OVER SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND AMERICANS KILL THEMSELVES EACH YEAR.
We just had midterm elections. Did anyone hear this on a platform? You just got back from church, synagogue, temple, mosque or humanist society meeting. Did someone stand up front and rail against obesity for 45 minutes straight? Gluttony? No. But you might've heard about Ebola or something else which is killing zero percent of the population.
You are twenty pounds overweight. No biggie. It's in the genes.
Maybe you take high blood pressure medication. Maybe anti-anxiety pills. Maybe a statin.
You are forty pounds overweight. No biggie. It's just old age, college, a few too many beers. You know: the usual.
Maybe you are prediabetic. Maybe you've gotten to full-on diabetes. Now you are getting nerve damage. Your risk of heart disease is assured if things don't change. Your risk of Alzheimer's is through the roof.
You are sixty pounds overweight. No biggie. It's just being big-boned. Everyone's gonna die one day; why deprive yourself of the simple pleasures in life? Right?
Maybe you're eighty pounds overweight. Heck, maybe you're underweight, because you're so sick you have malabsorption and can't even get the nutrients you're putting in because you spend so much time poisoning yourself. No biggie. Your blood pressure is fine, right? Nevermind that it's low because your organs are so spent that you are about to die. Low blood pressure DOES NOT EQUAL HEALTHY.
You have dementia, heart disease, lethargy, brain fog, afternoon slump, migraines, acid reflux, chronic pain, allergies, insomnia, loss of libido and general malaise. No biggie. There's a pill for that. You're clearly enjoying those simple pleasures, right? Which pleasures were they again? I'm just checking, because health seems better than high fructose corn syrup. Then again, I'm a fanatic.
What's it going to take? I don't have the answer. I'm asking you: what is it going to take for you to stop committing suicide? Think about it for some time. What is it going to take for our society to stop committing mass scale suicide? We say we have a moral aversion to suicide while we throw back a bag of Cinnabons. We aid and abet the suicide of children with the rewards we give them, but somehow we claim to love them.
One day, chances are that you will be lying in a hospital bed. You will have been wrapping the noose around your neck for years; but you are going to hope you can buy one more precious moment on this earth via surgery, drugs, an IV bag, a procedure. "There's gotta be something which can loosen the noose," you'll think to yourself. Nodding your head "yes" on that day is going to cost some taxpayer thousands of dollars. And guess what: it may not buy you any time at all. However, today, this day right here and now, you can buy more of that same exact precious time with no taxpayer's hard-earned dollars simply by pushing away from the table. It's free. And, you know what, it really is easy. You just have to do it. What's it going to take?
We just had midterm elections. Did anyone hear this on a platform? You just got back from church, synagogue, temple, mosque or humanist society meeting. Did someone stand up front and rail against obesity for 45 minutes straight? Gluttony? No. But you might've heard about Ebola or something else which is killing zero percent of the population.
You are twenty pounds overweight. No biggie. It's in the genes.
Maybe you take high blood pressure medication. Maybe anti-anxiety pills. Maybe a statin.
You are forty pounds overweight. No biggie. It's just old age, college, a few too many beers. You know: the usual.
Maybe you are prediabetic. Maybe you've gotten to full-on diabetes. Now you are getting nerve damage. Your risk of heart disease is assured if things don't change. Your risk of Alzheimer's is through the roof.
You are sixty pounds overweight. No biggie. It's just being big-boned. Everyone's gonna die one day; why deprive yourself of the simple pleasures in life? Right?
Maybe you're eighty pounds overweight. Heck, maybe you're underweight, because you're so sick you have malabsorption and can't even get the nutrients you're putting in because you spend so much time poisoning yourself. No biggie. Your blood pressure is fine, right? Nevermind that it's low because your organs are so spent that you are about to die. Low blood pressure DOES NOT EQUAL HEALTHY.
You have dementia, heart disease, lethargy, brain fog, afternoon slump, migraines, acid reflux, chronic pain, allergies, insomnia, loss of libido and general malaise. No biggie. There's a pill for that. You're clearly enjoying those simple pleasures, right? Which pleasures were they again? I'm just checking, because health seems better than high fructose corn syrup. Then again, I'm a fanatic.
What's it going to take? I don't have the answer. I'm asking you: what is it going to take for you to stop committing suicide? Think about it for some time. What is it going to take for our society to stop committing mass scale suicide? We say we have a moral aversion to suicide while we throw back a bag of Cinnabons. We aid and abet the suicide of children with the rewards we give them, but somehow we claim to love them.
One day, chances are that you will be lying in a hospital bed. You will have been wrapping the noose around your neck for years; but you are going to hope you can buy one more precious moment on this earth via surgery, drugs, an IV bag, a procedure. "There's gotta be something which can loosen the noose," you'll think to yourself. Nodding your head "yes" on that day is going to cost some taxpayer thousands of dollars. And guess what: it may not buy you any time at all. However, today, this day right here and now, you can buy more of that same exact precious time with no taxpayer's hard-earned dollars simply by pushing away from the table. It's free. And, you know what, it really is easy. You just have to do it. What's it going to take?