Maintaining the Status Quo

Did anyone read the syndicated editorial by Mona Charen in today's Muskogee Phoenix concerning Michelle Obama's plan to downsize school lunches? The First Lady's fitness plan includes shaping up children and teenagers by reducing the fat in school lunches, which we all know needs to happen. We can't just leave it up to the parents, as Mrs. Obama said.

What really stood out in the editorial, however, was Charen's idea that we should eliminate school lunches and have students bring their own lunch to school, the way they did prior to this modern school lunch program that started in 1946, subsidizing lunches with fattening cheese and farmers with money. Charen's rationale is that way parents would have more ownership and participation in their children's lives and kids would eat healthier. Feed the kids breakfast at school, but have them bring their lunch - oh, and call child protective services on the parents of kids who don't show up with a lunch.
I'm not sure I'm buying all that. There were school lunches prior to 1946 and the effects of poverty on children in public schools was studied as early as the 1800's. The first school-run lunch programs began in the early 1900's. Why not just make school lunch healthier for the sake of its being healthier?
A metamessage underlying the whole thing, though, is the realization that the way we Baby Boomers have grown up is not a sure thing. I am fearful for our children and I think I might even be fearful for myself. The social programs we have become accustomed to may not always be there for us. Not just no school lunch program, but no Social Security for our children or possibly for us. No school at all? Only a half day and kids get home in time for lunch at 1:00? There are endless things we cannot afford now as a country with a deficit in the trillions. Is this the legacy we want to leave our children?
Valiant, courageous, ethical, and creative people would be finding a way now to change for the better. We have the creative capacity to come up with a better - and just as profitable, if that is the bottom line - solution for our children's health and prosperity.
Melony