A letter to the N.C. mom whose kid got busted by the food cop

Dear N.C. Mom,

I’ve been there many times, standing at the kitchen counter in the evening, packing a lunch for my child to carry to school.

My girls are adults now; no more lunch packing for me.

I can tell you this, though.

If a government bureaucrat, a food cop, had singled out my child for having an improper lunch, I may have spent the night in jail for disorderly conduct.

I can imagine your sweet child, all of four years old, standing there with her classmates looking on. I can imagine her embarrassment at being handed a tray of food when you had taken time to prepare her a perfectly good lunch by any normal person’s standards.

I can imagine the other children looking on wondering what was going on. I hope none of them teased her.

I can imagine now that you will experience a bit of a food fight—your daughter may be afraid to take some things in her lunch and she may even question you now that the school system has undermined your authority as a parent.

I will say I partly hold our First Lady accountable. I knew when she embarked on her food and obesity campaign she would bring the whole bloated federal body politic along with her.

Never mind the real problems we have among today’s youth.

Never mind that the weight-loss industry is rolling in the dough and lobbyists are very effective in pushing everything from risky lap band surgery to medication for a trait that is more likely due to genes than anything else in many cases.

Never mind that the weight standards we use in America today originated in the research of a Belgian who died in 1874—he was in search of “average man” as an ideal. If that evokes images of others who looked for a standard to determine superiority, you and I think alike.

I am glad you took the time to talk to your child’s school about this matter. What government bureaucrats did to your child and to your family is shameful.

This is America. What you pack in your child’s lunch is no one’s business as long as your child isn’t provably malnourished or in poor health because of neglect. What your child eats is no one’s business as long as the substances are legal.

This is still America, Mom. Think about that when you cast a vote in November, because if you, like many other women, re-elect the Democrat who sits in the Oval Office, I can guarantee you this lunch fiasco is a small step towards government sticking its nose into your business at every turn.

You will hear many speeches ahead of the November, 2012, election. They will be passionately, even theatrically delivered. Thing is, the people seeking your vote are employed by you and me.

Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, it doesn’t matter. The only way we will begin to retrieve freedom for our children and for ourselves is by firing every single person in Washington who doesn’t respect the document we call the US Constitution.

The president currently in the White House doesn’t and nor does most of his party. Bear in mind our current educational complex, a mind-boggling, failed bureaucracy, is almost purely a product of Democrats.

What happened in your child’s school would be, as you suggested, right at home in China.

Bureaucrats have no moral authority to act as they acted with your child. The fact government  delegated that level of authority to them should trouble you as it troubles me.

I hope your daughter will come to understand this one day. Because she has a mom who was willing to fight for her, I figure she’s already got an edge when it comes to her future.

Keep doing that, Mom. She’s really that important, not just to you, but to all of the rest of us moms as well.

Best to you and yours,

Kay B. Day
Jacksonville, Florida

Feb. 15, 2012