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PHILADELPHIA — Tatyana Gray bolted from her house and headed toward her elementary school. But when she reached the corner store where she usually gets her morning snack of chips or a sweet drink, she encountered a protective phalanx of parents with bright-colored safety vests and walkie-talkies.
The scourge the parents were combating was neither the drugs nor the violence that plagues this North Philadelphia neighborhood. It was bad eating habits.
“Candy!” said one of the parents, McKinley Harris, peering into a small bag one child carried out of the store. “That’s not food.”
The Principle of William D. Kelley School, a K-8 campus in Philadelphia, has enlisted the help of a local citizens watch group to combat the "crisis" of obese children. The group pickets corner grocery stores trying to prevent children from entering in the morning and buying "unhealthy" foods. They also visit store owners and threaten boycotts if they don't quit selling stuff they don't like to kids.
Are we really willing to go this far? If so, where do we stop? How much is enough? Should the schools and teachers, all funded by taxpayers, be involved in organizing pressure groups in the name of "health?" Where do the responsibilities and rights of parents end and government's begin? Does it "take a village" to raise YOUR kids?
And, don't assume this is a partisan issue. The GOP is as fully behind this kind of stuff as are Democrats.
The "kind of stuff" you're referring to are a bunch of parent volunteers from the neighborhood that try to persuade kids to go to school and eat the healthy breakfast they offer rather than load up on chips, sodas and candy before school.
The "Nazi stormtroopers" are grandmothers and other concerned parents who monitor the neighborhood in the morning to make sure the kids get to school safely and on time. This is not the kind of neighborhood where kids get dropped off by their parents in their luxury SUV's after eating a balanced breakfast.
The habits the kids form now are going to effect them for a lifetime. If the parent volunteers can persuade them to cut out the junk food in the morning and start eating at school instead, where's the harm? The kids are free to ignore them, and frequently do, unfortunately.
The principle and teachers have noticed the effect of what the kids are eating before school in the classroom. They're trying to get them to change. At least somebody gives a crap. If you think this is a terrible intrusion on parent's liberties fine, but if you don't want anybody to try and intervene then don't also moan when these kids end up obese and diabetic at 15 and your tax dollars go toward medicaid to foot the bill for their poor health.
As for the storekeepers, here's a quote from one of the four corner stores that surround the school:
Quote:
Glabybell Almonte works at the store directly across from the school, it's her family's business. Here's how she feels about the yellow vests offering advice, "I think it's fair enough cause the little kids, they do be coming here during school hours, early in the morning, buying candy that's actually not healthy. Nothing healthy pretty much, sugar, a lot of sugar. So, I think it's good enough, I think it's the right thing to do."
No, they are people that live in the community trying to do the right thing by the kids that live in that community. It's the same type of community that is always maligned for being lazy, poor, welfare and food stamp loving.
The "brownshirts" are parents and grandparents that are trying to change the course of the downslide in these kids' lives. They are people in the neighborhood trying to do a positive thing for their kids. They are the same people who chase the crack dealers from the corner.
They are the type of community mostly despised by the average American. Yet when they do something to affect positive change, take responsibility, if you will, they're called "Nazi Stormtroopers" and "Brownshirts".
Well, which would you rather? More and more of your tax money going into the neighborhood because it's turning out a bunch of obese, disabled adults who can't work, or somebody trying to do something about it?
No, they are people that live in the community trying to do the right thing by the kids that live in that community. It's the same type of community that is always maligned for being lazy, poor, welfare and food stamp loving.
The "brownshirts" are parents and grandparents that are trying to change the course of the downslide in these kids' lives. They are people in the neighborhood trying to do a positive thing for their kids. They are the same people who chase the crack dealers from the corner.
They are the type of community mostly despised by the average American. Yet when they do something to affect positive change, take responsibility, if you will, they're called "Nazi Stormtroopers" and "Brownshirts".
Well, which would you rather? More and more of your tax money going into the neighborhood because it's turning out a bunch of obese, disabled adults who can't work, or somebody trying to do something about it?
So, this is a problem only among the poor and uneducated and their "betters" need to show them how to live?
If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Yet, we don't see anybody organizing "parents" in the up-scale, rich Main Line neighborhoods of Philadelphia, do we?
And, by the way, that's not just an ad-hoc collection of neighborhood parents. When Principal Brown's personal efforts at persuading store owners to stop selling "junk" food to kids failed to prevent it, she ramped up the pressure by getting a neighborhood crime watch group, Operation Town Watch Integrated Services, involved.
That's who's outside the stores wearing orange vests and carrying walkie-talkies, not neighborhood parents. Apparently, that group seems to equate "unhealthy" eating as a criminal activity equal to drug selling and robbery.
The "kind of stuff" you're referring to are a bunch of parent volunteers from the neighborhood that try to persuade kids to go to school and eat the healthy breakfast they offer rather than load up on chips, sodas and candy before school.
The "Nazi stormtroopers" are grandmothers and other concerned parents who monitor the neighborhood in the morning to make sure the kids get to school safely and on time. This is not the kind of neighborhood where kids get dropped off by their parents in their luxury SUV's after eating a balanced breakfast.
The habits the kids form now are going to effect them for a lifetime. If the parent volunteers can persuade them to cut out the junk food in the morning and start eating at school instead, where's the harm? The kids are free to ignore them, and frequently do, unfortunately.
The principle and teachers have noticed the effect of what the kids are eating before school in the classroom. They're trying to get them to change. At least somebody gives a crap. If you think this is a terrible intrusion on parent's liberties fine, but if you don't want anybody to try and intervene then don't also moan when these kids end up obese and diabetic at 15 and your tax dollars go toward medicaid to foot the bill for their poor health.
As for the storekeepers, here's a quote from one of the four corner stores that surround the school:
"Since 2001, a Philadelphia organization called Food Trust has worked to get corner stores to offer healthier foods, including fresh fruit, vegetables and water, as well as products with reduced sugar, salt and fat. But just 507 of the city’s estimated 2,500 corner stores have signed on."
Why haven't they signed on? Because they're losing money on "healthy" options! In other words, their customers won't buy it.
"Jetro Cash and Carry, which supplies many corner stores, joined the effort. But Jack Sagen, a Jetro sales and marketing director, said he recently lost $500 buying several dozen cases of 15-cent bags of sliced apples that perished before they could catch on with the stores."
Should they be forced to take that loss in the name of "health?"
I don't give my child any candy, soda, or sweets. Call me a Nazi, I don't care. Feed your kid garbage, I could not care less if you create tub of lards.
I don't give my child any candy, soda, or sweets. Call me a Nazi, I don't care. Feed your kid garbage, I could not care less if you create tub of lards.
No one is calling you a nazi for not feeding your kids garbage.. The OP is talking about someone else telling your child what to eat, not you.
No one is calling you a nazi for not feeding your kids garbage.. The OP is talking about someone else telling your child what to eat, not you.
My kids teachers teach nutrition, I guess they are the nazis not me.
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