So many outrages occur daily in this country in the past five years, all encouraged by the hardheartedness of the Republican Party, the conservative think tanks, the conservative talk show hosts, and the Tea Party Movement!
As each outrage occurs, one cannot help but become more frustrated, angry, furious, at “man’s inhumanity to man”, whether it be the 30 death threats daily against President Barack Obama; the cutting of unemployment compensation, food stamps, and refusal to raise the minimum wage one iota; the racial and ethnic hatred that continues to fester and boil over; the constant attack on the rights of women to their own bodies and dignity; the destruction of the middle class; the attack on labor rights; the vicious attacks by religious extremists on gay rights and same sex marriage; and a slew of other hateful, divisive, mean spirited statements and actions non stop!
But now a new low has been reached, hard to imagine that is possible!
Now we have a Salt Lake City, Utah elementary school, which has students whose parents are suffering from the long range effects of the Great Recession, and are behind in basic payments for school services of some kind. So their children, young kids under 10, are denied lunch, after it had been placed on trays for them, but then suddenly, the cafeteria manager takes the food away, because their parents are in arrears, and ends up throwing the food into the garbage, a total waste of taxpayers’ money!
How can ANYONE justify such an action, and the principal and the school board of Salt Lake City has refused to apologize directly to these unfortunate children, who are being sent a message that they are “garbage”, and are not worthy of being able to eat a meal with their friends and classmates?
Does one realize the psychological effect of such action on the psyches and self image of these children, who already live a more difficult life in poverty or deprivation, because of their parents’ unfortunate situation economically? It is as if there is no regard for human dignity, and everything is simply materialism, and if you do not have adequate money, to hell with you, and then throw out food that is not to be consumed by anyone else, and instead allow a child to go hungry!
But is this any different than the move to cut food stamps, when children of poor families are at least half of the recipients?
The cafeteria manager is on paid leave, but should be fired summarily, and the principal should be fired, and the school board should resign in disgrace!
And where is the Mormon Church, which dominates Utah politics and society, standing on this issue? They have been very silent, too busy fighting against gay rights and marriage, and forgetting that they were once victims of persecution and deprivation. But of course, now, the Mormon Church is a very well financed and prosperous group, that has lost the basis of its founding, nothing new, sadly, about organized religion, claiming to follow the teachings of its prophets, but doing just the opposite!
UTAH ELEMENTARY VS. GEORGIA TRAVELING
I will give the Utah elementary school more credit than the Governor of Georgia. In Utah, it was bad judgment. In Georgia, it was no judgment. In Utah, it was leadership based on ignorance and greed. In Georgia, it was supposed leadership that exposed sheer stupidity which could never be explained away.
Well, D, what you say certainly has validity! But it is likely that the Republican government will survive this fall, although Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, is running for the job his grandfather had four decades ago, so who knows?
Typical modern day American conservatism. We care about a child, when they’re in the womb. After they are born, f##k ’em, they’re someone else’s problem. It’s appalling that anyone can let their political beliefs effect a basic moral code.
Another great reason to end all government involvement in education.
If education was a complete free market, stuff like this would never happen.
JOB, I am in absolute agreement with you on the issue of children in the womb, and after they are born.
Mark, sadly you are again wrong, as education privately would be far worse, as look at charter school disasters, and many church related schools that teach religion more than science and knowledge!
Mark writes, “Another great reason to end all government involvement in education. If education was a complete free market, stuff like this would never happen.”
This is a moronic statement.
D, have you ever been to a McDonald’s, or any privately-run business and have your food taken away from your hand?
The reason you haven’t is that no customers will keep paying thta kinda business. But with government schools, your money is taken from you by force, so you don’t have a way to immediately stop funding them when you do abusive things like this.That’s why can do this type of stuff.
If schools were all private, of course that wouldn’t happen. If it did happen, the school would go out of business in a heartbeat.
D, thanks for saying what I did NOT want to say! LOL
Mark, private schools would be a BUSINESS, a true disaster, as education should NOT be a business, it is an equalizer that gives people a way up, not based on money and wealth! Public schools, despite their faults, have done a great deal for America in our history!
Hello Professor,
Ohio is the largest hand out of State Government Vouchers for religious & charter schools. In the National Testing of students these children whose parents did them the disservice of attending these sub par schools are testing well below the public school sector students in Ohio. These students are not showing proficiency, in fact well below, in reading, writing, math, and science.
When it comes time for these children of such short sighted parents to compete in a global market, they are so far at the bottom that down would sure look like up to them. They are not going to be productive citizens of this country and will just be a burden to our society.
What Mark is trying to selling IS THE PROBLEM, not the answer.
What his type is doing to my Republican Party….he would do to the status and stature of our country.
Again, Engineer, you speak the truth! 🙂
Mark,
Taking the food away from those poor kids is heartless!
Amen to that Jane Doe! One of the primary reasons that I am a progressive is that I believe that there are numerous important individual and societal goals that individuals cannot reasonably achieve on their own and/or that the free market will not provide. A second factor that motivates my progressivism is a belief that empathy – i.e., the ability and willingness to identify and understand the feelings, emotions, and needs of people unlike ourselves – should be a primary motivating force in how we act both as individuals and as a society.
Pragmatic Progressive, TOTALLY in agreement with your sentiments! 🙂 This is part of my basic being, and life motivation! I could not live with myself if I was self centered and uncaring of fellow human beings!
” I could not live with myself if I was self centered and uncaring of fellow human beings!”
Newsflash: In a libertarian society, it is not illegal to perform volunteer activities, donate money, dedicate your whole life to helping others, work hard for a few years and then with the money you earned open public libraries, etc. There have been all sorts of voluntary, private non-government altruistic organizations whose purpose is helping people.
The idea that caring about other people is incompatible with being a libertarian is lunacy!
If you must smear your political opponents with falsehoods, your own political philosophy must not be very good.
“Taking the food away from those poor kids is heartless!”
Exactly, but that’s what government schools do! They abuse kids!
No, Mark. It’s what conservatives do!
Exactly right Jane Doe! It’s conservatives that are the problem!
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/its-not-democrats-or-republicans-its-conservatives-that-are-the-biggest-damn-problem/
Exactly Jane Doe and Rustbelt! Conservatives are the ones abusing kids!
Exactly Jane Doe and Rustbelt! Conservatives are the ones abusing kids, not government schools!
Well Mark. What I have found out about most of those who claim to be of “Libertarian” viewpoint is they too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. Too much faniticy…too little facts….this is the major pitfall and why it can never be feasible nor successful.
Mark cheering them on shows he supports heartless people.
Amen to that Engineer!
Again, Engineer, and ladies, I agree with you, and I will not apologize for my view of libertarians, and I am proud of what I said that led to Mark’s denunciation of me!
Yes Jane, Rustbelt and Professor,
Much like the lessons that are to be learned from Alexander Pope’s, “An Essay on Criticism” (1711)
Quote:
A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
These are the short comings of Mark’s thinking, or to be more correct, the lack of thinking. Mark is only taking “shallow draugths” from the “Spring of Knowledge” thus what he is passing on what he thinks are his epiphanic viewpoints; really does nothing more than expose his intoxicated mind.
Engineer, you are NOT a person for leaving any doubt how you feel about someone, I can see that! HAHAHAHA 🙂 LOL Your sarcasm drips all over! LOL
Well Professor…what ever do you mean? 🙂 Being born and raised South of the Mason Dixon line….I was taught and learned at an early age that the Southern Gentleman never offends others……unless we intended to do so in the first place….;-)
Jane Doe
“No, Mark.”
Didn’t you read the story of this post?
Government school abuses kids. Taxpayers can’t cut the funding immediately, as it could’ve been done to a private school, because government keeps taking people’s money by force to fund schools like this.
Engineer, you are a riot! HAHAHA LOL 🙂
Mark
Pragmatic Progressive told you 2 hours ago – it’s ultra-conservative people who are abusing kids, not government schools!
Mark
This is I and the other posters here are telling you –
This is an example of what happens when Christian or Mormon Conservatives are elected or allowed to be on public school boards. Their agenda is to destroy the public school system and replace it with a parochial system that indoctrinates our youth with false science and bigoted social ideals.
ABSOLUTELY correct, Jane Doe! 🙂
Very well said Jane Doe! So much for their so-called “compassionate conservatism”!
Mark
Utah is a right-wing state.
YES, Rustbelt Democrat, the most right wing along with Wyoming, Idaho, and Oklahoma!
“it’s ultra-conservative people who are abusing kids, not government schools!”
I swear the article says it was in a government school, which receives money taken by force, and therefore makes it hard to stop the abuse.
Mark
As Rustbelt said, Utah is a Republican state. The school district is run by Republicans. Republicans can’t stand poor people. That is what you are purposefully failing to understand.
Exactly right Jane Doe! He’s cheering on horrible Republican policies of that school district and should be ashamed of himself!
Very well said Jane Doe!
Every school district in the country should follow the example of Boston and several other major cities (http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/02/boston-public-schools-will-offer-free-lunches-all-students/2aaUy5sxJjIak9ndGDHxkJ/story.html) that provide free lunch to all public school children with no paper work, no hassle, and no opportunity for children to be publicly humiliated and deprived of meals as they were in the Utah school.
And at the same time, members of Congress need to continue to approve funding of SNAP and other programs that prevent American children from going hungry.
This is wonderful, as all children should be entitled to meals in school, and the taxpayers paying for it, as children are the future of America and need nutrition, no matter the economic status of their parents!
Mark is right and if you do not like the results of govt., progressives believe it is because we do not have enough of it yet. Witness the lovely city of Detroit or the sublimeness of Chicago just to name a few.
Witness, Dave, the lack of government services in backward states, such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, “red” states that have the most poverty of all, but keep poor whites voting Republican by promoting the race card!
Nope. Mark is wrong. Davy Knows Nothing once again lives up to his name.
Ronald’s stance on punishing the officials involved is laughable in light of his glowing nonstop sickening support of this administrations constant corruptions too numerous to outline in a few hundred words. Simply sickening.
Constant corruptions? LOL! Only in Davy Knows Nothing’s fantasy world is Obama’s administration corrupt!
LOL, Davy! Please list the “numerous corruptions” of Obama’s administration for our curiosity!
Princess Leia is correct, Dave. You are hallucinating about “scandals” conjured up by Fox News Channel, that are not scandals at all, but all right wing propaganda! Your empty accusations are a waste of space, as they are only in the minds of conspiracy theorists, because we have a “black” President, which is a horror to whites who have not made it in America, and are looking for an excuse to blame others, what we call “scapegoating!”
Typical Repugs and their supporters living up to their name – the Party of “No”!
Hello Mr. Martin. Can you explain to me the problem with Chicago? And I don’t think sublimeness is what you were looking for to describe it.