|
|
|
by J.S. Magruder, Unknown News
July 10, 2007
Perhaps the only amusing (in admittedly a dark sort of way) part of this article in the Lincoln Journal Star about childhood hunger came when the reporter described (without any irony) the "healthy" meal of baloney and cheese sandwiches being served to children. The rest of the piece, and the comment thread following it, are less amusing -- infuriating actually.
"It's a little like throwing raw meat to a pack of hungry wolves."
Awesome! It takes a special skill to dehumanize poor, mainly minority children as animals right from the get-go. Usually it takes a couple of paragraphs in before working out that sort of thinly veiled racism. They must have some extra-special editors working in that news department. Way to go.
Then, he goes on to interview a child and uses his full name. Nice. Years from now, he (and anyone else) will be able to Google his name and find out all about the free lunches. That's just great. But hey, it's only some poor kid, not like he has any feelings.
"If the program didn't exist, many kids might not get fed at all, he said.
We don't know that these kids would have nutritious meals in the summer."
Well yes, that's what happens when you "reform" welfare and take food out of children's mouths. Instead of letting their parents purchase the food they need to feed their families discreetly,
|
|
Summer food program
serves low-income youth
by Kevin Abourezk,
Lincoln Journal-Star
July 2, 2007
It's a little like throwing raw meat to a pack of hungry wolves.
Only the wolves wash up in sinks and rub germ killer on their hands before they dig in.
Still, it's debatable whether you could call the mob forming at the lunchroom door at 11:25 on a recent morning an organized queue.
As about 50 kids with growling stomachs line up for free lunch at the Belmont Recreation Center, Terry Holthus tries to stop them from storming the lunch table.
"Back up," says Holthus, assistant recreation director at Belmont. "Back, back, back."
The pack complies -- for now.
On a table in the lunchroom, brown paper bags filled with bologna and cheese sandwiches, raisins and milk await the children inside three red and blue coolers kept at a cool 40 degrees. ... |
|
the children are forced to line up in a public fashion to get their handouts. Or go hungry. It's only through the goodness of our hearts that they get this much.
After the newspaper's article, you can skip down to the comments thread to read further evidence of this mentality where people claim (and I know they are full of BS because our state has not used "stamps" in many, many years for food. The benefits are paid through a debit-card type thing which isn't readily identifiable to people standing in line behind them) to see welfare recipients being frivolous with their benefits. You know, you can't trust the poor to make good decisions -- why, if they were smart, they wouldn't be poor! You think I'm kidding? Go read some of the comments. At last check it hadn't devolved into calls for mandatory sterilization of the poor, but typically it only takes three or four comments in this paper to get down to eugenics.
A disturbing aspect of this is how our state requires people seeking food assistance to feed their children to deal with social workers and take parenting classes. Clearly, they are stating that poverty = neglectful parenting, which is beyond insulting. Many people opt to go hungry rather than invite the state into their lives, with good reason. Jump through hoops poor people, jump through hoops -- and if you don't, we'll take your children.
During the year, the same super-geniuses have a program in place where children line-up every Friday afternoon ("Come on poor children, get in line at the front of the class for everyone to gawk") and are handed a rucksack with a few pieces of fruit. The idea is that they might not have anything else to eat over the weekend. Well, at least it is healthy. God forbid they hand out bags of rice or something actually filling. Hey, shut-up you poor people, we know what's good for you. We're so very concerned for your health that we're giving you these three pieces of fruit (along with the public humiliation) so you don't starve, but we're also willing to ignore the fact that people's lives are so precarious in the first place -- because then we might have to actually help the less fortunate. Can't have that.
The thing that makes me want to smash my fist through the monitor reading this rubbish is the self-congratulatory tone the organizers take. There were many, many poor children when I went to school getting free school lunches (probably the only good thing LBJ did) but we had no idea who they were. No-one was singled-out -- if anything the teachers went to great lengths to keep things level, if only in appearance.
What these would-be do-gooders don't understand is that many more people will continue to go hungry rather than face the humiliation. We have horrible, mind-boggling poverty out here in the rural areas, but you don't hear about it as the cultural environment prevents people from making use of the benefits available. The shame factor is quite strong.
|
|
The thing that makes me want to smash my fist through the monitor reading this rubbish is the self-congratulatory tone the organizers take.
There were many, many poor children when I went to school getting free school lunches (probably the only good thing LBJ did) but we had no idea who they were.
No-one was singled-out -- if anything the teachers went to great lengths to keep things level, if only in appearance.
|
|
|
|
|
Poverty is viewed as a personal failing, and as such people are loathe to accept benefits they have been paying into for years through their taxes. It is their money, yet they won't avail themselves of it. Creating scenarios that further demean the poor isn't going to get people through the door.
Personally, I think that's the goal -- make it so horrible that people would rather starve than accept help. This program in Lincoln is just a way of reinforcing it early.
© by the author.
|
|
| |
