Illinois Will Have an Eating Disorders Awareness Day: Burke Takes Initiative

By Mike Murray

This Wednesday -February 25- will mark the inaugural Eating Disorders Awareness Day in the State of Illinois. As of yet, this is a prediction, but then again so is the statement that the sun will rise tomorrow.

Early last week I was engaged in some casual conversation with Rep. Daniel Burke outside of The Globe bar in Springfield. It started with the usual small talk, but before I knew it, the conversation was fixed on the subject of eating disorders. Apparently, as Rep. Burke informed me, eating disorders is an epidemic among young women me that claim a life every 8 minutes in the U.S.

While that line of conversation was a tad depressing relative to the usual bar talk, I found it uplifting to hear a legislator truly motivated solely out of concern for the public good. Rep Burke clearly felt he had to do something, and told me that he would introduce a bill to raise public awareness regarding eating disorders.


As it turns out, Rep Burke was not just talking to hear his own voice, and he introduced HB 42 which establishes February 25 as the Illinois Eating Disorders Awareness Day. HB 42 is slated to come before the Executive Committee, which is chaired by Rep Burke, on February 25. Rep Burke is still actively advocating the issue as yesterday he encouraged all fellow members of the House Executive Committee to attend the meeting next week in order to hear testimony of young women who have suffered from eating disorders. HB 42 will breeze through the committee, the floor and will become law.

Obviously, the state has much more dire issues on its plate to deal with, but if legislators attack the state’s budget and infrastructure problems with the same vigor Burke has showed in his effort to combat eating disorders, Illinois might just get through our financial crisis in one piece.