The Three Commandments

Dear Reader,

When a Sonic fast-food joint opened its doors in Middleton, Wisconsin, a few weeks ago, the feeding frenzy was unbelievable.
Eager customers in their cars, waiting to pull into the lot, brought traffic on University Avenue to a standstill and for days had to rerouted to neighboring streets to line up.
Sonic, of course, is an anachronism, a dinosaur, in fact, a symbol of much that is wrong with the way we do things.
Its business model is to sell junk food to people who are too lazy to get out of their cars: it’s either drive-thru or drive-in.
I have to admit, I was secretly amused to see the three first commandments of our modern society so blatantly united in one single location:
1) Eat junk food, lots of it; it’s cheap and has all the food groups the average American wants: salt, sugar, fat.
2) Let’s not move more than we have to; drive everywhere; don’t get out of the car unless we really, really have to go make room for more junk food.
3) Let the car engine idle while we fatten up; gas is cheap again anyway, and isn’t that why our soldiers die in the Middle East: to protect our oil supplies, so we can waste gasoline here? And let’s not worry about air pollution: with that way of life, we won’t live long enough to see its consequences. Our children might. Unless they sit in the car with us getting schooled in the same way of life.
At this point I am going to resist the temptation to launch into a 100,000-word socio-philosophical treatise about why people act the way they do and do things that are evidently bad for them and their environment, natural and human.
I will point out, though, that fortunately, we have other options, especially in this part of the state.
We have many fine locally owned restaurants in the greater Madison area, restaurants that serve food for all tastes and all budgets, from upscale five-course meals made from local organic ingredients, to homemade soups, sandwiches and burgers.
These local restaurants, bars and eateries deserve and need our support now more than ever.
They are an integral part of our community in a way that chain restaurants never are. Their owners live in the community, the money we spend there stays in the community, they buy their supplies in the community, they give back to the community by supporting local charities, clubs and schools.
Chain restaurants (and coffeeshops for that matter) are never more than pawns on the corporate chessboard: Management will gladly sacrifice them to get a bonus.
Let’s therefore try three new commandments:
1) Eat good food locally.
2) Get out of the car and move.
3) Shut off the engine.
It’s better for our health, our environment and our wallets.