(NOTE: I wrote this on 06 December 2011, but my Internet was down so it didn't get posted until 07 Dec.)
It makes no sense to me. Why do governments feel the need to tell people how to live their lives? State governments are waging war on obesity by taxing high caloric foods. I heard one expert today on Iowa Public Radio suggest that insurance companies should charge a higher premium to obese people just as they do to smokers or people w/ too many DUI's. Supposedly these obese people are costing me money....still haven't sorted out that line of reasoning. If they want to be fat and die an earlier death, then who are we to tell them that's wrong? Obesity could be the great equalizer that gets overpopulation under control.
Nigeria is trying to pass a law that would ban all public displays of homosexuality and make gay marriage illegal. All this in an attempt to reduce the number of people w/ HIV/AIDS b/c Nigeria has the second highest percentage of the African population w/ this disease. I guess that government doesn’t care that 80% of those infected are heterosexual. How can a government tell a person who to love and how to feel and w/ whom to have sex? We are a world of reactionaries that force the pendulum to swing to its complete counterpart and think this will solve the problem. All that happens is that the pendulum will come back w/ equal force to the other side, and w/ each swing it loses strength and momentum until ultimately it comes to rest in the center. When the pendulum rests at its center it wastes no energy. Its moderate stance allows it to remain in balance. Moderates are accused of having no opinions, no backbone. Yet eating in moderation and balance promotes health. Sex is exercise. Exercise releases endorphins. Endorphins make people happy. Sex makes people happy. What can be wrong w/ that? Swinging the pendulum to complete denial of certain foods or of sex only lasts so long and then the person swings to the other side and gorges on every decadence that had been previously abstained. Moderation is tolerance. Tolerance is moderate. Why can’t we learn to tolerate, moderate, and accept each other as we are? Why must governments define who we are?
My daughters and I want to get matching tattoos in honor of my mother. The tats will all be a sprinkling can, which she collected, and the handle will be in the shape of a support ribbon. We’ll each have a different colored handle and flowers on the can to represent her cancers, my cancers, and my older daughter’s Crohn’s Disease. My younger daughter is 15, and in the state of Iowa (in which I reside) and the state of Minnesota, it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to get a tattoo even w/ parental consent. These state governments are telling me as a parent what is best for my children. The state in which I was born and have lived most of my life, in which I have been educated, worked, and paid taxes finds me incapable of acting in the best interest of my children.
Governments have too much control, too much power. My government is supposed to be “of the people, by the people, for the people.” This person says, “Back off.”
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment