International obesity statistics rate Kuwait as number one, closely followed by Qatar and the United States as the most obese nations on Earth. Is there is a causal connection between crude oil and body fat?

For decades, it has been the American Way to subsidize the highway, gasoline and the automobile industry. However, regardless of widened freeways, we the people remain confined to traffic jams, and consequently our arteries grow as clogged as our arterial roads. There are other physical risks: A Dorchester girl riding her bike got killed in a hit- and-run accident.

It’s a weighty matter. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, but experience is the father of wisdom, so usually we don’t lock the stable until after the horse has bolted. A similar yet different saying in Dutch translates to, “after the calf drowns, the well is closed.”

Alternative reactions to a mistake. Is that linguistic distinction the reason for the Netherlands having the best cycling infrastructure in the world, while American children are increasingly locked indoors to prevent them from bolting?

The U.S. Senate Transportation Bill hearing on June 24 did not bode well for us; ironically it is called DRIVE (“Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act”); it sounds like continued kowtowing to oil and motorized mobility, while the underlings fight obesity fruitlessly. Cut sugar and skim milk till the cows come home.

MARLIES HENDERSON

Billerica