An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

This famous quote made by Benjamin Franklin has the answer for just about everything. It really doesn’t matter what the topic is, you can fix it with this famous quote. Here are some of my examples;

Terrorism – We are in danger from terrorists because for some reason or another, they hate us. If we would take Ben’s advice, we would try to figure out why they hate us, instead of waging wars against countries (Iraq) that have nothing to do with terror (at least to us). Why do they hate us? Is it our religion? Maybe, but probably not. Is it our way of life? I don’t think so, at least not directly. They probably don’t like us because we have interfered in the Middle East when we shouldn’t have and because we try to imply our will on them. And why do we imply our will, because we want to control their oil. So we hide behind things like “we just want to liberate them” and other terms, but the truth is, we want to control oil output. If we control the output, we can than limit it and drive the price way up. But that will never happen…how much is oil now? How much was it on 09/10/2001? If we didn’t have such a dependence on oil, we wouldn’t need to be there, thus eliminating their hate for us. We can lessen our dependence on oil by exploring other methods of fuel. Hydrogen powered cars seem great, but they make millions of internal combustion engines obsolete. Home grown bio-fuels like Ethanol and Biodiesel would go a long way to help. As more research is done, we could have a clean burning, renewable resource that could eventually be pretty cheap and put a lot of Americans to work.

Abortion – The only reason there are abortions is that there are unwanted pregnancies. Eliminate the unwanted pregnancy and you eliminate abortion. See my previous entry on this subject.

Prescriptions / Health Care – There are so many pills on the market to treat ailments, but are unneeded if we would just use “an ounce of prevention”. Think of things like heartburn relief, gas relief, and others like that. For the most part, if we just wouldn’t overeat or eat the wrong things, we wouldn’t need those things. Also, health care is expensive because so many people need it. If we were to all live healthier lives (see below) and didn’t pollute so much (see above), we wouldn’t need to see the doctor as often. Thus making health care more affordable.

Weight - If people didn’t consume too many calories, they wouldn’t be fat. There may be some exceptions like “glands” or whatever. But for the average person, including myself, we are overweight because we eat too much. The average person only needs about 1200 calories per day to live a healthy life. Do you how many calories are in that 64 ounce Double Gulp of Coke from 7-11? Over 800 calories! That is 2/3 of the daily calories that you should consume in one day. That Double Quarter Pound value meal Super Sized with Coke, over 1500 calories! That 25% more calories in that one meal than you should have the whole day. How about those salads? If you don’t watch the toppings & dressings, they can be just as bad. A Chicken Caesar from McDonalds with croutons, dressing and a large Coke has almost 900 calories, and that’s if you don’t refill that Coke! The last example is Beer. The lowest calorie beer on the market in Michelob Ultra at 95 calories (12 ounces). Not too bad, unless you have 6 or 8 or 12 at one time. I could go on and on, but the point is, if you stop eating so much (the “ounce of prevention”) you will lose weight, maintain it and live a much healthier life. Now, all I have to do is practice what I preach…

Now just imagine how much better the world would be if politicians would just take Ben’s advice and implement “an ounce of prevention” in their policies.