The Writing Passion

                                     Another War

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By Harriet May Savitz

www.harrietmaysavitz.com

            War has been declared against sugar. And one of the casualties is the cookie.  I don’t know where it began.  When the cookies became the foe.  Along with the can of soda.  The chocolate bar.  I don’t know who decided that sugar was the villain and that for its own good and ours, it must be banned from our tables and our schools.  I don’t know why it suddenly became the job of those who believe they are in command to introduce this new way of thinking.  That for our own good and because we cannot do it for ourselves, we must be told to give up sugar whenever we can. 

            Yes, I know what sugar can do to the teeth, to the blood level, and when it misbehaves, I realize it can cause havoc.  With the body and the mind.  But most things can when used to an extreme.  And certainly none of us want to do that to ourselves.

            There are substitutes for sugar.  Many jars have their names written on the labels beside the information “Sugar Free.”  Of course no one is certain about the side effects of such substitutes and anyone who has thrived on a good cookie, knows something is missing.   A cookie eating expert can taste the difference.

            How can one speak about sugar, without including the innocent cookies that are being attacked?    Also under attack is our right to decide for ourselves what we would like to ingest and digest.  We have been given certain freedoms in our Democracy.  What we should eat.  How we should live.  What we can enjoy.  What irritates us and what delights us.  We speak out.  We think independently.  And each of us enjoys the right to pick our cookies, or not.

            Many schools are removing cookies and cans of soda from items once on sale.  It is true that the students can fill up elsewhere.  At home after school.  With their friends.  For now, the cookie invasion has not reached the manufacturers, but that might be next.  To tell them how to make the cookies.  What can go into them.  And what cannot.

            So I am fighting for the rights of cookies.  I grew up on the chocolate chip cookie.  It was waiting for me when I returned from school.  With a glass of milk.  And a dunking.  We didn’t have much money then, but we had enough for a cookie. Eating those chocolate chip cookies made me feel rich.  As rich as anyone else.  As if I didn’t need anything more.  It was the cookie that got me by.  That smoothed life around the edges.  Maybe the day didn’t go as I expected.  Maybe life had thrown me a few curves that were beyond my coping powers.  It didn’t matter.  If there was a box of cookies somewhere.    Nobody in government then was thinking about my ability to decide what I felt good about eating, as a youngster or as a mother.  My parents did.  My own conscience did.  But pity the outside forces who took away our cookies.

            I have enlisted in the battle to preserve the cookie and my right to choose my menu and my diet.   I know it will take some sacrifice on my part.  I might be frowned upon when I serve my grandchildren cookies.  They are part of a generation that will be monitored and discouraged from eating them.  There will be alternatives offered.  Lectures given.  Even punishment distributed.  Guilt will be thrust upon anyone caught eating too many cookies.  Perhaps one day, even one cookie will be too many.

            Next could be ice cream or apple pie.  Little by little we might be convinced that we cannot make decisions for ourselves.  That reason and education are not enough.  That we must be told what we can eat and only those foods might be available.   Our society would lose the right to decide for itself.  It would shrink in creativity.

             Sugar could be just the beginning.  .       

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