Becky Jackson has lived on Eddy lane for decades and she is not in favor of a new Montessori School that will soon be her neighbor.
Jackson is 80 and her words are full of spit and vinegar.
I ask her how the meeting between the Franklin City officials and high ranking members of the Montessori School went.
She fills my earpiece with a tidal wave of brutally honest sentiment.
“It was a done deal. And that was that. And nothing could be done about it.”
If you missed the story, Montessori School officials have purchased a 7 acre site for their new school on Eddy Lane. The school will be 14,000 square feet and one day educate up to 150 elementary age students. Under new Franklin codes, the city would have had to take public comment on the project, but this project was finalized before the new ordinance took effect. Franklin City leaders will consistently say the deal violated no law.
Mrs. Jackson doesn’t buy a word of it. She will go on to tell me that her vituperative energy is less directed at the school and more at the city for failing to notify residents that the school was moving in.
“The city takes no blame. It was done by the book,” she claims they tell her at Tuesday night’s meeting. “And they claim they told the school they should notify residents here. The man with the school says he visited five people in the neighborhood. We can’t find them. They are not next door to me. It doesn’t matter anyway,” she laments. “It is over with.”
Why can’t this be good for the neighborhood, I ask.
“The school is not what we are fighting, what we are fighting is the traffic on this little narrow street.”
In a previous interview, City of Franklin Assistant City Administrator Vernon Gerth tells me that the city has plans to upgrade the narrow lane.
I ask Mrs. Jackson about that.
“That will be taken care of in 2010 or 2015 or 2020,” she says sarcastically. “They didn’t even do a traffic study. They had the engineer there. He didn’t know anything. The other city man, Vernon, he stayed two minutes. He welcomed us and left.”
The fact that Mr. Gerth only stayed for a moment bothers the senior.
“I guess there was something else more important than what we cared about so he left.”
I ask about Danny Dunn who will live directly next to the school. Danny you will remember was the U.T. fan who shed a few tears about his cows and his green space and his campestral life style.
“I talked to Danny this morning. He is not doing too good. But he says he is accepting it.”
News 2 also reached out to Montessori Board Member, Stacy Ligon: Ligon tells Messed Up that she believes the city allowed everyone to voice their frustrations fairly at the meeting. Ligon says all the Montessori School wants to be is good neighbors. From our stand point “we were glad to sit down and hear the neighbors concerns and we feel confident that we can work through the neighbors issues and be an asset to that street.”
Ligon added: “We spent about 45 minutes after the meeting talking individually to the neighbors and we feel confident that we can work through any issues.”
Messed Up also contacted City of Franklin P.R. Director, Monique McCollugh: She tells us that the Site plan is approved and it is still going forward. No additional meetings have been planned. The city is still working with the neighbors to address traffic issues and other concerns. She Believe the neighbors left with a better understanding of the site plan and the intentions of the school.
Here’s a sad thought. According to Metro police, you can steal a car and sell it to an auto salvage yard and you can do it without ever producing a title that proves you own the car and have the right to sell it in the first place.
According to Metro Auto Theft Sgt. Billy Smith, state law says, as long as the car is at least five years old, and is “inoperable” then the seller does not have to produce a title to sell that vehicle.
Sgt. Smith said it happens every day.
The good news, according to Sgt. Smith is a new law passed this summer puts more teeth in the law, now requiring sellers to present a valid driver’s license to the auto salvage yard.
The law also requires the auto salvage yard to maintain those records and provide it to local law enforcement which can quickly compare the data with stolen car reports.
“We notify the salvage company that a vehicle is stolen. They do stop immediately working on it or taking parts off of it, and hold it for the victim, and if they are the victim of the crime, then they don’t charge them to get their vehicle back,” Smith says.
“The people who took this guy’s car, they said, we won’t give you back your car. That doesn’t seem right,” I say to the sergeant referencing a recent auto theft victim whose car was stolen in just this way.
“Now he has to prove it is his car that is messed up.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Smith says. “They do a lot of records keeping, in this type of crime, and we get a 100% conviction rate on this type of thing when they come down and take a vehicle that is inoperable over ten years, they have to take a valid ID. They write the VIN numbers down and every week all the salvage places send us an excel spread sheet of all the VINs. We run them for stolen and when we get a confirmed hit, we run the paper work on who sold the vehicle. It is an open and shut case,” Smith says acknowledging the system is hardly perfect.
The man we are talking about is Steve Warrick, who runs Bordeaux Tire and Muffler.
“This weekend they broke into all my cars and stole all my batteries and all the radios,” the working man tells me, passion ringing in his voice.
The thieves also stole his daughter’s 1994 Thunderbird, which he says was valued around $5,000.
“It was a 94 Ford Thunderbird with a V8 with a 5-0.”.
Warrick filed a police report, and then, while visiting a local auto salvage yard, he spotted what was left of his daughter’s thunderbird.
His voice rises with anger as he recalls the moment.
“I could not believe that. They took it from my place and took it right to there and junked it immediately.”
When you saw your car all parted out, you went up to the manager what did he say?” I ask.
“I said my car was in the back and he said you will have to prove it.”
“That seems like the inmates are running the asylum,” I laugh. “We didn’t have to check that we have your stolen car but you have to prove it is your stolen car to get it back.”
He shakes his head. “That’s it. I think they should have to hold the cars for a few weeks before they start selling parts off of them.”
Metro police said what happened to Warrick happens every single day.
As Sgt Smith says, the new law requires a valid license to be involved in the transaction, and because one was in this case, police are able to quickly make an arrest.
“We get a 100% conviction rate on this type of thing,” Smith tells me.
The problem is, before police get involved, those stolen cars are often stripped for parts, which is what happened to steve warrick.
Metro police said Lashawn Rembert provided the salvage yard with a tenn license when he sold warrick’s thunderbird for $347.
“He used to work for me,” Warrick said.
Police charged rembert with auto theft. They served his warrant at the county jail where he was all ready locked up for auto theft.
Though the law helps put auto thieves behind bars, some say the law is still not tough enough, and does not work for victims like Warrick.
Warrick wants the law to work like it does for pawn shops which are forced to wait a certain period of time before they can sell merchandise.
Warrick says the salvage yard started parting out his car immediately. If they were forced to wait, then his car would have been mostly in tact. Now it is totaled.
Sgt. Smith he favors this option. So does Ben West Jr.
The Tennessee representative tells Messed Up that the bill he and other law makers just passed does strengthen the law, but it doesn’t go far enough.
When asked if salvage operations should be forced to wait before reselling or parting out vehicles, West said he thinks it is a good idea, and he plans to introduce that idea to his fellow law makers.
In a statement Mr. West’s said:
Andy,
Thank you for allowing me to be involved in your investigation regarding cars stolen, then sold to scrap metal dealers without proof of ownership. As you are aware, the legislature passed a bill during this year’s session to further restrict such illegal transactions taking place in Tennessee.
However, after speaking with Sgt. Smith, of the Metro Police Department’s Auto Theft Unit and the Tennessee Automotive Association, it appears that further checks and balances regarding auto ownership need to be placed in the law.
With the assistance of the above mentioned groups, I plan to introduce legislation in the 2009 session that will mandate the salvage yards to keep a car before it turns to scrap for at least thirty (30) days and change from ten (10) years, the age of a car, to five (5) years.
Please call me regarding any other subject matter that the legislature needs to address.
Ben West, Jr.
State Representative (D)
Representing Hermitage, Donelson, and Antioch
I also spoke to a corporate VP with a salvage company that bought Warrick’s car.
He said, “We do all we can to avoid from buying a stolen car. When it happens we get all the info necessary to get a conviction of who stole the car. That was the case in this instance. We work closely with metro and at law men the state level.”
When asked about the waiting period he said, “13.5 million cars a year reach the end of their life. Some go to a shredder or places like us.
We want to make sure that in cases like this, everything is there to catch the bad guy, and at the same time not impede the system all ready in place for all cars that are legitimately moving through commerce.”
He tells me about the new law, which I have included below.
“Upon whose property or in whose possession is found any abandoned, immobile, or unattended motor vehicle, or any person being the owner of a motor vehicle whose title certificate is faulty, lost, or destroyed, may dispose of such motor vehicle to a demolisher without that title and without notification procedures of § 55-16-105, if the motor vehicle is over five (5) years old and has no engine or is otherwise totally inoperable.” T.C.A. § 55-16-108 (emphasis added). Abandoned, immobile, and unattended motor vehicles are defined in § 55-16-103.
TCA § 55-16-109 mandates that the demolisher record the name and address of the person from whom they bought or received each motor vehicle as well as the date when the purchase or receipt occurred. These records must be open to inspection by any police department at any time during normal business hours. These records must be kept for at least one year after the transaction.
Want to steal someone’s identity Find out what type of medicine they take? Read a discarded letter from your Metro City Council Woman?
Becoming an identity thief is as difficult as going to a Metro Recycling Center and sifting through the bin.
That’s all I had to do, amidst a steady flow of environmentally conscious Nashvillians, who didn’t even bat an eye at me pulling out various documents and tearing them up and tossing them back in the pile.
These people came in droves dumping newspapers, and documents and cans and bottles. I viewed stacks of materials, much of it innocuous, but some of it sensitive.
What many of these citizens forgot to do was shred their private information.
I was there for about five minutes. In that time, I was able to obtain phone numbers and names and financial information. I am sure that had I dug further into the ample pile of information, I would have found more sensitive material like social security numbers and check routing numbers and credit card applications.
On August 21st, a much larger concentration of sensitive material was brought here and simply discarded. The perfectly preserved documents were from a check cash company that seems to have gone out of business in 2005. For some reason, someone thought it was time to take thousands and thousands of documents and leave them here.
The checks and credit apps and social security numbers and copies of driver’s licenses are perfectly acceptable materials for recycling, but they should have been shredded first, Gwen Hopkins Glascock at the Metro Public Works department tells me.
“I am not happy” one man tells me. I found his name and address and phone number on a check that was left at the location.
The man tells me that he wrote the check 2 years ago and brought it to a check cashing company called U.S. Check.
The office was on Gallatin Road. The man tells me that the company just closed one day. It is now replaced by another check cashing operation that is not affiliated with U.S. Check.
When I ask this company about procedure, they tell me they always destroy sensitive materials.
The man and his wife ask me if anyone accessed his documents before I get to them.
I don’t know, I tell him. It was certainly possible.
I ask the woman how she feels that I was able to find out her name and address and phone number and come right to her home.
She tells me that it is very scary; not just from an identity theft perspective, but from a criminal standpoint.
What if a rapist or murderer got a hold of these records, she asks me.
It’s possible, I think to myself, but more realistically this is a scam artist’s super bowl.
I find the thousands of financial records at the Public Works HQ. They are in a large 96 gallon curby cart.
“The drop off sites are not intended to be a location to dispose of personal or confidential documents or info like that.” Gwen Hopkins, Metro Public Works PIO tells me.
So, what is going to come from all this?
Metro Public works says it is going to destroy the documents, then recycle them.
But messed up checks and determines that it is a violation of law for a financial institution to leave sensitive material at a public place like this.
A violation could result in a civil penalty of up to 10,000 dollars.
I call Metro Police to see if they are going to work the case.
Public Information Officer Kristin Mumford tells me that nobody has filed a complaint so as of this writing, Metro Fraud does not plan to investigate.
I call Metro Public Works and tell them there might be police reports after our story airs. Gwen Hopkins says she will hold off destroying the evidence to see if citizens contact authorities.
If you did business with US Check at 911 Gallatin Rd. in Madison from 2001 to 2005, your document could be in that 96 gallon container. You might want to contact metro police and file a complaint.
Here is the law that governs the sensitive material:
(a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the “Identity Theft Victims’ Rights Act of 2004.”
(b) A person commits the offense of identity theft who knowingly obtains, possesses, buys, or uses, the personal identifying information of another:
(1) With the intent to commit any unlawful act including, but not limited to, obtaining or attempting to obtain credit, goods, services or medical information in the name of such other person; and
(2)(A) Without the consent of such other person; or
(B) Without the lawful authority to obtain, possess, buy or use that identifying information.
I just thought I would follow up about Alan Baker in court. Court was yesterday at 1:30, it started an 1 1/2 late. The boy pleaded no contest. Alan and three others did not testify. It was pretty pitiful, the judge pulled out his record, which was over 2″ thick. She said if he got an anymore trouble, he would go to jail. At that time the judges assistant pointed out he was stopped by the police yesterday for driving without a license. Nothing happened, she choose to ignore that.
Columbia residents wonder how many more people have to get hurt or even die at a dangerous intersection they say needs a left turn lane.
Residents say they’ve asked their county commissioners, and they’ve asked TDOT to look into the matter.
So far, nothing.
The intersection is Lookout Drive and Nashville Highway on the Northern end of the city.
There have been numerous accidents there over the years.
Lisa Trimble lives in the nearby sub division. She says she has been a victim and she has witnessed crashes that include fatalities.
“If we don’t fix this, I’m afraid someone else will die,” she says.
This nurse and mother says making a left turn across Nashville Hwy. onto Lookout Drive can be a risky proposition, especially for South bound traffic that comes up over a blind ridge and finds itself right on top of stopped cars waiting to turn.
“It’s hard to stop and you are in someone’s rear end,” she says.
Trimble’s 16 year old son watched a woman die here making the turn.
“He ran in, left the car running, there is a dead woman out there.”
Columbia police tell messed up, there have been 4 wrecks at this one intersection this year all ready. Assistant Chief Tim Potts says there were 3 wrecks here in 2007. Potts shows me an accident report that seems to be representative of these types of collisiions.
One car into the next. Sometimes pushing the cars in front into the lane of on coming traffic.
Potts says a left turn lane would make a difference, but since this is a state highway, TDOT has to also sign off on the plan.
B.J. Doughty works for TDOT. She says traffic engineers studied this intersection last year and did not deem it worthy.
“A left turn lane could run 25,000 to 45, 000 dollars,” she says, adding: “that intersection was compared to intersections across the state they have a one thru five rating system and this was less than a one on the safety measures.”
Lisa Trimble says TDOT’s traffic study came at the wrong time.
“Saturn plant was not working, and schools were out so traffic was not as bad”
TDOT says they will look at the intersection again, if Maury County leaders ask them to. And Assistant Chief Potts says he will present his data and Trimble’s concerns to the city manager. I
In the meantime, Lisa Trimble says, “We need a turn lane. To avoid increasing bills from wrecks and medical expenses and ambulance runs a simple turn lane would be much less expensive than all that other expense.”
The day TDOT did its survey traffic engineers counted a high of 42 cars in a single hour making a left turn onto Lookout Drive.
Columbia Police tell me because of the massive growth along this stretch of road they are developing a long range traffic strategy for Nashville Hwy.
Danny Dodd breaks down at the mere mention of the new Montessori School scheduled to be built next to his bucolic property.
“I have been here 30 years. That is my home. I am very proud of. It’s all I got,” the 52 year old says, tears welling in his eyes.
“It’s not right for the city to let 9 people sit on that board and vote and not even give me a right to speak my mind about it. I didn’t know anything about this.”
Dodd is wearing a UT baseball cap and UT shirt accentuated by a pair of dark suspenders. Dodd says the 14,000 square foot school will ruin his bucolic neighborhood bringing traffic headaches and a layer of asphalt to an otherwise green grass world that fills his heart with joy.
“Every morning. You gotta see my place. I got like 3 green acres. Every morning I wake up and look out my kitchen window. I see pretty green grass and I have cows.” Dodds words are filled with sobs and sniffs as he once again breaks down.
“And Now I will wake up every morning and see a parking lot in my neighborhood. I have nothing against schools, but there is certain places they belong and don’t belong and Right is right and wrong is wrong and this is not right.”
Dodd is not alone. A consortium of angry Eddy Lane residents join Dodd. They are holding stacks of papers and design plans that they are eager for me to see.
Rebecca Jackson is holding an artists rendering of the school. The 40 plus year resident of Eddy Lane says the project leaves a terrible taste in her mouth.
“I think it is a horrible thing they are doing to our neighborhood. How will it enhance our neighborhood. The street is not wide enough for a sidewalk. But they can give us 125 students brought in every day.”
If there is a leader of this anti school movement, i would say it is Jackie Wiggishoff. The 15 year resident stands in front of the group and eloquently tells me why a private school along Eddy Lane will irrevocably destroy the equanimity that is Eddy Lane.
“Eddy Lane is the best of Franklin! It’s A mix of old and new. It adds to the historical and pastoral charm of Franklin,” she says, the other residents nodding affirmatively.
“Recently the planning commission approved a site plan for a Montesori school in Franklin, right down the road. Currently there is a residential home on 7 acres. That home is from the 1860’s. The city planning commission did this without notification to myself or my neighbors. They did this where it would dramatically change the character of a neighborhood and impact our traffic and our flood plane. it will impact the Drainage situation, They signed off on the demolition of a 1860’s house and they didn’t feel that anyone on this street had the right to know.”
Wiggishoff’s face tightens as she relays this part of the story. “We asked them to explain why? They remarked. We didn’t have to tell you!!!!”
I ask how she feels.
“I feel betrayed to be honest with you. Most of us on this street have been here 20 plus years. We had a right to know.
A toddler is bitten in the face by a neighborhood dog that is roaming freely.
The dog is in quarantine and the child is recovering.
Metro Animal Control officials say dogs running loose is one of the biggest problems the city faces, and it usually is the dog owner’s fault, not the fault of the dogs.
That was the case Monday August 18th
“We had almost 650 bites last year,” Judy Ladebauche says.
Metro Emergency crews respond to Boulder Park Drive in Donelson.
“Over 20,000 complaints a year,” the animal control director in Metro tells me.
It’s here that a toddler is bitten in the face by a neighborhood dog.
“Bottom line: you have a dog - you have a responsibility.”
The black lab’s name is Buckley. In every shot we have, the one year old lab mix is wagging its tail.
Buckley also has a collar and a rabies tag. What Buckley doesn’t have is any supervision.
“Its tragic this child was bitten,” Ladebauche says.
While the toddler goes to the hospital a police officer fashions a crime tape leash around the dog’s collar and walks it to a waiting patrol car. Buckley is brought to Metro Animal Control Quarantine Division.
The moment you walk in the sounds of angry snarling dogs fills the air, bouncing off the smooth concrete walls.
We pass by these angry animals to get to Buckley, the only dog still wagging its tail and looking at us with his big brown eyes.
Buckley will be in this cage or 10 days, all the while surrounded by vicious dogs who show aggression, and lots of sharp teeth, animal control director Judy Ladebauche tells me that Buckley is in doggie jail, but the real fault lies with Buckley’s owner. She tells me how the owners come to play with the animal and she can’t help but get mad knowing the animals are here because they are irresponsible.
“What is really messed up. If the owner loves their dog so much why are they not in the home backyard fenced leashed it is your job to protect your pet.”
Ladebauche tells messed up that dogs running loose is one of the agencies biggest problems.
While at the shelter, I will meet a man who is on the verge of tears.
“It’s like losing a child”
Terry Johnson is looking for another puppy to replace the one he has recently lost.
“It has us all tore up,” He says.
The same day that the 18 month old child was bit.
Johnson’s chihuahua “Lucky” was running loose in South Nashville. Johnson says the animal was run over and killed by a hit and run driver.
“A gold car, come up the road, and the guy swerved into the ditch and hit him.”
“I am sad your dog was destroyed. But I have to ask if the dog was chained or in the backyard confined somehow this would not happen,” I ask him delicately.
“That is why I partially it is my fault too,” says without hesitation trying to drive home his point.
“Yes sir, I am living this and it hurts real bad.”
“Bottom line is you have a dog, you have a responsibility. Keep your dog home or under your control at all times.. Otherwise you should not have one. It is a privilege not a right,” Ladebauche adds.
At last check: Buckley’s owner is not charged with any violation….that could change if the boy’s parents decide to press the issue.
As far as lucky the little Chihuahua, the family tells me they are offering a 500 reward for information that leads to the motorist who killed their beloved pet now buried in the family’s back yard. That hit and run happened on Rosedale Avenue and the driver was reportedly driving a gold Chrysler.
Do you spend more time than you think you should surfing the net?
Do you have trouble staying off the internet for prolonged periods of time?
Do you derive much of your pleasure from the net?
If you answered yes to these questions, you might be addicted to the internet.
That according to the internet addiction survey, which you yourself can take.
According to Kimberly Young, clinical director for the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery; 5 to 10 percent of Americans, 15 million to 30 million people, could be addicted to the internet.
Addicted to porn. Addicted to gambling. Addicted to EBAY. Addicted to chat rooms. Addicted to delving deeper into the interminable depths of cyber space.
Christian Grantham is one of these people.
“Do you think you spend more time than you think you should surfing the net?”
“Yes,” he answers without hesitation.
Grantham is an internet producer whose job requires him to surf the net all day long.
“Do you feel you are addicted to the net?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I am consumed with it. When I wake up I have the internet on. I fall asleep with the internet on.”
Grantham says he has an overwhelming, almost unstoppable desire to go on line. He wants to Google everything and ponder the questions of the universe.
“I have an insatiable curiosity. And the net provides answers to everything. Any question. Boom. There is your answer. I love that Google is God. Ask it a question. Boom.”
Grantham reads several of the poll questions aloud:
“Do you spend more time than you think you should surfing the net. Yes.”
“Do you have time limiting your time on the net. Yes.”
“Do you derive pleasure and satisfaction in life from being on the net?”
It’s an act of vandalism perpetrated primarily by teenagers
After her mailbox was destroyed for the 8th time, one Rutherford County woman said enough all ready and called that is messed up.
Della Molloy is a fun loving woman who has a dry wit and a quick quote. She realizes we’re not talking about world peace so she plays the story with some tongue and cheek enthusiasm.
“If this mailbox could talk what would it say?,” I ask her, standing by her bashed in mailbox on a four by four that is leaning like it should be a tourist attraction in Italy.
“I’m sick and tired of being hit,” she says. “What is the point of replacing it.”
Della Molloy is fed up. Why wouldn’t she be. She points to the old mailbox, crumpled and sad, lying in her front yard.
“How many times has this mailbox said help me,” I ask grabbing the mail box lid, opening and closing it like it is speaking to her.
“How many times?”
“8 times.”
8 times. 8 times!!
That is not only Messed Up. It is ridiculous.
“It is a dangerous person who hits a defenseless mailbox,” she says in her straight forward way.
“Enough is enough. Why should I care? ”
“Did you report this to Johnny Law man?”
“No I reported it to you.”
“Why?”
“I felt it was time that the mailbox needs someone to stand up for them.”
I have to laugh out loud clutching her broken mailbox.
“Andy. Andy help me! No one is an advocate for mailboxes like they should be.”
Molloy can’t prove it, but she suspects neighborhood teens are responsible for her damage, which says has also affected dozens of her neighbors over the years.
It’s an easy deduction to make when you see how many videos on line are dedicated to the act of mailboxing…
YouTube is loaded with video of teens breaking, bashing, smashing and vandalizing. The videos show a dark, nefarious element of teens, unsupervised, wreaking havoc and causing expensive damage where they live.
We drive through Molloy’s neighborhood which looks like it has been visited by these video vandals we find mailbox after mailbox that is either dented or ready to topple over.
“The problem is people are protecting their mailboxes by placing them in metal like armor,” I say to Al standing on this rural country pike.
According to the U.S. Postal Service: it is a federal crime to destroy a mailbox. People who have been caught have been severely punished.
The penalty? Up to $250,000 or federal prison for up to 3 years for each violation.
Are you kidding me? The 3rd fattest? That’s what the Centers for Disease Control recently reported. 3rd fattest. How do you even gauge something like that?
The Centers for Disease Control says it surveyed 350,000 people and asked them how tall they are and how much they weigh.
“The heavier you are, the more you underestimate your weight, probably because you don’t weigh yourself as often,” Dr. William Dietz who heads the CDC’s nutrition, physical activity and obesity division says.
The study found that 27 percent of respondents were classified as obese.
For what it is worth, the CDC defines obesity as a body mass index of 30 or above. Body mass index is calculated using height and weight. A 5-foot 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30 which is considered the threshold of obesity.
So if the South is fat, the question is why? Are the lakes of the Volunteer state lakes filled with lard? Is the air coated with grease? Do we dip our meals into vats of bubbling goo and then eat till our insides are ready to burst?
I stop by a popular pancake restaurant in Hillsboro Village to gauge the mood of the people.
The line, per usual, is winding around the corner. People are literally salivating before me, dreaming of powdered sugar, and warm, flowing maple syrup, easing over a stack of pancakes.
I find a woman at the front of the line. She is from New York City. She has a bit of size to her, and a pleasant disposition to match. She tells me that people in the South do eat differently than people in the Empire State.
“We travel here twice a year for this. We come for the food. It is great. It is cooked with love and passion.”
“What about all that fat?,” I ask.
“Don’t worry about that. You have to move more than you eat,” she says with a smile as the wisp of pancake floats out the door.
Just then a large woman from Chicago steps forward. She is good natured and immediately tells me that in Illinois she is considered fat, but here in the South….
“You come to the South, and you are considered skinny. If you are plump, then you are still skinny,” she says getting a loud roar from her fellow patrons in line.
Dr. Kevin Niswender specializes in endocrinology.
“That’s high blood pressure, adrenal diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol,” he tells me.
When informed of the CDC’s report, the medical man has plenty to say.
“Obesity is just as large here as many states,” he says. “it is misleading to say Tennessee is more obese than other states. the change in obesity over time is not much different than the change in other states. Even skinny states are getting fat as quickly as we are. We think it is a combo of environment, and certainly the type of food we eat and the physical activity is a component of that. For some people, it is genetics and they are more susceptible to getting obese than others.”
I ask Dr. Niswender why we should care.
“Obesity is a disease,” He says. “You don’t go to someone with diabetes and say you have a willpower problem or a character flaw, but people really have that thought when we talk about Obesity. It is a defect in the push away from the table muscle. It is not. It is a potent disease process like diabetes. We don’t understand it yet, but if we did we would understand why Tennessee is more susceptible.
I tell him that humans eat too much because we are trained to clean our plates from the time we are children.
“Why do we eat 3 meals a day as humans?,” he tells me he often asks young med students. “animals don’t eat three meals a day? the answer, because your momma told you to,” he laughs. “feeding and food intake in humans is extraordinarily complex. We also are beginning to understand things like addiction. parts of the brain that tell you like cocaine and alcohol, actually become activated in some kinds of food in some people. for some, increased food intake is food that have a lot of fat and sugar in them.”
And then there is the financial aspect of obesity:
“the idea that Obesity is a cosmetic disorder is not true. when you are heavy, your chance of having a heart attack goes up dramatically. Stroke goes up. Diabetes, cancer and liver disease increase. Why should we care as a state? Because it is costing us a fortune.
Underestimate: it costs the USA economy North of $300 billion per year.10-percent of health care expenditures are related to obesity. It is a staggering economic statistic, and it is killing people. “Skinny people should care, because they are paying for it,” he says bluntly.
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Do you spend more time than you think you should surfing the net?
