Too BIG for the Bench

Judge Elizabeth Halverson sits stoically on her bench, but is she too big for that seat?

It's not a mystery that Judge Elizabeth Halverson is an obese American. The 425-pound District Court judge suffers from a nimiety of health problems because of her extreme girth including diabetes and Crohn's Disease. Because of her debilitating health, Halverson is confined to an oxygen tank and a scooter so that she can both survive and move around.

Now in a society that frowns upon being fat, a person in Judge Halverson's position can be subjected to torrid abuse about her weight. This abuse can cause anyone to lose her temper, revile and belittle others around her, and be an all-around petulant person.

It is also not out of the realm of possibility that a person who is in this situation day after day may logically feel as though everyone were out to get her...and maybe...everyone is. Maybe it is just a little bit plausible that people actually do want a piece of the woman whom many have called, Jabba the Judge.

I mean, why wouldn't they? It's no mystery that there are people who hate other people just because those other people are different. We see such bigotries all of the time in our daily lives---racism, antisemitism, misogyny, misandry, xenophobia, sinophobia, and so on. Shall I continue?

Perhaps we should stop for just one second and put ourselves in Judge Halverson's shoes---the shoes of a nearly quarter-ton woman whose physiological looks do nothing for her except aid in the occasional snook from a passer-by. Now I want you to try living that life day in and day out. Do you think you could handle the stress that comes with that lifestyle? All you have to do is take a gander at the seemingly harmless pasquinade I have created about the grand judge and you will understand where I am coming from.

In the end, I am not trying to make excuses for the embattled judge because she is what she is...but it's what she isn't that is her BIGGEST obstacle. She is not the conventionally-sized person who goes about her day like you and me. She is something far larger, and that, suffice it to say, in this society, is a really BIG problem.