Opinion
McDonald’s distributes joy through meals
March 26, 2008
Though their burgers may not be made of beef, nor are their fries from potatoes, nor are their filet-o-fishes from fishes, I love McDonald’s.
Those golden arches represent all that is good with America. The man who made the restaurant great was not the original founders of Dick and Mac McDonald, but Ray Kroc, who was a true American patriot. This man understood that people want food fast and tasty, not healthy.
But now, after this man blazed the trail for the likes of Burger King and Wendy’s, neither of which are actual competition for Mac-Do, our society rejects him.
If Kroc were to be alive today, he would be exiled for his role in the increasing amount of obese Americans. But that’s not how it should be.
There shouldn’t be anti-American/McDonalds propaganda like “Super Size Me;” there should be an annual contest where one person gets to do what that guy did in that movie.
Raise your hand if you ever went to a birthday party at McDonald’s. Raise your hand if you loved getting a sweet Hot Wheels car in your Happy Meal when your sister got a stupid Barbie doll.
We don’t want breakfast sandwiches, we want Egg McMuffins and McGriddles. Do you know why we want all of this? Because it tastes and feels good, not because it’s healthy, and guess what ... that’s OK.
We don’t have to spend our lives eating garden salads to increase our life by a couple days, though you can get a salad from McDonald’s. Apple pie is as American as McDonald’s.
Though Kroc himself never was technically “exiled,” McDonald’s is facing that right now. But we should accept it for the joy it can bring us.
Go out and get yourself a Big Mac meal, super size it, replace the diet coke with a super sized Shamrock Shake and sit back and enjoy the cholesterol. And if you’re getting a little bit heavier, just walk it off. Don’t blame McDonald’s and don’t blame me—I’m a diabetic for cripes sake.
Caleb is a journalism major and economics minor. He enjoys debating about politics and the NFL draft.
Caleb Stevens is a student at UW-River Falls.