Over The Line?

This is actually so far over the line that the line isn’t even visible anymore. 

What’s got me going now?  An article on Yahoo News* about a Chicago public school banning ‘sack lunches’ brought from home.  Yes, folks, the powers that be have decided that their lunches are superior in nutrition to any lunch a child could possibly bring from home.

Um….

Excuse me?

And it doesn’t end there.  East Syracuse, NY schools have outlawed desserts, Bucks County, PA is recommending teachers limit treats in classrooms for birthday treats (and how do they decide which child can  A Tucson school allows sack lunches-if they don’t contain white flour, refined sugar or other processed foods. bring them?).

I fully support forcing schools to provide more nutritious meals.  I was appalled at the choices my kids had to choose from, if they didn’t take their lunch.  Basically it amounted to poor quality fast food, and it’s hard to find anything worse than that.  So yes, cut out the chicken fat, I mean nuggets.  Cut out the greasy tacos and other garbage.  Fix healthier, good tasting food. 

For students who want to eat them.

If the obesity epidemic, also a huge problem for children, is suddenly so important, then look at all the garbage the government allows to be added to the food we buy at the grocery store. 

Stop allowing MSG to be added to pretty much everything on every shelf in the store.  Stop allowing meat producers to add growth hormones to animal feed.  Those are the real culprits, which I actually addressed in a blog I’ll be posting later this week.

I was just so appalled over this that I had to rant a bit.

If it were me, do you know what I’d be doing?  Pulling my kids out of public school so fast it would make your head spin.  We’d be joining the ranks of home school households across the nation.  At the very least I’d be organizing a student/parent strike.  If teachers can foul up the school year in the name of better pay and benefits, why shouldn’t students be allowed to protest being forced to eat lousy food?

One thing I’ve learned as a parent is that it does not take a village to raise a child.  It takes responsible parents.  But when decisions as simple as what to feed your child for lunch at school is taken out of your control, you have to wonder what’s next.  Are parents only going to be able to be financially responsible, with the government making all important decisions regarding the children?

Are they going to decide what religion we’re allowed to teach them?  What television programs or movies they’re allowed to see?  Who they’re allowed to associate with?

Yeah, I sound a little over the top.  But who ever thought the day would come when the government would dictate what our kids are and are not allowed to eat?  That they would ban and outlaw things like sack lunches or a cupcake.

And yet they allow dangerous additives to be pumped into our food supply without batting an eye. Then they want to chip away at parental rights when those additives cause obesity to run rampant in America.

If the citizens of the United States don’t wake up and start demanding our God-given, Constitution-guaranteed rights, one day we’re going to be waking up and wondering what happened.

Well, I won’t be because I can see where we’re headed.  I just can’t do anything on my own.  And I’m in the same boat as tens of thousands of other people.  We want things to change, but there is no organization in making it come about.

We need all the level headed people who have had enough to step up here.  People who are finally willing to do what it takes to get worthless politicians, and now educators, out of office. 

And not wait until the next election to do it. 

*http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110411/us_yblog_thelookout/chicago-school-bans-homemade-lunches-the-latest-in-national-food-fight