Stop the gluttony in America

I know they are long-standing traditions but the time of Food Eating Contests must come to an end. It just seems that there is no sensitivity to the fact that people around the world, let alone in our own country, go days  and sometimes weeks without a proper meal.

Now do a split-screen with Joey Chestnut wolfing down 54 hot dogs in ten minutes – please! I'm sure some starving person in Africa would be thankful to to have one hot dog a day for 54 days. What satisfaction do people get from watching these competitions? Has our society become so desensitized to the entertainment factor that we can't see what's clearly right in front of us on the daily news – that people are starving in the world?

Wouldn't you get more joy out of watching a Haitian child who hasn't eaten in who-knows-how-long enjoy one of those hot dogs, than watching the competitors shove multiple hot dogs down their mouths in 10 minutes to ultimately throw it up?  We claim to be the leader of the free world, why don't we lead the rest of the world in stopping these contests. Wake up and smell the coffee, America (or should I say the food?) and stop the gluttony in America.

Steve Novak lives in Westlake.