Raising the Nation's Children

On a recent visit to an elementary school in New York, First Lady Michelle Obama continued her efforts on behalf of the health and weight of the nation's children. She spoke of how "as parents we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure that they have a reasonable balanced diet. And when we are putting all that into effect the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria." Fine sentiments indeed.  But she wasn't really speaking for parents. She was speaking for the administration. Her comments came in regard to the recently changed federal rules regarding what food can be served in school cafeterias and in what amounts.

For progressives there is no distinction between society and government and very little between people and society. The effort made over the years to tease out the public consequences of personal behavior has finally reached school cafeterias. With the ebbing of the crusade against tobacco a new cause has been found in obesity. Efforts once devoted to extrapolating the social and economic costs of using tobacco are now being directed towards obesity. Studies and statistics have been piling up demonstrating how much extra poundage costs society. It was inevitable that fat kids would would wind up in the cross hairs.

There was a time when the government was only concerned with what our children knew. Things have changed greatly since then. The government has since asserted a right to have a say in what our children think, feel, and believe. It should surprise no one that the government is now making a claim on what our children eat. The government is taking its place in our school cafeterias, in our kitchens, our living rooms, and at our dining room tables. It seems that the only room in the house that progressives want the government to stay out of is the bedroom. Every place else is fair game.

Talk of the "nation's" children is a sleight of hand. Children do not belong to the nation. They belong to parents. Society is not responsible for how children are raised. Parents are. Even if society has a stake in rearing children, that does not mean the government should have one. The government cannot yet come into your house and tell you what you can and can't feed your children, what books they should read, what TV shows they can watch, and what they should think, but they are working on it. They have your house surrounded.

When it is perceived that society is in need, the nation is called to step in. When the nation is called, the government responds. When the government responds, liberty recedes. Liberals might want to keep government out of the bedroom, but everyplace else is fair game. You can speak of liberty all you like but liberty does not have a chance against progressives armed with statistics. Children in the U.S. are fat for reasons the government cannot yet control and that drives progressives nuts. That is what they are out to change.

As parents we should be concerned with the health and appearance of our children. As a nation we have other things to tend to.