Last weekend’s Up with Chris Hayes, brought up an interesting topic with regards to food. His segment: You Are What You Eat? brought up a discussion about how cows and chickens are treated in a large part of the food industry. I’ve known there were questionable practices in the food industry, but I didn’t know that conditions for some of these animals are so dirty that meat has to be treated for E. Coli.

The discovery of Pink Slime has created a negative psychological impact on a lot of us, me included. It made me think more about what I eat. The conversation on Up with Chris Hayes made me feel disgusted with how beef and chicken are prepared in this country.

Therefore, I’m officially announcing that I am becoming a vegetarian! Haha, I say this as if it’s so groundbreaking or that anyone really cares about my diet. But, I do hope I can inspire people to think about what they eat and consider removing meat from their diet. Soy based products can provide the same nutrients and are healthier than meat.

I do want to be clear, I’m not making a general statement about the evils of eating meat. I’ve never really felt guilty about eating meat. For me, it’s more about eating something that I know what it is made of and where it comes from. One reason I stopped eating sausage and hot dogs many years ago was that I didn’t like the “mystery meat” idea.

With all that said, I will admit that I won’t miss eating animals, and perhaps I will gain some satisfaction from that; similar to what I get from driving an electric car. The transition has been easy so far, because soy based products taste very close to meat. Quorn, for example, is a company that makes soy based foods. Their Chik’n product, is very good and tastes like chicken. Morning Star is another brand of vegetarian products that taste really good.

I’m going to try and stick to this new diet, although Thanksgiving is going to make that a bit tough!

The easiest thing you can do is make sure you recycle whatever you can. Paper, plastic, Styrofoam, glass, and other materials can be reused. It’s important to make sure NOT to throw out these materials into a regular trashcan. Instead, you can take this waste to a recycling center and sometimes get a little cash back. Some cities and towns have a recycling program along with standard trash pickup, but this might not always be the case.

When I was a kid, my parents taught us about recycling by taking us to the local supermarket, where there were recycling machines for cans and bottles. It was fun to hear the machines crush the cans we brought. Afterwards, my brother and I deposited the money into savings accounts at our family bank. Not only did we learn the benefits of recycling, we also learned about saving money.

One of the best ways to prevent waste is by giving used items away as gifts. eBay is a great place to sell used electronics such as computers or iPads. I often give my family my used electronics when I upgrade. For example, I gave my mom my old TiVo last year when I bought a new TiVo Premier model. This way, someone else can find a use for your old items without buying new products. This prevents e-waste, which is a growing problem in society, and saves people money. If you can’t sell or give away a used or broken devices, there are stores that can recycle e-waste. Staples is one such store that is pretty good about accepting most forms of e-waste.

LED light bulbs are long lasting and fit standard light sockets in most cases. These bulbs last for many years and use a lot less power. Replacing old incandescent bulbs with LEDs can lower your monthly power bill. Plus, these bulbs do not have to be replaced as often as incandescent bulbs.

For a final tip, you can stop using plastic when you go grocery shopping. Bringing your own cloth bags is a great way to cut down on plastic waste. Some stores even give you perks for using cloth bags instead of their plastic bags. Of course, worst case scenario, you can reuse those plastic bags for other purposes and they are also recyclable.

Driving a Nissan LEAF is much like driving any other car. I can listen to the radio or my iPhone while I drive. I tend to prefer the iPhone as it has all my music on it. Sometimes I like to drive without music, so I can listen to the electric motor. It sounds very much like a jet plane taking off when I accelerate! My car’s nickname is Jet Blue. I love my electric car!

LEAF stands for: Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Available, Family Car. It’s the first mass marketed 100% electric car. GM has the Volt, which I call a plug-in hybrid, because it uses both electricity and gasoline to power the car. Unlike most hybrids, the plug-in hybrid allows you to use only electricity for a short period of time before the gas kicks in. I do support these kind of cars, but the pure EV is what I prefer. That’s why I chose the LEAF over the Volt.

It is clear that the advantages of electric cars are quite attractive:

• No more gas, ever. Switching from gasoline to electricity is not only better for the environment, but better for the pocket book. I spent about $20 driving my LEAF last month. That’s a little more than half the amount of money I spent on gas when I had a Prius! As gas becomes more expensive, people are going to look for cars that are more fuel efficient. EVs can’t be beat when it comes to energy efficiency.
• Lower cost maintenance. Evs don’t need oil changes, oil filter replacement, spark plugs, and other parts that are involved with the internal combustion engine. There are still things such as brake checks, but electric motors have less moving parts and that means less things that can go wrong. Maintenance costs generally go up for gasoline cars as they age, but this is not the case with EVs.
• 100% Torque From the Start. The Nissan LEAF accelerates from 0 to 40 MPG in about 3 seconds. That’s pretty good for a small sedan. EVs don’t need to warm up like an engine does.

Right now, EVs have a few disadvantages. The two main ones are range and charging time. Both of these disadvantages can be mitigated. For example, most EV owners charge their cars at night. All of my charging occurs while I sleep at night and I never use public charging simply because I don’t need to. The second point is that EVs have a limited range. Most people drive less than 50 miles a day. 100 miles is fine for most drivers. In the near future, charging times will get better and range will improve.

Finally, the cost of EVs right now are higher than small gasoline powered sedans. However, costs will go down as more and more cars enter the market. This year, Nissan will began to build the LEAF in Tennessee along with the batteries for the car. The plant will be able to build 100,000s of cars a year when it reaches full capacity. Nissan is really making an effort to help the electric car industry. I hope this effort proves fruitful.

It’s also important to point out that there are tax incentives, both federal and some offered by states, that reduce the cost of the car. Leasing a Nissan Leaf will save you $7,500, since Nissan can claim the tax incentive from the government since they will own the car for the duration of the lease. With these incentives, the cost of the car is more inline with a Prius, for example. The LEAF costs around $30,000 without the incentives.

What is the next step? I’m looking at several possibilities, but I am certain that I will move on to graduate school. After meeting with a family friend, who is a professor at Brandman University, there are three areas of study I’m considering. Currently, I’m thinking I’ll probably re-apply to Chapman University for their Marriage and family therapy MA degree. However, I am also considering studying English instead or perhaps finding the right creative writing program. Whatever I decide, I’m going to enjoy my well deserved vacation from academia!

Now that I will have more free time, I’ve decided to continue working on my current novel, “Fear” (not the final title). It has been a long time since I’ve worked on a non-school related project, so it will be great to write for the fun again. I’m also thinking about writing another short story or maybe even re-writing Fallen Raven, which has yet to be published. I haven’t really looked at the manuscript for a long time, so I could give it a fresh look.

I’m excited for this new year and what it will bring.

The Civil Rights movement grew out of a need for social justice and change. Activism, including protesting, helped to bring the problems of racism and segregation into the national conversation. It was necessary so  to convince the American people that “separate but equal” was not true equality. Instead, integration and diversity help create a society that we all can benefit from.

We may not be able to reach an ideal equal society, but we should do the best we can to come as close as possible. We should also promote understanding and acceptance. Working together, we can make America a place where no one is discriminated against because of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

I believe Dr. King wanted to include everyone in his marches for social justice. That spirit of inclusion is something that all of us should continue in the years ahead.