Celebrate individuality

By Paul Holcombe
Staff Writer

Over the last few years, Tuesday has become an exciting day for me. No matter what happens throughout the day, I can always count on one event to cheer me up- magazine day. Then I read an article that changed all of that this last Tuesday.
While sifting through “Men’s Health” and the “U.S. News and World Report,” I came across a very short message. Although brief, it still packed a wallop and left me wondering about the state of our country and futures.
Initially, caricatures of Russell Crowe and Pamela Anderson caught my eye. Then there was the title, “A beautiful mind- and a jelly belly.” The article went on to state that Crowe was considered obese and Anderson was considered too thin. This strange set of facts can be attributed to action taken in 1998, which changed how body mass is measured.
Having read this far, you might ask yourself, “So what?” Maybe you don’t care about the measurements of Hollywood stars, but would you object to action being taken that would restrict your eating of fatty foods? Believe it or not, lobbying groups in the United States have expanded to one additional and powerful group. This group is known generically as the ‘fat-fighters.’
These fighters for the blood pressure and size-challenged are proposing ideas such as snack taxes for all fatty foods. Their proposals don’t stop there. They are also searching to raise civil action suits against fast food restaurants. Yes, McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC are all under attack.
We spend a lot of time in our everyday lives thinking, “That can never happen to me.” Still, this mindset does more harm than good. The threat is real, and it affects all of us. For the last few years, I have warned friends, family and whoever would listen concerning the horrors of lawsuits against tobacco companies. Perhaps I was too silent, which is why I write this to all of you now. Many probably agree that tobacco should pay for its secrecy throughout the years. Still, it is hard to not agree that this has led to a slippery slope in that now class action suits are becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Still, this yields more than just a slippery slope. It also provides our society with a scapegoat mentality. We decide that we must place blame on the poor cashier at Wendy’s than on ourselves. Now we quickly blame others and get companies to pay us to use their products. You might smile to yourself and think this is the American way. We are not unique in this aspect. History provides us with many examples to which we could use to compare our modern day mentality.
The year was 1931, and a gentleman named Adolf Hitler convinced Germans that the rest of the world was to blame for their lots in life. It couldn’t possibly be the two previously failed First or Second Reich or the World War that Germany entrenched the rest of the world in-it had to be everyone else. You might remark, “We could see that coming from a mile away.” Consider that a United States publication, “Time Magazine,” named Adolf Hitler the Time Man of the Year in 1931. See it from a mile a way. We couldn’t even see it from several thousands. Maybe the time to act is now.
Maybe the issue goes deeper. Maybe we live in a society that doesn’t value the individual as much as uniformity. Many strive to become that thin ‘goddess’ or ‘god’ that we collectively place on a pedestal in our society. Everyday, someone starves him or herself to death or dies in an attempt to stay thin. Perhaps we can spread the blame to everyone. Maybe we lack the ability to appreciate people on different levels rather than comparing them to a uniform societal view.
Still, this issue might not seem so big to many of you. I’ll give it a go one more time. Snack taxes are essentially the same idea as the sin tax you pay every time you buy a tobacco product or an alcoholic beverage. Many sat on their hands thinking this tax wouldn’t come about, yet it did. The day might come when that coveted chocolate bar is next to the bottle of vodka at the package store. This is not to mention that the United States Federal Government doesn’t have the right to tax you in the first place.
If this seems extreme, I hope you’re right. The idea of government, or even a lobbying group, running our daily lives provides these fears not only to me but to thousands of other college students as well. This issue is one that particularly inflames me but might not reach to you personally. I issue now a personal call to arms. If there is something that you feel needs changing, then speak out and control the future of your country. Maybe today it is obesity or mindsets, but there are many other issues worth our time and that affect you. As for ‘fat-fighters,’ I think Chris Rock might have said it best. “Nobody’s ever sold me drugs. Nobody’s ever sold you drugs. You went out and got them yourself.” I think we could say the same about fast food. We want the Whopper our way, not the other way around.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 15 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry