It seems that there is a bit of a furor surrounding the comment made by the First MO (that would be Michelle Obama, it is difficult to refer to her as “Lady”) and her astounding observation that childhood obesity is a threat to National Security. It has been loudly protested by the lame-stream media that she is not the only one to say that. They defend her by sneering that others have said it, other military leaders and even previous administrations’ Surgeon Generals. They even go so far as to insist that it has nothing to do with politics. Nope, she is simply concerned about fat children. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with promoting an expensive (and utterly useless) program and campaign to wipe out childhood fat?
They just don’t get it, do they? You see, regardless of who said it, that is hardly the point. It doesn’t matter who said it before. Are there issues in this country regarding obesity? Yes. Is obesity impacting people’s lives? Yes. Is there anything the federal government should do about it? hmmm how can I say this so the lazy, the liberal, the socialist, the communist, the ignorant can understand? NO! In fact, not just NO, but HELL NO!!!
WHY would anyone be anxious to have someone else tell you what you are allowed to put in your mouth? How much you are allowed to eat, how long you are allowed to sleep? How much you must exercise? Get a LIFE, people!! and not someone else’s!! And certainly stay out of MINE!!
Guess what, if children are too fat, then that is the responsibility of their parents and the obese child, not you, and certainly not the government!
Oh wait, what’s that you say? They only have one parent? They are poor? They are from disadvantaged neighborhoods? Or maybe they are middle class? They are wealthy? It still doesn’t matter. It remains the parent(s) and the obese child’s responsibility. Stop trying to make everyone a victim. Actions have consequences. Every single person, man, woman, child must learn to be responsible. Responsibility is not something you just wake up one morning and there it is. Children must be taught responsibility by the adults who brought that child into the world. If the parent is irresponsible then there is little hope that the child will figure it out on their own.
So what has responsibility to do with obese children? Here is an idea – you see, every one of those fat children has a parent or two somewhere. A parent (or parents) who may be rich – or middle class or even poor, is still a parent that makes decisions regarding the child. Every obese child also has a set of choices, their own decisions to make. Middle class or wealthy parents and their children don’t necessarily have easier or better choices than poor parents and their children. They simply have different choices. You may argue that if the parents are poor, they have no choice regarding their child’s health, diet and consequently no control over the fat child’s eating habits, exercise or health care because they don’t have the money.
There you go again, trying to let individuals out of their responsibility and telling them they are victims. The truth is, most of those poor, double or single parent disadvantaged families get lots of help already. Lots of money. Lots of MY money, along with lots of money from the working middle class and lots more money from the working wealthy class. The very same middle class parents and wealthy parents that may also have obese children. One big difference is that the middle class and wealthy parents get to work it out for themselves, no governmental handout, you see, the big M.O. doesn’t really care about those fat kids, the wealthy and middle class ones, she doesn’t really care because she knows she has nothing they want. On the other hand the working middle class and the wealthy have something she and her husband want. The wealthy and the middle class are the lifeblood (money) that keeps America going. The Obama Administration wants every dime. And the best way to get it is to make fat kids their fault, blame them so that it is ok to make them pay. The only thing the big M.O. cares about is soaking those same middle class and wealthy parents for as much of their money as possible to fund more handouts to those poor, disadvantaged parents and their victim children. And I’m sure it never even crossed M.O.’s mind that her loser hubby can now expect those who received the additional handouts to remember who gave it to them when it comes time to vote. Yeah, right!
Of course, I do not hear any liberal or even anyone in the lame-stream media asking those same poor, single parent, disadvantaged families to be accountable for how they spent the money they got from me and the others. The responsible parents who are working 9 – 18 hour long days and/or nights, multiple jobs (if they can find them) to be able to support our families (and apparently theirs).
So I will ask: How did those poor, disadvantaged parents spend their food stamps that I paid for? How did they spend their WIC money that I paid? How did they spend their Welfare Check that I worked and paid for? Did they buy food that was plain but wholesome and less expensive but needed a few minutes to prepare? Or did they just buy what was fast, convenient, so that even the kids could make for themselves? No, wait, THAT would mean that the (or a) parent would have to actually be responsible for seeing that the poor little ones ate. Of course, that would take a tiny bit of time out of the life of that busy poor, disadvantaged parent, and, oh, wait, I forgot, just what are they so busy doing? They are very busy being poor, being too disadvantaged to have time to be held responsible for something as demanding as making sure their kid(s) eat a good meal. Of course, they weren’t too busy to create that child, or too busy to see that they signed up for all the assistance programs offered, or too busy demanding more (because they are victims of greedy middle class and wealthy Americans!)
So, instead of buying milk, bread, potatoes, vegetables (fresh or canned or even frozen), eggs, meat (ground beef, bologna, even hot dogs, just not prime rib), they purchased what? Fast food? Junk food? Convenience food? Or perhaps, not food at all? Maybe a Flat Screen TV? $250.00 sneakers for the poor little fat tyke? A cell phone? A $200.00 IPod? Tell me again why those poor little children are pudge balls and it’s MY fault and not the responsibility of their parents?
It seems that, according to the liberal socialistic elitists, that it MUST be my fault so they can justify stealing more of my hard earned money. Or perhaps that, according to the big MO, it is the fault of this old, white, racist, conservative behaving selfishly and hatefully, and not wanting to turn loose of even one more dime so her husband can “spread the wealth” (of course, I wonder. . . if she is the one to mention MY skin color as if it mattered, wouldn’t that make HER the racist? And since I have not once mentioned any one race or ethnic group, if anyone reads it and assumes there were stereotypes, then doesn’t that make them the racist because they applied their own discriminations to otherwise general descriptions? Yeah, I didn’t think so).
The point is, it doesn’t matter. The PARENT made the choice, the decision, and so did the child. It is their responsibility. It is NOT yours or mine, even though we, you and I, are forced to PAY for their irresponsibility and bad choices. And now M.O. wants us to pay even more.
You see, the poor, the disadvantaged already receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year from ME. I don’t get any say about who gets it, how they spend it, and certainly not what they spend it on. Instead, the socialistic, liberal elitists made fun of working class conservatives when they said that teenage girls should NOT be glorified for having babies out of wedlock. Way to go Murphy Brown, how is that “I have a right to be a single parent” thing working out for those poor, young girls who watched your tv show, and thought “yeah! I can have a baby if I want to!” Do you think that those babies having babies know how to provide balanced, nutritional meals for those children? Do you think that might have anything at all to do with an obesity in children issue?
This is a far more serious problem than just fat children. I do NOT need anyone—not a military general, or a surgeon general and certainly NOT Michelle Obama-telling me what I should eat, how much I should eat, when I should exercise, how I should exercise, and then justifying the enforcement of THEIR will, THEIR decisions, THEIR choices, THEIR CONTROL onto ME because THEY believe they know better than me how I should live my life.
There should NOT be a TAX payer funded, government study costing millions of dollars, to tell me that being fat is not a good idea. There should NOT be a tax-payer funded, government run PROGRAM to control how I live and eat. There should NOT be mandated medical procedures imposed on me because I’m fat. There should NOT be any medical procedure withheld FROM me (as a punishment, to teach me a lesson) because I’m fat. There should NOT be ANY government authority given over me to force me to do what THEY have decided is better for me than anything I choose for myself.
Neither should there be any government control over how I fry my food, how much fat, salt, sugar, butter, cream, chocolate, carbohydrates, protein or TREE BARK if I want it, is “allowed” in my food! Get the point? Government stays OUT of private lives and personal decisions.
I do NOT need the government to TELL me WHAT I can say, what I can think, what I can eat, what I can own, where I can live, IF I get insurance, what constitutes a real marriage, who I can like or dislike, even who I can say good things and who I can say bad things about and CERTAINLY NOT what I have to pay for. Government is NOT entitled to the fruits of MY labor, it is NOT THEIR money, I do NOT give government/politicians permission to pay for indigence, indolence, laziness, niggardly behavior, retarded morality, criminal acts or even stupid studies or programs on fat.
How about this, why don’t I just tell Michelle Obama and anyone else who has a problem with leaving people alone or staying out of other people’s business to stick to their OWN business. NOBODY voted for HER. NOBODY gives a crap what SHE thinks about ANYTHING. She told me everything I needed to know about what SHE thinks when she said she hadn’t been proud of her country for her whole life, until about a year ago. THAT tells me that she has NO business telling me or any other American how to live.
I will guarantee you THIS: IF the military is worried about not having enough people join the armed services because they are too fat – don’t worry about it! I, for one, would MUCH rather have ALL those paunchy, over weight “good ol’ boys” who are “bitterly clinging to their guns and their religion” (and apparently their deep fried foods) watching MY back with their guns, while I keep an eye on MY life, liberty and pursuit of happiness with MY gun. Better that than some liberal, socialist who craves power to run my life.
You see, I still believe in personal property rights, I still believe in individual liberty, I still believe in personal responsibility, in individual achievement and excellence, and personal creativity. I still believe in rewarding those who work and produce and not limiting them because someone else whines about “that’s not fair. There is nothing in the Constitution that guarantees a “level playing field”, nothing in the Bill of Rights that assures or guarantees EQUAL outcome.
I DON’T believe in entitlements, I don’t believe in class warfare people like the Obamas are telling everyone, they are the ones waging war – trying to convince everyone that it’s the “poor versus the wealthy”. Nope, because it’s the Obamas and this administration who are waging war! War against the American people, a war that pits the PRODUCING CLASS against the ENTITLEMENT CLASS !!
Like I said, it is a FAR more serious issue than how many french fries a kid eats. It is ALL about personal responsibility and this administration wanting to take over people’s lives, ONE little bite at a time.
————————————
Kelly Wolf is a free lance writer currently generating exclusive opinion/editorial articles on the issues of the day.