In case you you've not been paying attention...or haven't any children attending public school in the United States, presently...battle lines are being drawn in many school districts across the country over the matter of...wait for it...chocolate milk.
State and local governments, in too many cases even less familiar than their federal counterparts with the notion that the government which governs least governs best, are hot on the trail of the nefarious chocolate milk in their efforts to improve the health of the nation’s youth.
Hey, I think little Johnny is a fat slob, too, but is it really my place to tell parents how to feed their kids? Do we really want to keep going down that road? The uncomfortable but logical conclusion of that continued journey ends with a society akin to bygone East Germany, where the Stasi (secret police) had enlisted about one-eighth of the entire population as “citizen informers.” No thanks.
The Massachusetts’ Public Health Council (surely an entity the overburdened taxpayers in the Bay State can’t possibly live without) has just passed new school nutrition rules that will, in part, effectively eliminate the distribution of chocolate milk in public schools. Washington D.C., the home of the country’s most stringent and least effective gun control laws, banned all of this stuff a while ago. Los Angeles has also cracked down on sugary drinks at school lunches - perhaps they think it fosters the murderous gang activity that has plagued the city for decades and which, to my untrained eye, at least, seems to be a little more of a public health hazard for kids.
News flash: If your kid is a fat tub of goo, it’s not because he’s drinking a tiny carton of chocolate milk each day at school; it’s because you’re not doing what you should be doing the rest of the time those kids are in your care and under your direct supervision. On that note, what about the parents who are actually doing their jobs, and so don’t mind if their kids have a small box of chocolate milk with lunch at school? I guess those little darlings are out of luck. As with so many other laws that are designed on a foundation of saving us from ourselves, the notion is that if one irresponsible soul abuses a bit of freedom, that bit of freedom goes away for all of us.
I drank chocolate milk when I was a youth (for that matter, I enjoy chocolate milk now as an adult). I drank and ate a lot of things as a young person...some healthy, others not so much. Luckily, my parents were real parents, not simply two older people who happened to wear the titles of “mom” and “dad.” They looked at me not as an appendage, but as the most important thing in their lives while I was at the age to be duly considered so. Their own wants and needs were second to mine, and their consideration and thought processes were applied with me as the priority.
This is not a minor point; because my parents were the kind of parents they were, they were involved, supportive, and disciplinarian. Their example and values system were ingrained in me at a young age. No, I did not always do what they wanted me to, but the point is that I was always at least pointed in the right general direction, so that when I strayed from the edicts, I did not stray into overly-dangerous territory. Again, though, real parents are required for all of that, and there is no law..unless we really want to venture into the wonderful yesteryears of places like East Germany...that will guarantee that every child receives a pair, or even one, of those.
So I had chocolate milk on a regular basis...and plain milk; orange juice and Kool Aid; water and Coke. For that matter, I ate plenty of candy...and also plenty of fruit. French fries...and vegetables. All in varying amounts, but here’s to where all of that patchwork eating has brought me: I’ll be 50 next year, in great health, and, among other achievements, I’m a credentialed fitness and self defense professional. I work out twice a day and feel terrific. What’s more, I still eat lots of healthy foods...and a fair amount of junk on occasion.
You really want to solve the problem of chocolate milk at school? Fine; shut down the public school cafeterias, and put that money back into the hands of parents. Where is it written that schools have to feed the kids they educate? Kids can bring lunches to school every day – even high school students. It’s no big deal to pack a sandwich, a bag of chips, a piece of fruit, and a drink into a book bag each day (don’t give me this “hot lunch” garbage, either; you can count on one hand the number of hot lunches I’ve eaten in the past year). However, government being the voracious, all-consuming monster it now is, they’ll never go for it. For one thing, when do you ever see a government give back money? For another, and most significantly, the school lunch represents another means by which government can intrude and attempt to control our lives...and THAT’S the passion with which they truly cannot live without.
Agree or disagree; please register your comments below.
Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/robertyetman.
Follow me on Christian Chirp at www.christianchirp.com/robertyetman.
Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) and the unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press).
Comments