Reader Responses

What will L.A. do? Hmm.

“I’m Officer Dolan with the Obesity Squad. Drop that burger and put those greasy hands in the air! You have the right to blah blah, etc...”

Nah. That’ll never happen. Right? Not in America?

The first thing to remember is this is the Los Angeles City Council. Los Angeles is in California, you know, the state that’s $15 billion in the hole.

I don’t remember seeing many fat folks when I was young. I can recall people and events back to age 6 pretty good, too. We had two sisters in our church who were mighty fluffy, and a cousin duo in high school (64-65) who would go around 300 pounds each. The guy played football (tackle and guard), and the girl was a good cook, Home Ec., ya know. That was about it in my circle.

To what do I attribute this scarcity of “fat” people then? For one thing, people sweated a heck of a lot more. It was still OK to sweat, even honorable. They worked their butts off in fields in all kinds of weather. They toiled in textile mills (South Carolina) without air conditioning. They laid brick and cut pulpwood. Yes, even the “fat” people! Hard to believe, ain’t it?

What did they eat? Stuff out of their garden or animals they raised themselves, mostly, or the occasional deer or catfish. No additives, my friends, or a lot of ‘store-bought’ things. I know, not many family farms anymore. Sad.

I remember the first McDonald’s in Columbia. I could go there as a kid and eat two of everything on the menu. I weighed about 145 and no, I had no tapeworms, just hours and hours in the cotton field and on the construction site. Today at about 60 I weigh 175 (6’2”) and eat what I want. I just don’t want a lot of greasy, sweet or tasteless stuff. Still sweat a bit.

Fast-food corporations want to make money. If patrons learn to discriminate between “good” food and “bad” food, the corporations will change. Profits will always win out, not good intentions.

But, for the love of Pete, keep government out of our mouths! They screw up everything they touch.

There is a word for “permitted” or “allowed” food (and other things). It’s halal. That’s Arabic. Learn it. You may need that knowledge down the road. You never know when government will “change” or what it will “change” to.

R.W. Moore
Tyler