Corpulent Obliteration

Surfing the cyber world one morning, as I am wont to do, I came upon some revelations of an odd sort. I have recently found a particular interest in current affairs, and voraciously search all that is new and interesting. I do this on the net as it allows generous access to the hordes of influences, both altruistic and cretinous. The news media has long held both my favor and my ire. Here of late, my ire has received all too much inspiration.

This morning I decided to see what health matters the population needs to focus attention on. Imagine my rather rotund personage being confronted with the knowledge that “Obesity contributes to global warming.” At least that is what Reuters reports from a source in London, England. According to the wise folks at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine being stout of body is causing global warming.

Now, given my recent indignation over being told I was “Not a candidate” for body donation, and the ensuing emotions I encountered and wrote on, this gave me particular foundation for this morning’s tirade. I immediately went to the nearest search engine to learn of the legitimacy of these seemingly ignorant and ill advised folks attempting to, once more, tell me that I am not good enough. Fortunately I have scholarly skills which outweigh (ha!) my propensity to slash an burn at the keyboard. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a well-respected organization in business over one hundred years enjoying wide recognition and success in dealing with public health issues. Most of what is known about tropical diseases has come from this institution, and hundreds of thousands of people have been treated with medicines and procedures developed by this organization. The only thing I can say after realizing who they were is…thank you.

“Obesity tied to risk of psychiatric disorders” so reports the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Another entity seemingly engaged in a war against fat people. Not as widely recognized as the earlier entity in this page, it still appears to be legitimate in appearance and motivation. Again, all I can say to this organization is…thank you.

My real gripe is the incredibly biased attitude that obesity is wrong. Yes, I know that psychiatric disorders are a part of being obese. I seek and receive treatment for this. Yes, I know that I am at risk for a plethora of maladies directly related to my size. I have some of these and treat them with the assistance of a paid medical professional. Yes, I know that my life span will be shortened by my fatness. I am also reasonably assured that all who live (not suffer) from obesity are cognizant of these factors. How can we not? It is all over the news. It is all over the television. Weight loss is now a business receiving billions of dollars in revenue.

I do not have any memory of being small. I have no frame of reference in my family, other then my dear sister, that there is any other way to be. I have been enamored of the process of eating for 55 years (almost) and can see no change in that posture. I have been surgically altered, given medication, counseled, dieted numerous times, exercised, encouraged, berated, generally made to feel inferior all my life, and still I am fat. This is not the “poor me” ranting of a fat guy that refuses to stop eating too much. This is the plain truth. I have been discriminated in employment, in the availability of services, and the ability to travel comfortably.

Global Warming? Well, show me the environmentally conscious choice there is in automobiles for persons over one hundred pounds. Morbidly obese is what it is called. Let me enlighten the reader here…I am not unwholesome, diseased, unhealthy, sick, sickly; tainted, corrupted, or vitiated as a result of my size. I am not causing global warming. I only own one car. I am not causing harm to the Penguins, or holding a blowtorch to the polar ice caps. There is no more water in the ocean when I go swimming then before, displacement occurs and I get sand in my suit. The only thing hot about it is the temperature outside that caused the feeling in me to go swimming in the first place.

What I would really like to know is why these famous health organizations are doing about the ten million people who die each year from treatable diseases? Why is the continent of Africa in a desperate and seemingly untenable situation over the number of people with AIDS? Why is the leading public health organization in the fight against tropical diseases not looking into the issue of starvation in the tropical regions? Do they think us fat people are eating all the food, and if we were not fat the rest of the world would not be hungry? It couldn’t possibly be that the world is addicted to crude oil? The discovery, production, and marketing of petroleum crude oil is the reason, if there is a reason, that the globe is getting warmer, not my propensity to indulge in fried chicken and Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia Ice Cream.

I am done for today. This is not finished. I will be back. Right now it is time for lunch…peace.