....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?