Don't Forbid Fast Food
By Don Watkins (Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 12, 2007; Sunday Age, Australia, Sept. 16, 2007; Providence Journal, Sept. 23, 2007)

The proposed two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A. will do nothing to make people lose weight. But it will make their lives less free and fulfilling.

Despite the demonization of the fast food industry, places like McDonald's and Wendy's provide Americans with a convenient source of tasty, affordable food. Millions of Americans enjoy these restaurants without ever becoming obese. To punish them--as well as potential fast-food restaurant owners and employees--in order to control what they eat is a shameful violation of their rights.

The government has no business dictating where and what people eat, or what their waistlines should be. Those are decisions that properly belong to individuals. The L.A. City Council should reject this disgraceful ban.