Dress codes have always been and will continue to be elitist discriminatory practices. Against whom? It all depends. Could be racial, could be socioeconomic, gender, even age. While the recent uproar about dress codes in Kansas City’s new downtown nightclub district, whimsically named “Power and Light,” brings up important racial and social issues, the context for me is something else entirely.

Why would anyone want to participate in something as superficial as an entire district devoted to someone else’s idea of fashion? Didn’t we get rid of that concept in the ‘60s? Apparently not. Apparently today’s young and chic are willing to conform to Madison Avenue’s idea of good taste. I’ve never even wanted to go to nightclub that employs some pompous, self-righteous “fashion cop” charged with deciding if my outfit is worthy of admittance. I can’t think of anything that I might have in common with those whose sole concern of the evening is to be dressed appropriately to get into a loud, faux decor club with overpriced drinks and so much noise that a decent conversation would be impossible. Nor would I want to go home with anyone I met there!

When are we going to wake up from the fantasy world? The mortgage market has crashed. Our soldiers are still dying overseas; friends and neighbors are out of work; the ice caps are melting and polar bears are drowning; AIDS, malaria, and swine flu are killing people. But rather than address these issues, Americans want to go shopping for micro skirts, cool shirts, stiletto heels, and marvelous shades so they can get into trendy nightclubs.

Perhaps this is just escapism or denial. But it’s embarrassing. Who cares what we wear? The fashion magazines, the wholesalers and retailers care. The make money from our self-conceit. They are dictating style and making everyone feel inadequate if we don’t go along. Is that free will or marketplace will?

And whose idea was this elitist skid row anyway? City leaders who promote drinking and carousing as a source of revenue? But then with a U.S. governor running of to South America to meet his lover, I guess a district dedicated to booze and fashion is no surprise!

I propose that instead of renovating an area into an elitist version of the Bowery, developers could refurbish languishing downtown areas into vibrant city centers where everyone is welcome: families, children, all socioeconomic groups. Multiethnic, multicultural, multiracial centers where a multitude of clothing styles could blend and mesh.

I have over the years been to a number of restaurants with dress codes, particularly for men. Not wanting to turn away business, they keep ties and jackets available for men who do have them. Fashion police are more interested in enforcing rules than the concept of good taste. Adding a tie to a Polo shirt, or wearing an ill-fitting, color-clashing jacket because it is required does not add to the dining ambiance. Most of these types of places are self-selecting. Sure a few awful outfits will pass into the environs, but the cost of the food and drink alone will keep most of us “poor folk” in our places, thanks.

Downtown environments where everyone gets to pretend to be rich and famous is as much of a fantasy land as going to Disney World, except that no one would dare to tell Mickey and Minnie how to dress.

My annual physical was two years over due, and so I thought I would stop by for a wellness visit with my doctor, who said I appeared to be in good health but recommended the standard fasting blood test. I left my house the next morning at 7 a.m. and headed for the lab, which is across town. Once on the road, I realized that I would be close to passing out after waiting for the test and then heading home, so I decided to stop and get a juice. I was a good distance from the nearest “healthy” store, so I pulled into a convenience store and surveyed the juices looking for something that was more juice than white sugar.

Found it! Naked Juice. Great name. I took it up to the counter where I almost fell over, not from hunger but from sticker shock: $3.79 for an 8-ounce mixture of mango, grape, and apple juice (in a plastic container unfortunately)! OK, it was “organic” and was indeed naked of other additives and it tasted good. But still.

All the way to diagnostic lab, I fumed. First mad at myself for not just pouring some juice into a thermos before I left home, and second at the “natural food” companies for highway robbery.

I was reminded of the time my friend and I blithely ordered organic chickens at the local farmer’s market. We were so proud of ourselves until she went to pick them up. Each 3.5 pound bird was $27! I fully understand the amount of work and effort that goes into real food, but our ability to pay just goes so far. I want organic, fresh food to be a regular experience in my life and not just a novelty.

Why is organic, natural food so expensive? Some of the reasons are obvious. The megafood corporations and attending fertilizer and pesticide companies have commanded so much of the market that they can grow, process, and distribute much cheaper than individual organic farmers.

Other reasons that organics are more expensive include lower yields (up to 40 percent in some cases); higher costs, for instance, paying people to weed instead of using herbicides; fewer government subsidies; smaller distribution areas (foods with fewer preservatives can’t travel as far or be stored as long; and finally, some opportunistic companies that have hoped on the “natural” bandwagon charge more because they can. In addition, crop failure is a way of life for small regional farmers who don’t have subsidies and don’t use chemicals, and so to make up for the lack of income during hard times, they must charge more overall. And then, of course, there is the markup: retailers know people will pay more for food labeled “natural” or “organic.”

Fake food may be cheaper at the checkout counter, but for the people who have done the “Earth math,” the cost to environment and our health is much higher than the cost savings of industrial farming. Many of us know that ultimately society will pay a price for chemical laden fresh and cheap processed foods.

Why don’t the food corporations streamline the production of organics? They’re trying to, but in many cases they are bending, mutating, and diluting the rules governing organics. The food supply has to remain continuous and cheap to avoid riots and public uprisings. So the government keeps right on supporting the industrial food complex.

Real food should be one of those “inalienable” rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. Humans evolved browsing and eating whatever we could find or kill, and we did it more or less cooperatively (at least within common groups), but as Daniel Quinn wrote in Ishmael, that all changed when someone decided to “lock up the food” about 5,000 years ago. The first “distributors,” according to Quinn, were the pharaohs who offered to “store” the grains for the populace. But wait! Real food is not locked up. It is as close as your nearest seed packet. And if you’re more the gatherer/nurturer type, than the hunter type, find someone to trade with: beans for burgers!

Sally Fallon, Nina Planck, Michael Pollan, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, and others who write the truth about healthy eating are continuously reminding us that we can afford to eat real food. Small communities of people are coming together to share opportunities for growing, sharing, and raising real food.

So should I be glad to pay a premium for organic juice without additives? I suppose so. I’m privileged to be able to afford organics, and I have a garden where I grow some of my own vegetables.

But what about people on budgets or with children to feed? Organics and fresh foods may be financially out of reach. This is a public crime. Real food should be affordable for all Americans—all people of the world for that matter. And if the corporations can’t or won’t produce food and food products that are safe, chemical free, and natural, then perhaps we should follow Michelle Obama’s example and grow our own!

The juice was good, but next time I will skip the middleman (and the plastic) and squeeze my own from some local Florida oranges and mangoes. I’ll have real food at half the price.

Is “breath of fresh air” too cliche for what is going on? I don’t think so. I know after the long, cold, dark winter nothing feels better than throwing open the windows and letting in the sunshine. Next comes ferreting out the cobwebs, sweeping out the debris, and sorting through the junk to get rid of what is useless and just taking up space without purpose.

These efforts are done with focused attention and determined action. Yes, that is what our new president is doing. Rather than scurrying of to the ranch for R&R, President Obama digging in and approaching America’s long list of overdue housecleaning with a passion, an open mind, and transparency. We can see the dust flying and dirt exposed to the light.

And even better, he has opened the windows wide and called upon a variety of opinions in seeking the best way to rid this country of outmoded ideas, old methods, dangerous practices, archaic systems. The White House Web pages alone speak to this administration’s ability to recognize the 21st century.

Until I began to see the fervor and call to action of this administration, I held no real hope that an affordable healthcare and insurance system could be crafted in my lifetime. But as I watch in amazement, I am optimistic that it actually might happen.

And best of all, for a man, he is breaking new ground! Obama is expertly multitasking, and doing it as well as most women I know. Who says men can’t learn new tricks!