D
ear McDonald’s: This Fourth
of July, as a Black man, I have
been forced to re-examine
what it means to be a citizen of “The
Greatest Country on Earth.” On one
hand, we have been making progress
with our national reckoning regard-
ing race, but we also have an embattled
president whose mentality seems to be
more fitting for 1920 than 2020. On the
other hand, with our crippling wealth
inequality and surging COVID-19
caseload, it seems difficult to justify my
knee-jerk embrace of American excep-
tionalism. As I pondered this over the
previous weekend, I found myself
increasingly reliant on the counsel
of the most prolific distillation of the
American Dream: F. Scott Fitzger-
ald’s “The Great Gatsby.”
This novel lays out a cohesive theory
of the ideal American identity that,
while paradoxical in many regards, is a
roadmap for how we should behave and
a cautionary tale for the potential pitfalls
along the way. According to Fitzgerald, a
great American is ambitious and entre-
preneurial yet also humble; he or she is
a legendary, somewhat reclusive figure
who allows an extensive myth to be
constructed around them. Then, while
I was flipping through chapter nine on
July 5, my theory came into focus.
See, right now, no one person or
group embodies the American ideal of
Gatsby because of our deep divisions
as Americans — we have been forced
to take sides. You are either a Democrat
or a Republican. You either spent the
weekend excited to watch Hamilton
with your friends over Zoom or lit fire-
works in the woods without masks. You
are either excited for The Kissing Booth
2 or have common sense. However, one
thing we can all (arguably) agree on is our
love for this country, and, by the end of
this article, we will all agree that there is
nothing more American than the McRib.
The birth of the McRib begins with
the meeting of its two parents: Roger
Mandigo and Rene Arend. As an emeri-
tus professor of animal science at the
University of Nebraska and Meat Indus-
try Hall of Fame inductee, Mandigo
invented the process of meat restructur-
ing: Producers take meat from animals,
combine the different types of meat and
form it into different shapes before being
flash-frozen. Then, in response to the
dual crises of Food and Drug Adminis-
tration warnings about beef consump-
tion and rising costs of chicken, Arend
— whose previous fame was for making
the three McNugget sauces: Hot Mustard,
Sweet & Sour and Barbecue — used Man-
digo’s process to create the boneless pork
patty, fashioned to look like a slab of ribs.
Finally, in 1981, the McRib was unveiled
to the world and began its journey into the
hearts of millions of Americans.
Especially popular in the Midwest,
the McRib immediately garnered a
cult-like following from fans of the sand-
wich’s unique combination: a pork patty
covered in an excessive amount of bar-
becue sauce, white onions and pickles.
However, when McDonald’s celebrated
its 30th anniversary in 1985, the com-
pany decided to pull the McRib from
the menu because of assumed relatively
little fanfare in response to rising pork
prices and lagging sales, although the
reasoning is explicitly undetermined.
When the move was cruelly done with
little to no warning, customers per-
ceived it as a direct affront, and decades
later they began to organize negligible
protests outside of McDonald’s restau-
rants nationwide, but the anger even-
tually faded as the company remained
firm on not bringing back the item.
Then, in what I can only assume was
a response to Taylor Swift’s birth, the
McRib was reintroduced as McDon-
ald’s first-ever limited-time-only item
in 1989, becoming a menu mainstay
once again in 1994. However, just like all
good things, this was not meant to last as
McDonald’s once again announced that
the sandwich would be pulled from
stores in 2005.
This decision once again faced
backlash, prompting McDonald’s to
announce the McRib’s “farewell tour,”
which, much like the 2014 farewell
tour of Motley Crue, lasted far too long
until the general public forgot about it,
and the sandwich made its “final” exit
in 2007. While the McRib became a
distant, if slightly pleasant, memory for
most, it, much like Shrek and Bene the
Breadstick, developed a cult following
on the internet, as superfan Alan Klein
founded a McRib locator website, dedi-
cated to finding regional locations that
offered the fabled sandwich.
Thus, 13 years after the McRib has
disappeared from the permanent
McDonald’s menu, it has not disap-
peared from our hearts. In fact, upon
its last nationwide release, the company
attributed its 4.8 percent sales increase
to the limited-time offering, which
prompted me to write this letter.
4
Thursday, July 9, 2020
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America needs a McRib: an open letter to McDonald’s
L
ong before the COVID-19
pandemic sent the American
economy into a downward
spiral, our nation had a serious problem
with our national deficit. Now, after our
federal government spent trillions of
dollars in order to support American
workers and businesses, our staggering
national debt is more visible than ever.
According to the Committee for a
Responsible Federal Budget — which
projects the debt will grow by a total of $4
trillion in the fiscal year 2020 — the federal
debt now exceeds $26 trillion in the midst
of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. This sharp
increase in our national debt comes after
Congress and President Donald Trump
passed the CARES Act in March, which
included stimulus checks, unemployment
benefits and business support.
Now, with the CRFB and other
experts predicting that more federal
spending will be necessary to further
prop up our damaged economy, Ameri-
cans face a national debt crisis at a new,
dangerous level never seen before. While
almost all economists agree this signifi-
cant government spending was necessary
— and we shouldn’t hesitate to spend more
in order to support households and busi-
nesses for the duration of the pandemic
— we have a duty to remember the costs of
our growing deficit at the same time.
Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Har-
vard University and former chief econ-
omist at the International Monetary
Fund, states, “I believe we are doing the
right thing today by borrowing to make
it through this tragic crisis, but make no
mistake: It is not a free lunch, and it is
not without its risks.” Speaking about
the dangers of failing to manage the
growing national debt, Rogoff added
that in the presence of such a staggering
deficit, it becomes extremely difficult for
nations to spend in the midst of new crises
and shocks. Additionally, he comments,
“Many advanced countries are already
likely to experience strains to help their
populations, especially given the likely
coming wave of corporate debt problems,
and the need to protect banks.”
Most experts agree now is not the
time to directly address the national
debt crisis, when the track of the
COVID-19 pandemic is so unpredict-
able. But once we are able to get the pan-
demic under control and this disease no
longer poses a threat to our country, one
of our top priorities must be addressing
our crippling deficit.
Sadly, most issues and initiatives in
our nation today are difficult to agree
on, and bipartisan efforts are relatively
rare. But everybody can agree that our
national debt is dangerous and threatens
the futures of all Americans. Sooner than
later, we all will have to grapple with
the impacts of this debt crisis.
A bipartisan solution to our debt
EVAN STERN | COLUMNIST
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Evan Stern can be reached at
erstern@umich.edu.
KEVIN MOORE JR. | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT KEVJR@UMICH.EDU