Letter to the Editor

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January 26, 2010

Mature individuals can make own choices

Anonymous The Jacksonville Daily Progress Tue Jan 26, 2010, 12:00 AM CST

There is no good in sugar and fat. It causes diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, cancer and many other diseases that destroy people’s health, minds and families. The day Ms. Pike counted 19 alcohol violations in the paper probably also saw more than 19 admissions to the area hospitals and clinics because of the abuse of sugar and fat. And remember, that alcohol was not bought in Jacksonville unless it came from bootleggers.

Hopefully, we can get sugar and fat banned from our restaurants and stores. We provide a double standard for our children by abusing fat and sugar and many of our children are obese. Maybe we can make it the subject of sermons.

As I drive around Jacksonville, I am appalled at all the fast food wrappers and candy wrappers that litter our streets and parks ... many more of them than alcohol containers! At least the alcohol containers can be picked up by our citizens who are out of work and sold with the hundreds of soft drink cans that lie with them.

It’s not about money, but it IS about power — the power to force my standards on others because I believe I can make better choices for them, and they need to conform to my beliefs. I am feeling very paternal and righteous when I preach the ills of fast food and what is right for other folks!

Of course, I could let other people make their own informed choices about what they purchase and trust them to not abuse it as if they were grown people able to make that decision, but everybody knows that I am qualified by virtue of my personal beliefs to force other folks to follow my directives!

We have come over 40 years from 1976 and the last alcohol election, and thankfully many people have become used to other people making their own decisions concerning alcohol or fat and sugar or any other legal product and trusting them to make their own choice to use or abuse that product.

Please reserve your paternalistic/materialistic attitude for those in your own family and respect everyone else as mature individuals able to make their own choices.

Dennis Harper

Jacksonville

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