Winning obesity fight takes attitude change
While the goals of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity are admirable, they are attacking the wrong “enemy” (Opinion, Jan. 13). We have been led to believe that we have an obesity epidemic and health care crisis. Our problem is that we have a food crisis and a culture that loves food high in fat, sugar and salt. The food manufacturers are aware of our biological need. Their food scientists, marketing and advertising departments address our cravings. Unfortunately, they have overshot by a large amount. Until we make it “hip” to drink water instead of soda, eat beans instead of burgers and exercise instead of sitting, we can expect a long-term relationship with doctors and hospitals.
Ken Leebow, Marietta
His brand of capitalism not free enterprise
So, Mitt Romney is being spun as some kind of tough-love, corporate turnaround guy? There’s one big problem: his business model extracted wealth from companies, whether the company survived or not. If he were concerned about turning companies around, wouldn’t he have taken compensation in stock that would rise if (and only if) the company rebounded? Vulture capitalism is no more required to have “free enterprise” or “creative destruction” than Internet Explorer was required to run Windows. Free enterprise survived fine before firms like Bain came along. Capitalism and free enterprise are (or should be) about producing something — not about gaming the system to extract from it while producing nothing.
Rusty Cartmill, Alpharetta
Vote your convictions, not conventional ideal
I will not vote for a candidate because he is the most “electable.” Whether my candidate wins or loses is irrelevant. Telling me my vote for an “unelectable” candidate fragments the “electable” candidate’s chances to defeat the president amounts to an admission that a vote is an abstract control mechanism. I will vote for a person — not a political party. He will be someone I’ve read about, listened to and believe to be passionate about bringing our nation back to fiscal health, and our Congress away from corporate influence peddling. My vote may not prove popular, strategic or successful, but it will be rendered with a clear conscience concerning that candidate.
Eddie Ross, Marietta
