Unsafe New York: Part Twenty One

HAVE SOME CHICKEN! OR "SALMONELLA ON YOUR PLATE":
Today is November 24th. I am going to the store to buy some chicken and beef to make a healthy and nutricious dinner for this growing and developing boi. I am walking through the rows of raw meet in the local supermarket. I check out the chicken legs'n thighs arrangement. They are cheap, and there is a lot of them! I have about 20 bucks to spend. The thighs are dated Nov 17. I pick up another one. Dated the same. And so about 6 more. They are a bit of a yellowish hue.. I can't buy these thighs, so I have to settle for some breast that is more expensive and there is less of it. Now I only have meet for two days, instead of one week. I let the store worker know about the outdated food. She looks at me at me with glossy eyes, and shakes her head that is full of tight, artificial curls. She flops her large, artificial eyelashes at me. She picks one of them, disconecting and beginning to fall off, beforfe it reaches her cheek. She is very conscious of that. She checks out her looks in the reflection of the glass pane over meats. She finally turns to acknowledge me. "What?" she expresses. "The date, the date." I repeat. "The chicken is expired." She walks over where the blue chicken lays and picks one up. "What is wrong with it?" She asks me, suprised and a little annoyed. "The date on it. That's what's wrong with it." The woman checks tha date. "So?" her face silently expresses to me. She is absolutely annoyed and without any comprehension of the subject.
"The chicken is expired. It is date November 18th, and today is November 24th. It should not be left for sale. There is more of it down there". I explain and point out to her the chicken's strange and unnatural hue. She looks at me and listenes, suddenly. She seems to be learning something new. So am I.
She takes her time to reluctantly pick up the chicken from its shelf. She looks at it. She shrugs. She gets a cart and places the expired chicken in it. Slowly. Something prompts me to ask: "tell me, Miss, what will you do with this chicken?" Actually, not something but specifically my hunger and broke pocket wants to know if she will be throwing out the chicken immediately. In that case I will volunteer to take it. "Will you throw it out?" "Nooo!" the helper responds with a terror on her face. She suddenly seems to wake up from her lulled state. " We will just change the labels and put it back in." She tells me in all earnest. I look at her. She seems to be thinking. She adds "it has arrived today but someone has messed up a date..." She checks to see if I am convinced. I look at her as I walk away. Fast.
Just to be certain I let the cashier know, on my way out, about the situation. They can't say now I did not warn them. She looks through me with her watery, cohled and distant eyes, and nods absentmindely. She continues to ring me up. "You know that chicken that is expired, is dangerous? There could be salmonella breeding in it? And salmonella's is a deadly bacteria that could even kill." I tell her. And ask her. The cashier is unshaken. She looks at me like I fell from the moon right in front of her eyes. "Beef and pork do not have salmonella, but chicken does. It is dangerous and people could get hurt." I continue my community outreach. The cashier looks at me. She touches her hair and checks on her reflection in the register's screen. "Hmm, I will tell THEM." She nods. I walk away.
This is Amercia, 21tst century, you know. The danger of "miseducation of Lauren Hill". Women, spending their time making money doing nothing more than starring in their mirror reflection and shaking theri curls at the managers, while somewhere in the back, the power of life and death is given to the managers of supermarkets who spit on their responsibility and force people to live under level. Unchecked and unperturbed, salmonella keeps finding its way to your table, followed by a mad cow disease that sneaks past angry misogynistic manager who likes his women silent, stupid and curly.
Somebody lays sick in Bushwick and in Manhattan the law suit is being pressed.
Somewhere, someone, has laid and died.
Someone's mental development has been affected by bad food.
Someone else is puking their brains out.
This is 21st century.
This is United States of America.
This is North America.
This is New York.