For Whom They Come

In the excitement (well, mine) generated by the publication of FatLand II: The Early Days, I haven't forgotten the interview with Lesleigh Owen/Elle Hill, writer of the Hunted Dreams Series. It will be printed here tomorrow.

I watched videos of the Solidarity Sing Along singers being arrested in the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, and I thought of how it didn't matter one bit if they were fat, thin, or in between.  People who protested dictatorships and dictatorial rule -can you say "Scott Walker"?- have always been of every size. Yet there are those in each major party -and some smaller parties- who somehow feel that fat people have no right to join them in their recruitment and actions.

I make reference in both FatLand and FatLand II to the Pro-Health and Diet Laws passed in 2010 and 2012 that made life in the USA hell for fat people. Walker is trying to make life in Wisconsin a lot more difficult for non-rich people.  So are conservative governors in many states. The poem by Martin Niemoller that mentions how the authorities came for the Jews first, then for each ethnic, political or religious group in turn, but that there was no one left to speak out by the time they came for him, should be a warning to all that authorities under a fascist government can come for anyone they deem uncontrollable - and that may be any and all groups active (previously) in speaking out.

I am starting to formulate the sections of FatLand III, but other books may also come. One is in the brain somewhere that would detail life under the Pro-Diet and Health Laws for fat people. To be frank, I have tried to write the latter twice, but couldn't. It made me sick to contemplate.

Bigotry doesn't rest with scapegoating one group. And the groups that practice it don't rest.

Neither can we.