your ankles, it? probably s time to find higher ground. It may be the symbol of American pride, but when...
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...From the 1890’s to the 1920’s, a new movement occurred, known as the Progressive movement. The main goal of this movement was to spread awareness of major issues to American citizens and ultimately, to discover solutions to major social, economic, and political problems. Eventually, the social reformers were successful, because of the changes brought to the workplace and the betterment of living conditions in large cities. During the early 1890’s, many companies had poor working conditions. These included long workdays, child labor, and no payment for injuries on the job. Social reformers used muckraking, or digging up scandalous information, to put the word out about these issues. One famous muckraker was Upton Sinclair, writer for the Chicago Tribune and author of The Jungle. His works, particularly The Jungle exposed the terrible working conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago. This novel upset many, as it portrayed the awful lives of the men who worked at the plants. In addition to this revealing novel, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire also occurred. This fire was caused by smoking within the factory, and caused the deaths of many women, as the door was locked and the fire escape was blocked. This tragic event was an eye opener, and caused many reforms in the way workers must be treated. For example, the Adamson Act limited the workday to only eight hours. This was also made law by Holden vs. Hardy, while a law was passed in Oregon stating women could work...
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...Throughout this paper, I will be discussing about the meat packing industry during the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th to 29th century. I would like to expand on the environmental consequences of the meat packing industry, the cruel treatment of the workers, and the epidemic diseases that occurred due to the unsanitary environment of the industries. The meat packing industry was a ground turning point of U.S history, which symbolized meat as a symbol of man’s conquest over nature and the environment. Meatpacking industries were largely concentrated in large cities such as Chicago, New York, Ohio, and Kansas City. The big four companies were known as the Armour, Swift, Morris, and National Packing companies. Live animals would be shipped via railroads and sent directly to the factories in the city, ready to be sliced and prepared. This was during the Industrial Revolution , a time when powerful monopolies and companies took control of U.S.: Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, including meat packing industry. Cincinnati, Ohio originally was the center of the meat processing industry. Environmentally, the industry gained benefits due to the plants located near the Ohio River, allowing easy transport of goods. However, Chicago replaced Cincinnati and demonstrated new unique advantages with the emergence of refrigerated railroad cars, allowing convenient transportation facilities throughout different cities. Despite the fact that the exterior of meat packing industries seemed powerful...
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...Robert Groom FAST FOOD NATION To examine the how, and why of Schlossers’ book Fast Food Nation, where he shows how fast food developed and became the center of American image and society. In order to prove this I will attempt to illustrate how different elements factor in, for this cultural phenomenon to have become such an American cultural norm. First, look at how fast food became such a popular way of eating and living. Carl N. Karcher (owner of Carls Jr, Hardees) is one of the fast food industry’s pioneers. His life seemed at once to be a tale by Horatio Alger, a fulfillment of the American dream, and a warning about unintended consequences. This is one of the factors to its development of an American cultural norm. After World War Two people like Karcher and Ray Kroc(founder of McDonalds) had ideas to give the public a sense of home when it came to meal time, something that would be familiar not only down the street from his or her home, but also fifteen hundred miles away across the country. That let the public believe that McDonalds is like a trusted friend, said executive Ray Bergold. (Schlosser 50) One of the stories is southern California, whose cities became prototypes for the rest of the nation. After World War 2, Southern California had a rich and growing economy with high tech, and military industry jobs. With many young families, they had a need for...
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...Meat packing slaughter houses were familiar sights in America as far back as one can remember. They were usually found near a railroad in the warehouse area. The buildings were most always brick and three to four stories in height. The animals shipped in were usually grass fed and corn fattened. That all changed half way through the 19th century. What was once, one of the nations best paying industries, has established a migrant-worker oriented work force and according to those studying the situation has left workers powerless to correct inhuman work place conditions. Although newspapers are publishing the results of the changes, and other groups offering suggestions of what needs to be done to help the worker, the whole dilemma has stagnated without being corrected. Without the support of banding together and forming unions the immigrant workers remain at the mercy of their employers. The efforts, if they can be called that, amount to for the most part, empty suggestions when actions are long overdue. The early sixties found the meat packing industry cutting wages in half and dropping many benefits. Unions no longer had the hold needed to protect the worker. Workers were for the most part immigrants from Mexico who accepted the meatpackers’ low wages and tried to successfully keep pace with the high speed operation of which the industry demanded. More and faster production left workers extremely vulnerable to an industry already fraught with accidents. Kutalik called it a...
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