Big Brother Declares War on Fat, Sugar, and Tobacco

Where does it stop? Big Brother is at it again. This time the watchdogs of the private lives of Americans have decided that we eat too much fat and that restaurants and food processors must lower the fat content of their products, or face fines.

Ground zero for this latest intrusion into American privacy is New York City. Normally I love it here. There is something about the sites, the sounds, the people, the culture, and the ambiance that attracts me. I have visited here often over the last 30 years, and I never cease to leave the city gratified for having visited.

However, New York City politics is another matter.

The war on fat is yet another indication that Big Brother does not trust its citizens to make their own choices as to their diet. Big Brother has decided we are making the wrong choices. Big Brother needs to intervene.

Obviously, the people who are on the front lines of these violations of individual rights seem to think that we poor citizens are imbeciles. We do not possess the ability nor the intelligence to chart our own course, make our own decisions, and decide what's best for us at any given moment in time. Rather we are viewed as mindless automatons who are at the mercy of commercialism. When we walk by the fruit and vegetable stand at the grocery store or the fresh market, we pass it up every time to head out to McDonald's for a Big Mac and a shake.

Therefore, Big Brother, who obviously loves us and wants to protect us from ourselves, comes to the rescue. Restaurants, fast-food chains, and food processors are told they must reduce fat in their products or else. New York City politicians have found themselves another excuse to make a power-grab.

It doesn't stop there. Sugar has been deemed to be yet another culprit. Big Brother says we consume too much or it. Even if that is true, is it the government's role to police our eating habits?

What if I want to smoke a cigar, or a pipe? I was shocked when I traveled to Dallas for a convention to find that there, in the heart of the Old West, smoking was not allowed inside hotels at all. Patrons of restaurants, bars, and hotels in downtown Dallas are forced to go outside to exercise their personal autonomy.

I have no problem with smoke-free zones in restaurants. People who do not smoke also have rights. Does this mean, however, that the long arm of big government must put its intrusive hands in the process and force smokers outside? What about a smoking zone in restaurants? What's wrong with that? And what about smoking rooms in hotels? Why is this unacceptable?

So you see, New York City isn't the only place that has been corrupted by the food-and-smoke police. Even Dallas, Texas has succumbed. John Wayne is surely rolling over in his grave.

Lest anyone gets the notion that I am advocating for smoking ourselves to death, or eating high-fat, high-sugar foods to excess, let me set the record straight right now. Each individual American has their own choices to make. Eating a healthy diet is just plain good sense. Smoking is bad for you. But if my neighbor makes the choice to smoke or eat Big Macs and candy bars at every meal, who am I to tell him he can't? What right does the government have to intrude on his personal life?

The answer is NONE! These violations of Constitutional principles are gradually eroding away the rights we cherish as Americans--rights that are supposed to be protected by the U.S. Constitution. Yet our complacency is our undoing. We are asleep at the wheel. We are allowing big government bureaucrats to come up with new ways to gain the power to control our lives.

Make no mistake about it--this is a power ploy. It has nothing to do with health or compassion. Big Brother is addicted to power, and he has to continually gain more of it in order to feed his addiction.

Americans must wake up while there is still time to resist this intrusion into our lives and this trampling of our rights. We MUST stand up to Big Brother and say, 'NO! ENOUGH!' Big government needs to go on a diet and be put in its place.

Better still, big government needs to go to rehab and get into recovery.