Sugary Drinks and the Government?

Sugary drinks have been a hot topic lately in New York, and needless to say it was thrown out. I mean, banning the large soft drinks would be great, but it wasn't tightened up enough, and it was just silly for the government to believe that they should be able to tell people what they can eat and drink, right?

Don't you think it sounds a bit controlling for the Mayor of New York to tell people that they are too heavy and that they need to cut back on soft drinks? I certainly do! Am I saying it takes courage to stand up and drink a soft drink in front of them? No, not at all.

What I do want to get across is that we as a country need to stand up for our ability to think for ourselves. I mean, how could we go so wrong after so many years of being the greatest country in the world?

I still believe that we are, at least for the time being. However, it seems that with so much control in progress, we have lost sight of we should be doing, what we should be teaching our children, and most of all, what need to teach our grandchildren.

Let me share with you a story I heard the other day.

Sugary Drinks and Communism? 

The other day I ran out to Barnes and Noble as I often do, looking for reading material on business, personal development, and anything else that comes to mind. I typically don't read much fiction, but I was looking for Atlas Shrugged. 

At the end of the literature section, it's adjacent to the children's books, and a young boy was with his father right after school looking for a book for a book report. As they were searching, the young man looks up at his dad and says, "Dad, do you know if we can get a Coke here?" 

The father says, "No son, they have bottled water, juices, and of course coffee which you are too young to drink!" 

As the father lightly chuckled to himself, the young man says, "Oh, are we getting that ban on Coca-Cola too?", with a look that was so hoping that the answer was no. 

His father simply replied with, "No, we aren't in New York, and word has it it's not going to happen." As he was answer his son, he son's face had a bit of a confused look. 

The young man's response was simply this: "Dad, I was really worried, because we have been studying the different types of countries and how they are run. We were talking about communism today, and the teacher said that this is what this sugary drinks law sounded like." 

My thoughts were, wow. What are we teaching our young men and women? What do our children preceive to be happening? We often have our way of looking at things as adults, but to hear it come out of the mouth of a child is much different. Agreed?

Sugary Drinks are Just the Beginning

So, all in all, are sugary drinks just the beginning? Or, are they the marker of something more looming to come? 

Whether or not you are a Christian and you are reading this, the truth remainds that our country is sinking fast. I have encountered many folks that immigrated here from communist countries, and what I am hearing from them is that they now feel that the US is headed in that direction. 

Don't you find that alarming folks? I do, and it disturbs me from the standpoint that this is a country that preaches out our freedoms, yet it seems that more of them are being taken away. 

Do you believe that you were born into a country that is free? Do you see that those freedoms seem to be slipping away? Do you find that each time you think it's getting better that it really isn't? 

Wake up America! It's time to realize that we are at the mercy of government officials, but really what they know isn't what our country is made of. We need to find a way to do things better, do them consistently, and have the courage to stand up about nonsensical things like "sugary drinks" before something bigger comes down the pike!