Outrage and Apathy III

Trey Smith

2. During an obesity crisis, gorging oneself on junk food becomes synonymous with civic engagement.

Speaking of that transformation, let’s remember that America is on the verge of bankruptcy, thanks in large part to healthcare spending. A big driver of that profligate spending is the twin obesity and dietary crises. The former costs us about$190 billion a year, and willsoon cost even moreif we don’t get the problem under control. Though the latter’s costs are hard to estimate because food-related disease is so widespread, it’s safe to say they are large.

One of the drivers of these two crises is the relatively recent (in human history terms) rise of processed junk food, and more specifically, the prevalence of that food in America’s sprawling fast food industry (this is especially true amongchildren). So when consuming more fast food is suddenly turned into a form of proud civic engagement and “First Amendment” protest — as it did last week with “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” — it’s an apocalyptic sign that we’re not getting any closer to addressing the crisis. In fact, it’s a sign that we’re intent on making that crisis worse in the future.
~ from Five Lessons From Chick-fil-A by David Sirota ~

It says a lot about America that the issue of gay marriage somehow is more important than the issues of good nutrition and obesity! It makes me wonder, if the president of Chick-fil-A had come out against exercise programs or food labeling, would the same conservative forces have held an Appreciation Day?