NO FAT PEOPLE ALLOWED

Imagine a world where people are told what to eat, what to drink, how to enjoy themselves, and how to behave in general. If they don’t do as they’re told, they’re vilified, fined, harassed, made to feel guilty, fired from their jobs or even imprisoned.

This opening statement of C.A.G.E.’s mission was written a little over three years ago and at a time when it may have sounded like something straight out of a fiction book or movie. Let’s take a look at what’s happening, now that we no longer have to imagine, but actually witness in what kind of a world the healthist movement has lead us:

Witness the WHO refusing to hire smokers
Witness the Cleveland Clinic banning the hiring of smokers
Witness the South Florida Hospital who will no Longer hire smokers
Witness Robert Cushman urging doctors to play hardball with patients with bad habits
Witness children being put into care for being fat
Witness elderly people dying out in the cold:
Witness public health openly calling for people to embarrass their smoking relative
Witness doctors refusing to treat the old and unhealthy
Witness dying smokers left out in the cold
Witness veterans thrown out in the cold
Witness violence brought about by hate propaganda
Witness people losing their livelihoods
Witness the amount of fines for allowing the use of a legal product in one’s own property

These are but a few examples of how the situation deteriorated in the last three years since we embarked on this mission.

When we started, we called for people to unite and fight back. It hasn’t happened.

It’s not too late, but we must learn from our mistakes. In that spirit, C.A.G.E. join their voice with Sandy Swarcz’ to once again appeal to citizens to unite in order to fight back the next and subsequent targets of intolerance and de-normalization.

Read and weep. Not that this legislation will pass…yet. But the fact that it even crossed some busybody’s mind, is frightening enough.

HOUSE BILL NO. 282
An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi:
SECTION 1.
(1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.
(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.
(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.

Read Sandy Swarcz’ comment and appeal at: No fat people allowed: Only the slim will be allowed to dine in public!