Staff Editorial

San Francisco bans happy meals and fun

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a bill that will ban the Happy Meal. The vote won with a veto-proof 8-3 margin, meaning Mayor McCheese (Gavin Newson) will not be able to follow through with his promise of a veto.

The ordinance came from Supervisor Eric Mar. Besides being the true identity of the Hamburglar, he was co-author for a resolution to urge local media outlets not to be racist. He voted to get The Richmond District officially called The Richmond District, and objected to wrapping buses with advertising.

What is apparently not a problem in San Francisco is children working jobs to pay for food, and then going through the drive-thru.

That seems to be purely an adult thing. This would mean that parents and guardians cannot control their kids’ toy-driven cravings, or that they just don’t know any better.

We don’t think that people in charge of their families really want what’s best for their children.

All guardians try to take good care of their children is just not a statement that we can make. There are just too many stories of this going wrong. So there is no grace given to Supervisor Mar — but he is taking the wrong angle if he really wants to make a difference in childhood obesity.

He needs to go after the caregivers of the child; not with legislation, but with education. Most people have some remedial knowledge of what to eat. (It’s kind of a fruit and vegetables good and candy bad thing).

But what they don’t know is how their eating habits affect those around them, not just children. If we really want to become healthier, we have to do it as a whole — and without government intervention.

It’s silly to think any other way; it’s just too easy to get around the government, even when they’re in a controlling-father phase.

So, if the people in Houston want to do something about our chubby kids, we don’t need our supervisors to pass ordinances. We just need to be more responsible. This is not something that is going to be easy, but we need to figure out ways to take care of our children and our own health, or the government is going to come in and take our toys — which really is the only fun thing about a Happy Meal.

2 Comments

  • Please note that editing means more than grammar. This has got to be one of the worst written pieces I've seen. Lots of passive voice, awkward sentence construction, and tons of pronouns and references without antecedents. Not that my comment is grammatically correct, but my byline does not read 'Cougar Editorial Board'.

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