As Illinois
does the annual legislative dance this time of year, all sorts of ideas get
tossed around, ranging from the austere to the ridiculous. Sen. Shane Cultra, a
Republican from Onarga, tossed out an idea in the latter category this week
when he said that parents of obese children should lose their tax deductions
for those kids. It was said in the context of a bill to tax sugary beverages in
hopes of curtailing childhood obesity. Cultra later said he was just joking,
though not everyone believes him.
The idea is obviously a dud; trying to work out a mechanism
for enforcement would be a bureaucratic nightmare. I think a lot of people
realized that, including Cultra himself, and so it got a little bit of press
coverage and probably should have died there.
But some people can’t leave well enough alone. We’ve all had
the experience of being in a conversation with one person when a third person
comes along and injects some random thought that apparently came from the
farthest regions of left field. When that happens, everyone else just stands
there in awkward silence for awhile.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the eyeroll-inducing anti-meat group, dutifully took
up the role of conversation killer following Cultra’s statement today when the
group announced it was planning to erect a billboard in Springfield that says “Feeding Kids Meat Is
Child Abuse.”
Now, I’m a vegetarian myself. I stopped eating meat about
two years ago because of health concerns and moral convictions. And I tend to
agree with PETA that eating vegetarian/vegan is healthier overall. (I lost 20
pounds when I stopped eating meat, and I have more energy and a more positive
outlook now.)
But PETA’s announcement (PDF) was so outlandish, graceless and
completely out of context that I could only do this:
Until PETA
injected their entirely unsolicited opinion and hijacked the conversation, meat
wasn’t even part of the discussion, nor was child abuse.
And let’s put this in perspective. If feeding children meat
is child abuse, so is letting them ride a bike or go swimming. The chances of a
child getting hit by a car or drowning in the pool are low enough that a
reasonable parent can accept the risk. Likewise, the chances of a child
becoming obese simply from eating meat are pretty slim. (That pun wasn’t
intentional, but I’ll take any laugh I can get.) There are a plethora of more
influential causes of childhood obesity, and pretending like meat is the worst
among them is disingenuous at best.
Ultimately, PETA’s hyperbole does more to alienate people than
it does to convince them to try skipping the meat. Apparently, the virulently
anti-meat loudmouths have never heard the adage that “You catch more flies with
honey than vinegar.” Maybe if they stuck with extolling the virtues of the
vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, other people might see their ads as
informative instead of inflammatory.
Their billboard announcement brings to mind one of my
favorite jokes:
“Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Vegan.”
“Vegan who?”
“I’m better than you!”
This article appears in May 12-18, 2011.
