365個英語小故事 第095期：No Doughnuts for Old Folks

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In New York, the residents at a senior center have been receiving free doughnuts and other baked goods for years. The sweets are donated by bakeries and other shops that have leftovers that are not quite fresh enough to sell. The seniors devour the sweets. But the city council has decided that these sweets are no good for the seniors. It just passed a law forbidding free day-old sweets for the senior center.

“We want our seniors to live as long as possible, and these sweets can only contribute to obesity. With obesity come high blood pressure, circulation problems, and diabetes. So we are doing this for their own good,” said Karl Rove, a city council member.

The senior citizens are having none of this. They immediately called Rove and other council members to protest this ban. “Who are these people to tell us what to eat?” asked Doug Fairbanks, a resident at the center. “I’ll bet every one of them has a doughnut several times a week. Where do they get this attitude? They act like they are our parents.

“Instead, they are elected officials who are supposed to do the will of the people. And there isn’t one person in this senior center who has complained about the free doughnuts. If they’re concerned about seniors, are they going to prohibit all the seniors in the whole town from eating doughnuts? They can’t just pick on us if they’re interested in the health of all seniors.

“People get a little bit of power and it goes straight to their heads. We are starting a petition to recall all the council members who voted for this law.”