Recently, an image appeared in the Sacramento Bee that depicted a noticeably overweight man screaming in terror over the Ebola “pandemic.” Meanwhile, the man was smoking, drinking and eating fast food. The message is clear: Americans are putting WAY too much emphasis on this “plague of the week” while conveniently ignoring the hundreds of thousands of deaths that are happening every year due to poor decisions concerning health. Let’s be honest, literally every year, we are faced with some new and terrible disease that makes up cringe and hide in our homes. At the same time, there are other, more immediate concerns that we ignore completely, like the things already killing us and our economy. While I agree with this image, in part, the meaning behind it irked me slightly. For some reason, rather than give a thumbs-up and say “I see what you did there,” I was compelled to frown and shake my head. It took me a few seconds, but I finally figured out what was bothering me about it. Mentioning these things along with Ebola, you know my conclusion…I’m sorry…but that’s bulls&@t.
Look, I don’t think anyone who is following the news about the spread of this horrible virus objectively is going to break out their apocalypse kit. Things just aren’t that bad…at least, not yet. But, this virus—and really ANY disease—is not comparable to the other health issues in the slightest. Here’s why…many of the issues that Americans face come down to one thing: choice. We are a nation—and, indeed, a people—that is accustomed to having a say. Whether good or bad, people choose a lot of what happens to them. As a consequence, we become bitter, angry and fearful when we perceive that our right to choose is being taken from us. That’s the real problem right there.
With eating fast food and drinking, the ultimate burden falls on the shoulders of the people who choose to partake. YOUR decision to eat the wrong things and failure to exercise won’t hurt ME. Barring someone being so irresponsible as to drink and drive, someone drinking themselves to death won’t hurt their neighbors or coworkers. Even smoking, which actually exposes “innocent” people to harmful secondhand smoke, is limited. Only you and the people in your immediate area are affected. Once someone else leaves the area, they aren’t taking an orb of that smoke with them to pass on to everyone else they meet that day. Other than a faint trace of scent in their clothes if they stood near the smoker long enough, nothing from the secondhand smoke breather is going to be passed on to a new person. But this is not true for a disease. For a disease, it doesn’t matter if you eat right and exercise. It doesn’t matter if you don’t drink or smoke. It doesn’t matter if you make all the right choices…you can still get sick. Even if you do everything right, you can still die. And that lack of power, of autonomy, is what really scares people.
You can “just say no” to drugs, to alcohol and even to high-fructose corn syrup…but there is no “just say no” to cancer. There is no way to choose to stay well. And rather than poke fun at that fear, it needs to be addressed.
People are scared.
They are uninformed, unprepared and terrified. To quote another cartoon (by the same artist, no less), fear mongering has already gone airborne. But unlike with the diseases themselves, the cure for that can go airborne as well. Videos need to go viral, a media blitz needs to take hold and more information, on this disease and others, needs to be shown as often and explicitly as the spread of it is covered. THEN, we can shake our heads at the people who are afraid. Doing it now makes you seem like a condemner, not someone concerned.
Nothing to Fear...Except Everything 