Rita's Spur to Action

Once more into the breach

Monthly Archives: October 2014

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Knock out the heavy weight

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On a recent trip to Costco uptown on 116th Street, I noticed that almost all the children were overweight and most of the adult customers as well. The average weight of the American child has been climbing since the 1980s. Now 1 in 3 kids are obese or overweight. Projecting this observation, in about 10 or 15 years, more than half the adult population would be dangerously overweight. There will be millions of cases of diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

Apparently, President Obama tried to address this problem. He got behind the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was to impose strict new standards on all foods sold in public schools. It became law in 2010 with overwhelming support in Congress. Although at the time the Republicans in the Senate seemed to support this bill, they now attack it as a nanny state intrusion. Food companies argue that the standards are too severe and some kids don’t like the food. It looks as though if the Republicans gain control of the Senate this fall, they will immediately gut the program within a year and with it will also be lost the fight against childhood obesity.

Last time the Republicans had the opportunity, they decided that the price of lunch would be driven up, that sodium reductions would be expensive and that children wouldn’t necessarily eat the lower sodium food. Apparently in the Reagan Administration, they allowed schools to count ketchup as a vegetable and pizza as a vegetable. It seems as though the Republicans again have no regard for the health of the nation.

It is clear that the population of our country is truly obese and not healthy. Something must be done. Healthy food may require children to change their eating habits. Maybe the schools need to have small gardens so the children can learn more about food and nutrition. Of course there is a cost but the cost is far lower than what we will be paying when these children are older and suffer from obesity, diabetes, colon cancer, high cholesterol and heart problems. Spend the money now to save money in the future.

Vote now for the candidates who will support the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

 

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Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust!

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After 9/11, it appeared that most of the terrorists who had attacked and destroyed the World Trade Center turned out to be from Saudi Arabia. I didn’t hear any outcry at that time from Muslims all over the world or even in America or New York City for that matter. If the Muslim world would rise up and attack ISIS, or whatever they call themselves, these barbarians would soon be starved out. The fact of the matter is that the only Muslim group that seems to have reacted to the beheadings of truly innocent people, appears to be in France. When you look at the number of Muslims in the world they are one of the largest religious populations on the globe and I believe that in around 2020 there will be approximately 17 million in America. Why have we not seen some concerted activity anywhere? These barbarians must not be allowed to carry the banner for Islam.

I understand and certainly believe that not all Islamists are terrorists or cut throats but I think that the world of Islam needs to make its presence felt on this issue or risk everyone being tarred by the same feathers. ISIS is collecting millions of dollars a day from the oil wells that they have illegally taken over, and the ransom money that is being paid to them for the lives of the innocent people whom they have kidnapped and are prepared to behead.

The Imams and the people of Islam need to be allied with the rest of the world to fight terrorism. They need to speak out against and root out the terrorists who live amongst them and who lay claim to being their brothers because they are all Muslims. In his letter written from his jail cell in Birmingham Alabama in 1963 Martin Luther King demanded the very same thing of his Christian ministers when he urged them to rise up against the Klu Klux Klan.

Yes, there are individual voices now and then, but there is no sense of community action by those who simply do not and will not accept ISIS and their barbaric executions of innocent people.