Jun 10 2008
Hold the Tomato, Special Orders Don’t Upset Us
Yesterday, I had a late lunch while grocery shopping at my favorite burger joint, Backyard Burgers. Since I hate onions and prefer to not eat the leaf lettuce they use, I asked for my burger without them. As always, the burger was just as I ordered, except that it was sans tomato too.
I like fresh tomato on a burger. And I missed it yesterday when, incompliance with Food and Drug Administration suggestions, the tomato was not an option for my burger. Backyard Burgers, Burger King, Panera Bread and McDonald’s are among the chains that banned the happy red fruit because of an e. coli outbreak, or maybe it’s salmonella, that has made 145 people ill in a dozen states.
Frankly, I am not impressed. I mean why is it that we expect these people to be sanitary enough to prepare our food, but can’t just issue a warning that says wash the tomatoes?
I am not a libertarian, but I am beginning to think that the government will protect us to death. To be honest, the tomatoes are just the latest in the series of completely overprotective measures taken by our government. I even see the need to refrain from serving the tomatoes to people with a compromised immune system, pregnant women and small children, really I do. But if I listened to my government, I would soon get the idea that nothing is safe.
To believe government statistics, I’m certain that I should be dead by now. As a child, I played kiss chase, dodge ball and flag football. My school playgrounds has tetherballs and swings and monkey bars. I rode a bike without a helmet (though I always wore then on the ATV and motorcyle), I rode a horse bareback and without any protective gear, I swam in unchlorinated lakes and even had unprotected sex a time or two.
I’m not saying that my decisions were always wise, especially regarding sex, but as I look at the world around me now, I fear for children who will never know the joy of having a fish nibble your toes or putting tomatoes straight from the vine into their mouths. I wonder if there isn’t something to the theory that we are sanitizing ourselves to death.
With anti-bacterial soap, lotion and coutner cleanser, we have somehow ended up with MRSA. With arguably the most regulated and safest food distribution network in the world, we still have salmonella and e.coli outbreaks. People still catch the flu.
It seems to me that our current preoccupation with making sure that everything is as clean as it can be has lead to a nation of wusses and the inability to handle even the mildest infection. When everyone fears every little bug, can a pandemic be far behind?
