You deserve a break today --

Parkland Hospital has had a McDonald's on the premises for years. They recently closed it down and opened a restaurant offering healthier meals. Meg Hillert of Dallas doesn't like it.

She says, "The poor are forced to sit for hours to see a doctor and are now being punished for enjoying a burger." Meg has the entitlement attitude so prevalent in society today. I look at it entirely differently. We are providing the poor the opportunity to see a doctor they can't afford in a hospital funded by the taxpayers. They should be grateful instead of whining about how long it takes. Beggars can't be choosers, you know. And I seriously doubt when the decision was made to close the McDonald's that the scene included a bunch of Snidely Whiplash characters laughing in glee as they made their dastardly plan to punish the poor.

Then she says, "Why don't we . . . take out the buttered popcorn and candy in the movie theaters and replace them with carrots and celery sticks?" That's quite simple. Movie theaters can sell whatever they like. You can buy it or not. Parkland Hospital can sell whatever they like. You can buy it or not.

Then she says, "We need to fix health care by cutting costs of the pharmaceutical companies, the insurance companies, the doctors, and the hospitals. There are also too many tests and unnecessary medical visits." We're talking about a county hospital here -- most of those people pay no insurance, pay no hospital or doctor bills. That's why they're going to Parkland. Too many tests and unnecessary medical visits? How does she know?

Meg should go get a Big Mac and chill out!

"Don't poor deserve Big Macs?" The Dallas Morning News; August 7, 2009; p. 22A.