Food for thought

There’s a lot of talk on social media about the poor health inspections some of our local restaurants have received.

A few observations and a little opinion follows.

First off, I didn’t quite understand all the uproar due to the fact that those inspection reports have been available to the public for years on the Dunklin County Health Department’s website under the environmental health section.

I’ve looked at them off and on, and these observations, regrettably, are the norm.

Different ones get dinged, they fix the problem, then others get dinged again, and it goes on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like nasty, but this is certainly nothing new.

As bad as these reports are, I still believe we need to support local businesses.

Clean them up, yes.

No one wants to eat where there’s filth.

However, I believe if you scratch just little bit under the surface, you’ll find an underlying cause that definitely contributes to these conditions.

Like our trash issue, it’s a people problem.

When you cultivate a culture of poverty you’ll find your workforce disappears.

When you can’t find employees, conditions slip.

When poverty increases more than the middle class, things fall through the cracks.

If you don’t take pride in your home, your yard, or your neighborhoods this is what you get.

Again, not excusing grime and vermin in our eateries, but we must fix the core issue first.

We need to keep what we’ve got.

Let’s be honest, folks, no major franchises are knocking at the door begging to come here.

Get some pride in your own backyard and it will follow to the workforce.

If not, continue to entertain yourself with the monthly health inspections.

If the culture doesn’t change those inspection reports won’t either, and that’s some food for thought.

I welcome responses.

See you out there.