Russell Williams
Well-Known Member
When she threw the fat on the table I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Tuesday I was invited to help give a presentation for something called Leadership of Howard County. The purpose of the morning was to provide tools for the leaders of Howard County to anticipate and take responsibility for the present and future health care needs of their community. I was invited to give a presentation during the segment titled Impact of Obesity. My co-presenters were:
Christine Walsh, Manager of the Bariatric Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.
Another person who I believe was the chair Of the Nutrition and Fitness Coalition.
When I was first invited to the presentation I e-mailed the Declaration of Fat Independence, The Anthropology Lesson, the Battle of Hagerstown, and the story of the LA dance that occurred simultaneously with the Miss teen California contest. Much to my surprise all of these items had been included in a handout that was given to all the participants in the meeting.
Before the discussion I talked with Christine Walsh. I assumed it was pointless to suggest to her that the program that employed her should be shut down and she should be put out of work. Instead, I mentioned the need for follow-up. She said they did send out cards after a period of time and asked people to return the cards. I suggested that the follow-ups should be for 1, 3, and 5 years and that the follow-up cards should include some sort of a statement explaining that not all weight-loss surgery people kept all of the weight off and for the purposes of collecting adequate data it was very important that people return the cards regardless of whether or not they had gained some or most of the weight back. Ms. Walsh said that that sounded like an excellent idea and she would try to implement it. Of course I also told her of the importance of having some armless chairs available.
The Nutrition and Fitness Coalition person gave the first presentation. She started by taking a 10 pound bag of fat out of her handbag and flopped it on the table in front of her and next to me. She then quickly went through a slide show demonstrating that the average American was getting fatter.
Mrs. Walsh focused on how much effort their bariatric Center had expended on trying to make sure that all of the equipment was fat friendly, that all of the staff had been trained in moving and physically and emotionally supporting fat people and that, where needed, surgical instruments were acquired that could better deal with very large bodies.
Now it was my turn. If I were to say that fat can be healthy I wouldve lost the audience. If I were to criticize bariatric surgery I would be considered a fool for not wanting to help these poor desperate fat people have available to them this marvelous life-saving surgery (for those who missed it the last 10 words were sarcasm). Since the first presenter had talked a lot about exercise I decided to start with that. I started the presentation by pulling out my visual aid. Next to the 10 pounds of fat I put my tricycle crash helmet. I asked the group how many people had ridden bicycles to the meeting. No hands went up. I asked the group how many of them regularly rode bicycles to their work. No hands went up. I asked the group how many regularly walk to work. No hands went up.
As I gave my presentation I was standing, I was looking at various people in the room, and I was working with no notes. I told of how people talk about children needing more exercise and of how I have encouraged the local educational leadership to ride bicycles and tricycles to the nearby schools and of how nobody takes me seriously. While holding the crash helmet I told them that I had ridden my tricycle about 1000 miles in the last 12 months. I talked of how the average American is getting fatter and at the same time spending more and more money on exercise and dieting. I pointed out that the only logical explanation is that no diets work. I showed two books from the Serendipity series. Leo the Lop teaches that variability in ear size is perfectly acceptable. Catundra teaches that the only way the fat child can become socially acceptable is to get thin. I talked about the need for adequate seating for fat people in school auditoriums. I told of how Washington County handles this need. As best I remember I also talked about how employees should be evaluated on competency factors and not weight. I explained that fat is not a four letter word and that my wife is a fat, white, woman. I explained that she is not ashamed of being a woman, white, or fat. I added that some of her best friends were women, and/or fat, and/or white. I mentioned that she also had friends who were none of those things. By that time my six allocated minutes were up
When I sat down the 10 pounds of fat lady asked me if I wore a pedometer. I told her I did not. At some point this woman mentioned that she had a grandchild who had Prater Willie syndrome.
In the questioning Dr. Rich Krieg, the moderator, asked if employers should be required to hire fat people when they knew that the hiring of fat people would add to their health care costs. I pointed out that their are health care costs associated with being black and, pointing to a black man in the audience, asked him if he would have any objection to employers refusing to hire black people because of their potential additional health risks. With power in his voice he stated that he would find such a situation very objectionable.
Someone stated that this will be the first generation of children that grow up living with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. I pointed out that if that was true then Social Security was saved. I pointed out that if I live to be a hundred I will collect about $1,500,000 in pensions and Social Security. I asked why that meant dying early because Im fat would be more expensive than the living to be 96, collecting well over $1 million, and dying slowly in a series of nursing homes as my father did.
I was allowed to give the last word. Before exercise becomes popular a whole change in social norms will have to take place. For instance, saying to someone, You look all hot and sweaty, will have to be a complement, and that will be a long time coming. I left them laughing.
Yours truly,
Russell Williams
Tuesday I was invited to help give a presentation for something called Leadership of Howard County. The purpose of the morning was to provide tools for the leaders of Howard County to anticipate and take responsibility for the present and future health care needs of their community. I was invited to give a presentation during the segment titled Impact of Obesity. My co-presenters were:
Christine Walsh, Manager of the Bariatric Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.
Another person who I believe was the chair Of the Nutrition and Fitness Coalition.
When I was first invited to the presentation I e-mailed the Declaration of Fat Independence, The Anthropology Lesson, the Battle of Hagerstown, and the story of the LA dance that occurred simultaneously with the Miss teen California contest. Much to my surprise all of these items had been included in a handout that was given to all the participants in the meeting.
Before the discussion I talked with Christine Walsh. I assumed it was pointless to suggest to her that the program that employed her should be shut down and she should be put out of work. Instead, I mentioned the need for follow-up. She said they did send out cards after a period of time and asked people to return the cards. I suggested that the follow-ups should be for 1, 3, and 5 years and that the follow-up cards should include some sort of a statement explaining that not all weight-loss surgery people kept all of the weight off and for the purposes of collecting adequate data it was very important that people return the cards regardless of whether or not they had gained some or most of the weight back. Ms. Walsh said that that sounded like an excellent idea and she would try to implement it. Of course I also told her of the importance of having some armless chairs available.
The Nutrition and Fitness Coalition person gave the first presentation. She started by taking a 10 pound bag of fat out of her handbag and flopped it on the table in front of her and next to me. She then quickly went through a slide show demonstrating that the average American was getting fatter.
Mrs. Walsh focused on how much effort their bariatric Center had expended on trying to make sure that all of the equipment was fat friendly, that all of the staff had been trained in moving and physically and emotionally supporting fat people and that, where needed, surgical instruments were acquired that could better deal with very large bodies.
Now it was my turn. If I were to say that fat can be healthy I wouldve lost the audience. If I were to criticize bariatric surgery I would be considered a fool for not wanting to help these poor desperate fat people have available to them this marvelous life-saving surgery (for those who missed it the last 10 words were sarcasm). Since the first presenter had talked a lot about exercise I decided to start with that. I started the presentation by pulling out my visual aid. Next to the 10 pounds of fat I put my tricycle crash helmet. I asked the group how many people had ridden bicycles to the meeting. No hands went up. I asked the group how many of them regularly rode bicycles to their work. No hands went up. I asked the group how many regularly walk to work. No hands went up.
As I gave my presentation I was standing, I was looking at various people in the room, and I was working with no notes. I told of how people talk about children needing more exercise and of how I have encouraged the local educational leadership to ride bicycles and tricycles to the nearby schools and of how nobody takes me seriously. While holding the crash helmet I told them that I had ridden my tricycle about 1000 miles in the last 12 months. I talked of how the average American is getting fatter and at the same time spending more and more money on exercise and dieting. I pointed out that the only logical explanation is that no diets work. I showed two books from the Serendipity series. Leo the Lop teaches that variability in ear size is perfectly acceptable. Catundra teaches that the only way the fat child can become socially acceptable is to get thin. I talked about the need for adequate seating for fat people in school auditoriums. I told of how Washington County handles this need. As best I remember I also talked about how employees should be evaluated on competency factors and not weight. I explained that fat is not a four letter word and that my wife is a fat, white, woman. I explained that she is not ashamed of being a woman, white, or fat. I added that some of her best friends were women, and/or fat, and/or white. I mentioned that she also had friends who were none of those things. By that time my six allocated minutes were up
When I sat down the 10 pounds of fat lady asked me if I wore a pedometer. I told her I did not. At some point this woman mentioned that she had a grandchild who had Prater Willie syndrome.
In the questioning Dr. Rich Krieg, the moderator, asked if employers should be required to hire fat people when they knew that the hiring of fat people would add to their health care costs. I pointed out that their are health care costs associated with being black and, pointing to a black man in the audience, asked him if he would have any objection to employers refusing to hire black people because of their potential additional health risks. With power in his voice he stated that he would find such a situation very objectionable.
Someone stated that this will be the first generation of children that grow up living with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. I pointed out that if that was true then Social Security was saved. I pointed out that if I live to be a hundred I will collect about $1,500,000 in pensions and Social Security. I asked why that meant dying early because Im fat would be more expensive than the living to be 96, collecting well over $1 million, and dying slowly in a series of nursing homes as my father did.
I was allowed to give the last word. Before exercise becomes popular a whole change in social norms will have to take place. For instance, saying to someone, You look all hot and sweaty, will have to be a complement, and that will be a long time coming. I left them laughing.
Yours truly,
Russell Williams
