Last Updated on: 11th August 2019, 09:47 am
I wasn’t sure this needed a post, but since new Firefox sucks and the Guelph Mercury website insists on CAPTCHAs upon CAPTCHAs to accomplish anything, here goes.
Dear Rob O’Flanagan:
I don’t know you, but you seem like an interesting guy. From what I can tell you’re a good reporter, and I’ve enjoyed reading many of your opinion pieces since you’ve been writing for the Mercury.
But Rob…this Ribfest thing you wrote,…I’m having trouble finding a respectful way to write piss the hell off.
Is eating ribs and drinking beer the healthiest thing in the world? No, probably not. But you have a choice not to do it, much like you state that everyone who wants to can. Why can’t that be good enough for you? Why can’t we leave well enough alone? Not everything has to be some kind of societal problem in need of a fix. If you try hard enough, you can make anything unhealthy and dangerous. Like those buses that are supposed to be so good for the environment? Yeah, those. I think we need to ban them. It’s really hard on my stress level knowing that a 7 minute car trip just took me half a friggin hour. And have you ever gotten hit by one of those things? Not a healthy option, I imagine.
And the smoking argument…I really tried. Honest I did. I want to see where you’re coming from, but I just can’t do it. We can talk again when somebody gets cancer and dies from second hand barbecue sauce, but until then the 2 have nothing to do with each other.
By the way Rob, when I go to Ribfest, I walk there. I walk to the park, I walk around the park, I walk home from the park. What could be healthier than walking? Well, unless you trip and fall like I do sometimes because I’ve got a buggered ankle. Hmmm…buggered ankle…tripping and falling…not healthy. Think we can add another activity to the ban list.
My point here, disjointed due to sleepiness as it may be coming off, is that not everything has to be good for you. what you want out of life doesn’t have to be what I want. My brand of fun and relaxation may not be for you. I have no problem with that. I can respect that. But ideas like this are exactly what the world doesn’t need. We’re adults, we can make our own choices. The last thing anybody should want to see is something fun and not all that dangerous for anybody who’s not a complete moron taken away from us. I don’t care about eating and drinking trends. Why should what other fools do be allowed to ruin things for the rest of us?
It goes well beyond Ribfest, Rob. The world is getting way too regulated. We have or are on the way to having a rule/regulation/law/bylaw/ordinance for everything. What ever happened to a person being able to make a decision for himself? If this trend keeps up, it’s only going to get worse. Eventually nobody will be able to decide a goddamn thing, and then where will we be? We’ll be in a world that sucks, that’s where. And we won’t even be able to drink a damn beer.
