This morning the group ventured to the Wallace Centers of Iowa’s Des Moines location, which functions in the former house of the famous Iowa family, the Wallaces.  Before today I had zero knowledge of who the Wallaces were or what their degree of importance was to the state of Iowa and the nation.  The family member that attracted the most attention was  Henry A. Wallace, who, as we learned, had a rather successful political career serving as the US Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, and as FDR’s Vice President.  After viewing the film about his life, I came away with an opinion that marked him as a sort of a role model.  From what I observed, he served the country with a deep sense of personal responsibility that emphasized a true commitment to the welfare of the common people.  This commitment to the common people served as one of the main highlights of the film, but from what I could tell, it was genuine.  Henry A. Wallace did not fit the mold of a standard politician, and I believe that’s what made him perfect for the jobs and tasks he pursued; he had no personal or behind-the-scenes-agendas, he only sought to use the powers of his positions to bring forth what he believed was positive change.  It is a shame that I had never known his name before today, but I have come to admire his efforts to promote peace as well as his character.

After supper this evening, we watched another film, Forks Over Knives.  It presented, at least to me, rather shocking findings about the effects of the Western diet on our society’s  health.  The film advocated for a “whole foods, plant-based diet” that eliminated dairy products and meat, claiming animal-based diets increased the rate of cancer, heart disease, and obesity.  From the data provided by the film, this conclusion seems well supported, and made me question my own diet.  I would like to try to implement a plant-based diet in my own life to witness the effects for myself.  I do not necessarily think that the diet is something that I absolutely need to immediately endorse and follow, but I am curious to see how the diet would affect my body.  One thing that stuck with me from the film was a comment that one of the doctors made about milk.  The film had referenced the national government’s support of milk as nature’s perfect food, but the doctor remarked that a cow’s milk may be the perfect food for a baby calf, but why would that translate to human beings?   Why would drinking the milk of another species be beneficial to us?  Humans have their own version of this perfect food; a mother’s breast milk is very important in the healthy development of her child, but when did it become logical to drink the milk of another animal, and especially why should we continue to drink milk long after we are babies?  I love milk, but I did think that this was an interesting point.