Off The Cuff

Hey, You’re Fat! No Fast Food For You!

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Political News, What Were They Thinking? on Feb 11 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

In Jackson, Mississippi, there is a lawmaker who is proposing a bill to ban obese people from restaurants. He says not to be offended but that he is trying to shed light on the growing problem of obesity in the state. Republican Rep. John Read has thrown himself into a real hot button issue. He states that approximately 30 percent of adults in Mississippi are obese. Apparently, the restaurants are supposed to do the policing here. Yet, the bill does not define obesity nor does it tell HOW a restaurant is to determine who is obese and who is not.

THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO SHED THE LIGHT!!! I have to admit that I’ve heard of asinine things in my life but this one does take the cake…so to speak. Chocolate fudge, I would imagine. This guy is overweight himself so I am wondering what possessed him to do such a thing since he would not be able to eat in a restaurant either, according to this particular bill.

Let’s face facts. We, as a nation, are getting fatter and fatter. That is a fact, period. And it is an epidemic as well. The pretty, skinny people look down upon us fatties. We get the bad press. We are expected to be ashamed of ourselves for getting into this condition and do something about it….pronto!!! Supposedly, our families are either fat or ashamed. That isn’t true of mine but I am certain that the pretty, skinny people think it is. It is for certain that they are ashamed of us.

Some of us are dealing with self esteem issues, some are simply hungry. There are lots of reasons for being fat, not all because we open wide, insert food at an alarming rate. It is true that this nation is probably the fattest over all. We do love our fast foods, don’t we. But the reality is that we have the problem. There are ways to deal with it. But this issue is personal, not something a government should have the right to legislate.

However, the way to deal with this isn’t by taking away some person’s freedom. Is the gentleman from Mississippi willing to remove a freedom from fat people? I admit that it is supremely stupid to eat oneself into obesity. But it, like so many other things, is a reality that needs to be addressed BY the people involved, not some person or people who are stick skinny and have their own problems. Neither is it right for the fat guy in Mississippi to try and make a law regarding obesity. People have tried it before. Someone always slaps it down. Why did you think that this time it would work?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!