First Lady Michelle Obama is visiting my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi today to highlight her "Lets Move" campaign, which is her pet project in the fight against childhood obesity. She will visit two schools along with our Republican Governor Haley Barbour and his wife Marsha who also have a program aimed at increasing daily physical activity called "Let's go Walkin' Mississippi."
Now normally, since I am a cynic and a hardcase, I would do my best to excoriate or poke fun or generally insult Michelle Obama, but on this societal issue, I think she's doing swell. However, I reserve the right to assault her fashion sense when she shows up in one of those horrendous boob belt contraptions. Yes. I. am. petty.
Back to the obesity issue, there is no doubt that Mississippi is the fatest state in the union, one look around the local mall can prove that without any multi-billion dollar scientific surveys. We love our fried foods. Catfish, crappie, chicken, okra, country fried steak, hush puppies, cracklins, french fries, chicken-on-a-stick, pickles, mushrooms, crab claws, crawfish, shrimp, Twinkies, cheese, chicken wings, onion rings, corn dogs, tater tots, macaroni and cheese, the list goes on. . .
But it's not just that we enjoy the crispy goodness of food items that pass through the standard breading procedure and a red hot ride in the deep fryer. We also love or pork products. Ribs, bacon, shoulder, chitlins, souse, pork chops, fatback, ham hocks, sausage, jowls, ears and feet. Mmmmm mmmmm! I couldn't imagine a pot of black eyed peas or collards greens cooked without some porky goodness. Head on over to the Big Apple Inn for a pig ear sandwich sometime.
Or cuisine is what you might call, uh, not so heart healthy, but you have to understand how our Southern society has changed over the years. Mississippi has largely been an agricultural state. Of course, cotton was king at one time and even today's agriculture, whether it's growing beans, corn, cotton, sweet potatoes, rice or raising cattle, pigs or chickens, is still the single largest industry in the state. But with the advent of modern conveniences and mechanized farming, the phyical labor necessary to farm has been reduced. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's a lot easier now than it was 100 or even 50 years ago. Simply put, we just don't move around as much as we used to.
And with the advent of super-modern "timesavers" for children such as X-Box, Playstation 3, cable TV, iPods, iPhones and air-conditioning, kids are even less likely to venture outdoors to run around and play, burning off all those built-up stores of energy from these high fat, high calorie foods.
So, in effect, our obesity issuse is as much a cultural issue as it is an issue of responsibility. I have serious doubts that Southern cuisine will change much over the next hundred years, but the level of personal responsibility by parents can be increased tremendously in a short period of time. Education of what and how to eat is an important facet to a child's development. If you are constantly slopping greasy pork chops, mac and cheese and turnips with savory morsels of fatback on plate, what does a kid know? Hey, it becomes the 'norm' for a child, a learned acceptance and generally and most probably something that will be passed down to the next generation.
Well crap, gotta go to a meeting before they shut down the Interstate for the First Lady's arrival. Good luck Michelle and have fun with Haley, he's a fine man, just ask Cudi Bug. Ain't that right Cudi?
I'll try to finish this after a while, but in the meantime, Michelle, please don't tax my butter beans!
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