Wednesday, February 15, 2012

....Und You Vill Like It!!!!

Remember the concept of limited  government? It was pretty basic to the Constitution and a core of the ideology which the Founding Fathers brought to the table, whether they were Federalists or Anti-Federalists. They valued freedom and self-reliance. They rewarded initiative and hard work. They believed that you could make your own determinations of what is important.

Remember the concept of family? You know, that idea where in order to perpetuate the species a man and a woman would bond for life, procreate, then nurture and educate their children? Mother and father sheltered, clothed, cared for and fed their children. Some families ate better than others, but the essential was that in America we had the resources and opportunity to nourish our families.

I grew up in a big city, living in a small apartment and attending a parochial school five blocks away from home. There were city public schools in the neighborhood as well. Each morning between eight and nine o'clock, children emerged from stairways and back doors to walk to school. In spring and fall, we enjoyed the comfortable mornings and afternoons. When it rained we wore yellow rain slickers and carried umbrellas. When winter weather struck we walked through new-fallen snow wearing scarves, snowsuits, mittens and four-buckle galoshes. There were no buses. Our parents didn't drive us. We walked.

In hand we carried our lunch. A new school year often meant a lunch box of lithographed tin which might immortalize Flash Gordon or Cinderella or Mickey Mouse. A pint thermos inside could hold cold milk or warm tea or fruit juice and seldom survived very far into the school year because at some point the box would be dropped and the glass liner would rupture. The rest of the year lunch might be in a brown paper sack. There was no cafeteria or row of vending machines. We had some folding tables in the school basement auditorium. We ate lunch and then went out to the playground to burn up some excess energy.

There were sandwiches and cookies and a piece of fruit. It might be PB & J, bologna and cheese or something more exotic such as when my creative father made me a chicken wing sandwich which surprised me with the bones still in it. The essential was that the family fed the children. We were fed breakfast, lunch and dinner. That was an obligation.

Today we know about school lunches. Our unlimited federal government provides. They also provide breakfasts in many regions, because you need a good meal to start your educational day and parents don't provide any more. And in some areas they even offer an after-school "snack" aka dinner, so that the breeders have no obligation to the children at all.

Some parents may still take their obligations seriously. But our government apparently will stifle that concept.

Mandated Meals Force Nuggets on Pre-K Kiddoes

Yes, we'll take any control away from parents. We will intimidate the children and condition them to respond to our authority. We will hire mindless bureaucrats to inspect lunch sacks of four-year-olds and score the contents then stuff the appropriate ration of pre-determined food down their throats regardless of what the parents want.

Soylent Green, anybody?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You and I grew up pretty much the same, right down to the lunch boxes and broken thermos bottles. I fondly remember eating lunch in the basement and what those lunch bags contained. Nothing like a meat loaf sandwich with butter and ketchup on white bread with a bag of chips and an apple. I don't know how we turned out so well with only nuns to watch over us. Jack M

hamill45@yahoo.com said...

Hot Poop! Karl Richter is being enshrined into the "Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame" May 19,2012 The Hall is located within the "Air Zoo" Portage MI. Republic Aircraft driver. A-10 / P-47

Dweezil Dwarftosser said...

It's a good thing big-butt Michelle was still in Chicago 15 years ago; my youngest son (now 24) would still be in detention.

The school administration had emptied the cafeteria vending machines of chips and candy bars, replacing them with bags of leaves and twigs, and managed to keep their lucrative soda-vending contract by switching from coke products to their bottled water.

My young entrepreneur was secretly doubling his allowance by selling tootsie-roll pops to sugar-starved classmates. By the time they caught him, he had expanded to chips, Doritos, and canned drinks.
He'd leave his books in school, walk to the convenience store every day, and fill the backpack with hard-to-obtain (in school) comestibles.
Bureaucracies hate being beaten at their own game (especially by nine-year-olds) and suspended him.

He grew up to be a (genuine) rock star, and today manages a bar downtown. He worked his way up from bouncer. Someday, he says, he'll get that GED when he finds a job that actually requires one. I don't worry about him a bit . . .

MagiK said...

god this past week it seems like the party really is over, the Republic has failed because the average idiot wants a nanny. :(

Six said...

Here's something to bring a smile to your face. Like the song or not it still made me giggle.

My grandson came home from school today humming a vaguely familiar song. My daughter heard him and figured out it was Lee Greenwood's Proud to be an American. She asked him where he'd heard it (he's in Kindergarten) and he said his class sings it every day when they come in from recess. Each and every day.

Gotta love that southern Utah educational system.

MagiK said...

So isolated pockets of hope do exist :D Good to hear that Six :D