Humiliation will help lesson nation's obesity

Publication Date: 09/21/2006

I have a solution to America's obesity problem. Every time you walk by a fat person - ridicule them. Tell them you're going to cut some bacon off their back if they don't lose some weight and stop visually polluting our environment. We've grown up in a society that publicly criticizes and ostracizes smokers for being uncaring individuals who only look forward to their next drag. The trend of smoking in the U.S. has gone down since the onset of this barrage. It's been known for quite sometime that cigarettes are dangerous, yet even with negative ads against them, people continued to smoke. Now, with demands that people take their tar lungs out of buildings and airplanes with further scolding once outside, the smoke is beginning to subside. People don't want to deal with the hassle of a jeering public when what they are doing can be stopped. Enter our disgusting populace of walking zeppelins. Out of fear of their next public humiliation, perhaps now our tubby neighbors will walk, run, and crunch their way back into a reasonable weight class. Eating at Subway and getting the meat special with extra mayo (hold the veggies) and sucking down the biggest soda they have is not going to cut it. Unfortunately, it's still taboo to publicly speak out against obesity because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Classifying it as a disease is an excuse to blame something else for one's obvious shortcomings and failures. Remember, the next time you are sitting on an airplane with a tub of lard that could care a less about your feelings concerning their presence, lean over and let them know your thoughts on obesity by crushing one of their rolls with the armrest. Public humiliation is the way of the future. Believe it.

Brad Tesdall

Senior, College of Technology