In the day and age of tolerance for everything from “illegal” aliens to rigid rules and laws in non-discriminatory hiring practices, to teaching our children to be color blind, it never fails to amaze me at the lack of compassion and understanding that many people have towards individuals who are overweight.

I guess the difference is that someone can do something about their weight, but a person cannot do something about their heritage or the color of their skin. However, this ridiculous penchant to cater to the needs of the politically-correct-ly labeled “undocumented” (read: illegal) workers in the US makes me crazy. I mean, hello?!? What part of “illegal” do you not understand?? If it were illegal to be fat, would I then get special treatment and labeled “weight challenged” instead of “obese”??? I mean, really.

I know I’m overweight. I know I need to seriously lose about 100 lbs. Fortunately I am tall (5’11″) so this 100 lbs. fits better on my frame than, say, someone who is 5’2″. Still wayyyyyy too much weight, but i’m not as big around as someone at this weight who is shorter.

I haven’t flown on an airplane in about four years and about 40 lbs. ago. I barely fit in the seat at that weight, and now I’ve packed on another 40 lbs. My employer is sending me to a training in North Carolina in two weeks. I have to fly on a plane. In coach. So many airlines are making such a fuss over “people of size” and they are making them buy two seats.

I had almost paralyzing anxiety over the thought of being asked to leave the airplane and purchase two more tickets because I am “just too fat” and to have to do the “walk of shame” down the aisle, with everyone staring at the “fat lady” who just couldn’t fit in a seat. I mean, it seems to me that the airlines should provide a private room with a seat and seatbelt so that people “of size” can try it out before even getting on the plane and humiliating themselves.

In doing research about this, I became increasingly anxious as I read about 17″ wide seats (wtf? Many people couldn’t fit in that!) and 35″ seatbelts, I even read somewhere that Delta (the airline I am flying on) had a policy that if you needed a seatbelt extender, you would be required to purchase two seats!

Then I had a conversation with a Delta agent, who reassured me that they do NOT automatically make a passenger who needs a seat extender to purchase another seat. He did, however, carefully and diplomatically explain that if I would feel “more comfortable” in two seats, they may “suggest” that I purchase a 2nd seat. I felt somehwat reassured by this but I am still a little concerned about all this going down in front of 200 other passengers.

Then I read this post by The Well Mannered Traveler on MSNBC. This was a wonderful articule which included Delta’s compassionate response to “people of size” and how these situations are handled, and I feel immensely better for having read this. Here’s an excerpt of the article:

“For example, although Delta Air Lines does not post “passengers of size” policies on its Web site, spokesman Anthony Black sent along an e-mail outlining options for those seated next to passengers who are encroaching into their seat space. It read:

2. The larger customer may purchase an additional seat on the later flight and any continuing return flights to guarantee carriage and comfort.’ “

What appalled me, was that the Well-Mannered Traveler had apparently written a previous post about the problem of overweight people on airplanes, and she discussed and reposted some of the responses she got from people who are to the point of being cruel about overweight people, as if they shouldn’t exist on this earth. It was horrifying to me, that people who are overweight or obese are often seen by “normal sized” people as being non-human! And yet they excuse the illegal (oh excuuuuuse me, the “undocumented”) worker for their status? How does this make any sense??

Here’s a quote from her article about people’s unsympathetic reaction:

“Some people found my suggestions “way off,” “idiotic” or unprintably worse. Others thought I should have strongly urged overweight people to “just stop eating” or to “stay home” if they are unable to fit comfortably into the average airplane coach seats, which are rarely more than 17 inches wide.

For example, Stacy C. of Radford Va. wrote: “…[W]hy don’t you advise the overweight and obese to walk to their destination … I am all for being well-mannered and treating others with respect but I am tired of all the crying and catering to overweight and obese people …”

Well, guess what, Stacy C. I’m tired of all the crying and catering to undocumented aliens, too. But at least they’re doing something illegal. God forbid YOU should ever gain weight. What if you developed a medical condition that caused you to gain 50 lbs? Then what? What happens when you get a taste of your own medicine? If you don’t like sitting next to an obese person then YOU move. They’re not the ones uncomfortable, YOU are. They have as much right to sit in that seat as you do, and as long as they are not unsafe, then too frickin’ bad. Deal with it. If we have to pretend that “undocumented workers” aren’t in this country illegally, then YOU have to learn to deal with people who are fat. Just because they are fat doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Wish me luck on the airplane in two weeks!