MILITARY SERVICE? AW, C'MON!
Today, for lunch, I spent $2.13 for two 99 cent burgers at Burger King. I took off the top half of the buns and in order to avoid a few calories, and as I ate them I glanced around the room.

Two young people, perhaps around 18, a young man and a young woman, sat nearby wolfing down fries and hamburgers and large cokes, both of them around 30 pounds overweight at least. A 12 year old who was 15 to 20 pounds heavier than his companion, was eating a tray full of the same foods at another table. Six young Latino women in uniforms sat at another table, one of them fairly overweight, and then a middle-aged man who packed at least fifty extra pounds ate at another table, six inches of belly hanging over his belt. You know what I'm talking about, you've seen it.

Back in the 30s, 40s and 50s, the nation did not have this problem. At six feet tall, I weighed a steady 165 until I was around 45 years of age. But the people who worked with me, and my friends, all were quite slim. There were fat people, sure, but no where near the percentage of the population that you find today.

Yes, at my age I am losing a bit of height, and feel overweight at 175, but damn, I am not packing 230 to 260 pounds like some of these young people! Damn. (Then I've got a friend who was in the 82nd Airborne in WWII, at 6'2" he is carrying around 270 pounds. )

Most of these younger people would benefit from a year or two in the Service. They'd learn good habits, get lots of exercise, and that fat would burn off day by day until they were trim and well developed.

Many of them would get their first lessons in patriotism as well, learn a love of country, instead of this anti-democracy virus they encounter in many of the schools around our nation.

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