The American Dream—but whose?

Yesterday, I was watching CNN and three girls were being interviewed in New York City. They were thrilled about Obama’s victory and telling the interviewer how once again they were able to believe in their country, in the “dream of America”.

I was happy. I listened and was in total agreement with these words; I was amazed at how those three girls held so many of the ideas and hopes that I held so dear. And then it dawned on me like a hot, August morning: how can I have anything in common with these three cows!?

Each of the girls, ranging in age from 25 to 30 and in height from 5’4’’ to 5’6’’, was tipping the scales at anywhere from 175 to 240! I listened to their words and tried to imagine the amount of food that had been consumed prior to their appearance on the camera that day: the amount that would be consumed off-camera, after their “15 minutes” were up and they sat, cheeks glazed in donut oil and sweat later that evening, reliving the moment with friends.

The time has come for us to wake up. We must face the facts. If you voted for Obama and are what we call nowadays “obese” then you really don’t believe in what he is all about. You can’t be. Obama’s dream, his vision is about making America great again. His dream and his vision have a new world etched onto the horizon in which greenhouse gases are being reduced through responsible consumption; through international cooperation led by a progressive and active America.

If you are obese, I don’t want to hear that you have a “thyroid problem” or some other made-up ailment (of all obese or overweight Americans, only about 3 million can legitimately blame an underactive thyroid). The odds that you are obese is because you EAT WAY TOO MUCH and move WAY TOO LITTLE—in other words, you are taking in way too many empty calories and burning off way too few.

Let’s put excess consumption of bad foods under the microscope: empty, high-fructose, heavily-advertised food stuffs, probably from China are consumed hand over fist in large amounts from the moment the fatso rolls out of bed and shuffles to his car; where he then drives to a diner or Dunkin Donuts, and eats white breads with butter and layers of cream cheese or maybe greasy eggs with fried potatoes; then, after some sweet, sugary drink to carry them through their withdrawal by around 10 AM, they shuffle to lunch where they eat nasty, fake foods that have been chemically created in New Jersey: a massive burger with a massive fake white-bread roll, with processed cheese and a massive side of fries that was proceded by nachos and all washed down with a few massive cokes.

Fatty is full for an hour or two until it is time to get a snack around 4, a can of diet soda and a brownie, and then they make their way home for a lite-dinner: a pizza-hut pizza delivered whilst watching Dancing with the Stars.

And then, in their moments of disgust at the Bush regime’s incompetence in governing, they declare that America is off-track and “we need to rebuild the America dream”. What for them, however, is this dream? A nation where up until 2 years ago Wendy’s offered massive burgers with large Frosty’s and fries all for $1.99? A nation where gas is $.89 a gallon? A nation where massive bags of frozen tater tots cost $3.79 a Sam's?

Or is this dream something that we must recreate and not expect to come on a plate or in “great sales after Christmas”? Is it an America where we start to walk to work, church, the corner store for the paper and a coffee? Is it an America where we realize the beauty of sacrifice and that to want for something (and not have everything thanks to credit cards) actually builds character? Is it an America where will start walking up steps at work rather than cramming into an elevator to go up 5 feet?

Is it an America where we start making food at home? Where people start buying produce locally and making dinners where everyone sits at the table and not in front of the TV? Is it an America where people starting gardening? Saving? Is it a dream where we stop making 55% of the worlds waste in a single day?

Is this an America where we start to once again take responsibility for our faults and shortcomings instead of blaming our parents, a bully at school or society? Is this American society that the fat girls in NYC believe in anew one where carbon emissions will be decreased thanks to their lowered consumption/abuse of resources which they waste solely on their own, insatiable desires to eat (and then pass into the overtaxed sewage system), consume and spend?

Is this America a nation where should we cut just 15% of the extra weight off of overweight Americans then we could save 1 trillions dollars each year lost due to slower movement, more fuel used to carry heavier people, to transport more food to farther away places, more lost productivity due to sickness, etc, etc.

Yes, big business and marketers are guilty for making it all look so good and seemingly so cheap, but, we have free-will…we are not cows in the field chomping away until the farmer herds us back in. We can say no but we are lazy.

We are eating ourselves into poverty. Economists say more consumption will get us out of the recession. But then again, it was more consumption that got us here in the first place.

Time to say it: being obese is not ok. It is anti-American.