You would think that if there was anything Republicans, Democrats and Independents could agree on it would be that making school lunches healthier is a good thing. But apparently in today’s extreme political divide, healthy food is a part of the new Communist Manifesto.
I think too much. For example, when Sarah Palin brazenly jabs at Michelle Obama’s initiative to improve the health of our children, I say to myself: “Is she for real, or is this just some sort of professional wrestling-style persona she’s taking on?” You know, she’s The Iron Sheik to Michelle Obama’s Hulk Hogan (sorry, my pro wrestling knowledge doesn’t go beyond 1989).
The gist of her oversimplified argument is that government shouldn’t decide what our kids eat; parents should be the ones responsible. The foolishness of this argument is pretty easy to dismantle, but first, it’s important to note that Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative and the Child Nutrition Act (a.k.a. Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act), is not forcing kids to eat what is in schools. They can still brown-bag their lunches.
Public schools by their very definition are public, as in they get funding from the government. So how can the government be meddling too much in a government-funded program?
Public school lunches are the responsibility of the government, so unless Palin is proposing to do away with the public school system altogether, it’s a moot point.
Besides, if you don’t want your kids to have foods that are healthier, I’m pretty sure we’re not at the point that you will be arrested for giving your child a Ho-Ho as their lunch dessert. I know there are some tin foil hatters out there who think that’s what is coming next, but they are lost causes anyway.
“Who should be deciding what I eat? Should it be government or should it be parents? It should be the parents,” says Palin.
Is anyone telling parents that they can’t give their kids lunches to bring to school?
I hate to break it to you, Sarah, but our government sets standards for many things in our society. Would she say that government has no business telling companies not to dump chemicals in public water sources? Or set safety standards in manufacturing plants, or enacting those pesky child labor laws, because you know, parents should be the ones who decide whether or not their eight-year-old should be able to work in the local sweat shop that would be common place in Sarah’s idealist non-government intervention paradise.
Maybe the ultimate irony is in Palin’s championing of parental freedoms to be responsible for their own children, when her strict moral code didn’t even get through to her own daughter who famously had a baby out of wedlock as a teenager.
I’m sorta getting off on a tangent a little, but the point is that Sarah Palin has plenty of problems monitoring or teaching “traditional” values to her own kids.
Let’s get back to what this is all about: mocking the Obamas’ attempts to make foods provided by government funds healthier. It’s as if, in Sarah Palin’s little dream world, we aren’t having an obesity crisis… and even if there is one, hey, it’ll work itself out without the government meddling in our affairs.
Because, you know, that worked out so well with Wall Street.