The Oklahoma Eagle
There is some debate on the need for a full-service grocery store or another discount store. There are arguments on both sides of the issue. But, this shouldn’t be an “either or” situation. Why can’t Tulsa north have both? The market will decide in the end.
Some believe not one more discount store needs to come to Tulsa, that it would discourage a super market from opening. Problem is emotional desires, either way, is not the best way to determine whether a super market or another discount store should or will open.
For years, city and community leaders have worked to bring a stable super market to Tulsa north. There are tax zones and other incentives to help lure a good grocer into this hungry community. And there certainly are customers and it’s a place many need because of the choices many must make now. They either travel miles to a grocery store outside their neighborhood, or get what they can from a discount store in order to eat. That food is processed and much of it is packed in salt. The result is Tulsa is a food desert and that sociological and nutritional designation is negatively and damaging for many reasons.
In real terms, and according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in one tract of homes along north Peoria is considered a food desert. Besides low wages and high unemployment, 31.3 percent of the homes don’t have automobiles, according to 2015 report. Why is that important? In 2010 almost 40 percent of those same homes had no vehicles. They could walk, one might surmise, but it also happens to be an area of high crime rates. What is close are discount stores like Dollar General, who offers food products but little in the way of fresh food. Which leads to another problem.
Experts now link high rates of obesity to areas like food deserts. If the only food available are processed foods those consumers are not likely to be eating anything high in nutrients like fruit and vegetables. What food is there is usually in processed wheat, sugar and salt. None of which people can process very well in the best of conditions. Meaning someone active or who exercises up to an hour or two a day. Sedentary lifestyles only compound the situation. Because it may not be safe to walk or exercise in a person’s neighborhood, the poor food choices turn into fat leading to obesity. Which makes an already bad problem worse.
Perhaps the worse outcome is the damage a poor diet causes in the body, from increased chances of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.
Diabetes is a deadly partner to obesity and is like throwing gas on the fire of a person’s health. How bad are the outcomes of diabetes? Diabetes and other obesity-associated diseases account for 70 percent of U.S. health costs. This means in a distressed area that number could very well be larger. Like the old tragic saying goes “when everyone else is catching a cold we’re catching pneumonia.”
So, yes, a super market with wide varieties of vegetables and fruit is a good solution, but they are huge investments, and past grocery stores have not lasted long. The solution is tough, it boils down to continue the process of reaching out to potential investors in Tulsa north, a commitment to do business with them, protect them from pilferage and change household diets. The economy is getting better and crime is lower so the environment is good for another push to bring in a quality grocery store.
As for stores like Dollar General and others, no one should stand in the way of commerce. Truth is we need both and both create jobs. Neither cancels out the other since their market is just different enough to allow for both. Are there too many discount stores, the market should decide. “Either or” debates to prove a point only keeps someone from making some money and someone else from having a job.
Emmett Till Is A Tragedy Without Closure
There are those who say the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till spurred the civil rights movement. On August 28th, it marked the 62nd grim anniversary of Till’s brutal death. Till’s mother, Mamie, left the casket open to show the world what the two men did to her son.
He was accused by Carolyn Bryant Donham of making advances toward her. She told her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam what happened. Enraged, they kidnapped Till, beat him, shot him in the face with .45 caliber pistol, and then tied a cotton gin blade around his neck and threw him in the river.
Bad enough that the men were acquitted, but now it’s been recently revealed that Donham lied. She made up the story that led to Till’s death, according to an author who interviewed Donham who is still alive. President Obama signed the Emmett Till law allowing for a reexamination of civil rights crimes. It was signed before there was knowledge about Donham’s lie. The family met with U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions who said, “no one gets a pass” regarding the potential case. But more than anything the family wants an apology for the pain Donham created.
Mississippi has not changed in some more ignorant quarters; Till’s father was lynched during WWII and recently a sign on the “Mississippi Freedom Trail” was vandalized for a second time. It is time for an apology and for some measure of healing.
