Today's MOZEN The Fourth of July 2014

Words and photo by F LoBuono

Today we celebrate the birth of our nation. Over the course of our 238 years, in addition to recognizing our greatness as a county, we have developed a number of traditions that we associate with the Fourth of July. They are food (i.e. barbecue), fireworks, and, for most, a day off. In recent years this has also become associated with the Fourth of July - The Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island.

I'll spare you a detailed history of the event. You can look it up. It's not important. Really. And, that's my point. It started as a MARKETING TOOL to attract more people to Coney Island and to eat more hotdogs at Nathan's (the place that takes credit for inventing them). It involves contestants jamming as many boiled Nathan's hotdogs down their gullets in a predetermined period of time. Again, I'll spare you the "finer" points of the rules. They are, also, not important.

What is important is that this event that started out as a curious "gimic"/marketing ploy has become an international event with a "live" crowd of over 30,000 expected in attendance, a wall to wall "live" broadcast produced by ESPN, and coverage by every local news station in New York. It will be breathlessly teased as a "wacky, fun' event that we "all associate with the 4th of July by every news anchor in NY"! Really? What a load of shit. I so hate when the news falls for schemes like this one and then promotes the hell of it!

Ramming food down your throat is not fun. It is not wacky. It is the height of gluttony. In an attempt to eat as many hotdogs as possible, participants moisten the hotdog and bun in water as to make mashing it into their mouths that much easier. The result is gelatinous mess of bread and meat. Viewers must do their best not to puke before the contestants do! That's right; on the most American of Holidays, hundreds of thousands of people are thrilled by the site of disgusting gluttony!! THIS is the image we choose to present as our own - to the people of the world? We have poverty. We have hunger. And we celebrate gluttony, on our birthday? There is something very wrong here.

The winners are well paid and lavished with praise and fame. They are presented as "champions". Really? I wonder if they donate the prize money to a charity that feeds hungry people. Does Nathan's make a donation to a food bank? Does ESPN? Perhaps, they do. I have not researched it one way or the other. However, I have not heard that they do and, considering the PR they would get from it, I think that I would have heard something. Besides, that's not the point. The message conveyed by the event itself is bogus. It is NOT one that WE Americans should care to associated with!

Now, go out there and have a great Fourth of July. Happy Birthday to US!!