You've probably seen the picture: a teenager, Kaytlin Shelton, snapped a quick photo of her school lunch, and it became fodder for conservatives to attack Michelle Obama and the new regulations she is championing.
The photo Kaytlin took shows some lunch meat, a couple of crackers, a slice of cheese and two pieces of cauliflower.
For those wondering, that's about what I ate during my time on the CBS show "Survivor."
Predictably, this photo circulated around right-leaning sites and found its way into email boxes of Republicans who wanted another (as if there weren't already enough!) excuse to become outraged at the latest evil enacted by the Obamas on the American people.
Now, there are some issues to get incredibly enraged about and immediately call your local congressman to demand he investigate or launch legislation to correct, but perhaps this school lunch picture isn't an issue to get overly upset about.
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After reading the local Oklahoma City Fox affiliate story on the school lunch fiasco – orchestrated by the dastardly Michelle Obama – a few immediate thoughts came to my mind. The station reports:
The Holton family says the meal the district calls a "Munchable" is ridiculous, and family members say it needs to change.
The meal that daughter Kaytlin Shelton took a photo of Monday consists of lunch meat, a couple crackers, a slice of cheese and two pieces of cauliflower. Schools in Chickasha serve it every other week. 

Kaytlin says it's especially problematic for her because the 17-year-old is eating for two. She's pregnant with a little girl on the way. 

"It makes me want to take that and take it to the superintendent and tell him to eat it for lunch," she said.
Kaytlin's father, Vince Holton, says the $3 meal is not good enough for any student, much less one eight months pregnant. 

"I can go pay a dollar for a lunchabe and get more food in it," he said.
First thought: Perhaps if Mr. Holton had tried to preach sexual restraint and morality, his daughter wouldn't be eating for two as a 17-year-old junior in high school.
Second thought: As a conservative, isn't a simple solution to worrying about the amount of calories your child will eat at lunch remedied by fixing a brown sack lunch for your child, instead of sending him or her off to eat a meal provided by the food vender who provided the lowest bid for the contract?
It's not hard to take some personal responsibility and go to the grocery store and purchase the necessary items to provide your children with a well-rounded lunch that fits the nutritional guidelines you believe are right for them; but apparently, too many conservatives complaining about the lunches provided by the public school system believe the government (which they question in every other instance) should be the provider in this scenario.
Why not just privatize the school lunch problem by providing your kid with a brown sack lunch and completely avoid worrying about the lunch Michelle Obama deems the proper servings for your child?
In reading about what is required to be on the menu in public high school cafeterias across America, some simple nutritional common sense seems to be mandated:
1 cup of fruit
1 cup of vegetables
2 ounces of grain
2 ounces of meat or meat alternative
1 cup of milk
Federal standards established by the USDA require a meal have a minimum of 750 calories, which is a good portion for your average high school student and well above what high school wrestlers trying to cut or make weight will consume in a day before they weigh in.
My point in bringing this up is America does have a significant weight problem, and childhood obesity is a growing (pardon the bad pun) epidemic.
Blame kids spending too much time in front of the TV, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or playing on their iPhones, but obesity is a gratuitous problem in America, easily remedied by exercise and watching what you eat.
There's no need to cite any statistics on the growing problem of obesity: just go to nearest mall by your home and spend a few hours people-watching in the food court.
Better yet, take a trip down to a Wal-Mart in your area and walk around the store for 10 minutes: You'll see a bunch of your fellow Americans looking like they are planning to audition for a live-action version of Disney's "WALL-E" (a dystopian movie set in the future where humans have relied on machines for every aspect of their life, growing enormously overweight in the process).
Is Michelle Obama going overboard in her quest to rid school lunches of what she's deemed superfluous food items?
Of course – but ultimately, parent should exercise personal responsibility as to what their children eat and not hand over that task so wantonly to the government (particularly one where the first lady is Michelle Obama).
So privatize school lunches by packing your kid's a lunch in a brown paper sack.
Provide them a few snacks (I'd suggest nuts or a dried meat like beef jerky) to eat throughout the day.
Ultimately, it is the parent's responsibility to make sure their children are fit, healthy and eating correct portions of food.
Don't give this job to the Obamas and then whine about it when you see pictures taken on smartphones from the school cafeteria.
Pack a lunch for them, and make sure they are being physically active by participating in a sport and not spending all their free time in front of the TV.
Besides, there are far more important issues for conservatives to get worked up over than one they can easily fix by taking the responsibility to remove the government from their kid's lunch box.
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