A July 4 story reported “Matt Stonie tops Joey Chestnut in hot dog eating contest.” Ah yes, how very entertaining. A bunch of people gorging on a pile of hot dogs as if they hadn’t eaten in a week and don’t know if the opportunity should ever come again. People cheer as the competitors inhale their sausages at frenzied speed, much like a starving lion gulping down its hard-earned prey — and the vast crowd witnessing the spectacle appears to think its jolly fun.
Of course, there is the waste of food that could go far to feed a village in Namibia or Bangladesh, and all the tears it would prevent in pained, famished children who would look upon a hot dog as a means to live at least another week. Alas, we have priorities as caring Christians in a country rich with pabulum: its entertainment diversion from the dreaded specter of boredom, the dissipation of ennui forever threatening the sated hours of our plentiful existence over humanitarian concerns of the hungry and the genuinely needy.
Michael E. White
Brush Prairie
