Don’t Feed the Children!
I think of this refrain when I behold today’s right-ring
proselytizers wailing that the blessed rich should not be taxed to assure that
everyone has the most basic human needs. Seems very un-Jesusy to me.
One bizarre focus of their religious wrath is a wholly
sensible and Biblically sound national policy: subsidizing school districts to
assure that every child has healthy meals to fuel their daily learning.
Yes, in the Christian Nationalists’ book of public
abominations, government feeding of children is a holy no-no. Project 2025, the
Republican blueprint to impose theocratic rule over America, proclaims school
meals a socialist/Marxist evil to be eradicated.
The extremists cry that if there is any free-lunch
“giveaway,” it must be narrowly restricted to truly destitute students. But
publicly singling out those children would stigmatize them. Plus, how odd to
hear Republicans demanding an intrusive, absurdly expensive, bureaucratic
process empowering the government to decide who’s eligible to eat!
In fact, the federal student lunch subsidy runs as low as 42 cents a meal, so it’s far cheaper, fairer, and (dare I say it?) more Christian simply to offer it to all. Indeed, the program is akin to the Biblical story of Jesus providing fishes and loaves to the multitude. He imposed no income test — everyone got a fish.
Interestingly, the same lawmakers opposing 42 cent meals for
kiddos today routinely and enthusiastically feed billions of our tax dollars to
ethically challenged corporate profiteers who love money above all.
As I recall, Jesus couldn’t stand people like that.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio
commentator, writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by
OtherWords.org.