kids are diebetic and obese?..I wonder why

[jeff47]

13. It's not nearly as simple as you'd like.

I live around a mile from what will eventually be my kids's elementary school.

They won't be walking that mile.

OMG!! OVERPROTECTIVE!!! I WALKED 20 MILES!! UPHILL!! BOTH WAYS!!

No, the problem is we stopped allowing the government to do anything regarding infrastructure. So despite the high traffic load thanks to development, that old 1 mile road is still a two-lane road with no shoulders nor sidewalks. And the owners of the older houses along the road, who are kinda pissed that they aren't "out in the country" anymore, have built fences right next to the road.

I've lived here 18 months and seen 6 bicyclists loaded into ambulances. Because back in the 80s we decided that the government can't mandate any upgrades by the new housing developers, nor can it spend money to upgrade the road. And since it's barely wide enough for two cars, there isn't room to safely walk or bicycle.

Is it all that? No, there's plenty of parent paranoia:
My neighborhood has a small park. My kids don't get to play there by themselves, because they are 1 and 3. There's lots of other parents that won't let their 8 and 10 year-olds play there by themselves. Why? TV news needs ratings. Kidnappings and child deaths are HUGE for ratings. So my neighbors think their kids are in danger from kidnappers lurking in the shadows despite the fact that crimes against children have plummeted in the last three decades. And so their kids can't go to the park alone, and the kids you saw can't walk those 100 yards.

We're all living in a larger society, with a lot of inputs that get us to where we are. There is no single magic cause, and no single magic cure. We've got a lot to fix.