No Lunch for Deadbeats: So What If They ARE Kids?

Here's another one of those hand-collides-with-the-forehead moments.    
Earlier this week,  forty students at a Salt Lake City elementary school had their lunches snatched away from them by a district official.  Her title?  ---uh---  Child Nutrition Manager!   They were then chucked in the garbage because once served,  they couldn't be re-served.  (The lunches that is,   not the kiddos.   Just thought I'd better clarify that).

The reason that these pupils lost their lunches was that their families' accounts were deemed delinquent.   To make matters worse,  these poor boys and girls were mortified in front of their classmates.  Some cried.  So did at least one cafeteria lady.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune,  which first ran the article,  last Wednesday's lunch-snatching has been an ongoing policy.  Apparently it's happened elsewhere too,  including Texas.  (Surprised)?  Owing to the justified public outrage generated by this recent episode,  the policy is at least now out in the open.

There are times that I can't help but believe that such abject cruelty and meanness can be contagious.   These lunch-snatchers seem to be taking their cues right from the playbooks of two  particular congressfolks  (one former):  Stephen Fincher and Newt Gingrich.

Mr.  Fincher is the Western Tennessee congressman and self-anointed biblical scholar  who  cited a passage from the Bible indicating that "those who don't work,  don't eat".  (His words).   (According to real scholars,  the quote was taken grossly out of context).    The congressman cited it as justification for his vote to cut food stamps.   Yet he's never refused government aid for his own family's thriving four-square-mile cotton plantation.   

Not to be forgotten is Mr.  Gingrich:  former Speaker of the House,  presidential candidate,  and serial hubby.   Here's what he declared back in November,  2011:

             Time to relax our truly stupid child labor laws.
             Schools should fire their unionized janitors and
             hire children as young as nine to do the work
             instead.

That's a hard act to follow,  folks.   I'm absolutely sure that the vast majority of us are better than that.   We need to elect more public officials who truly reflect our values.