And here’s the thing: it’s not just kids. Nearly every time I post something on Facebook about treating people like human beings, a dogpile of people with no empathy whatsoever come along and make me weep for humanity.
Example: I x-posted a thing from Tumblr about a teacher who was in trouble for giving food to kids at her school who didn’t have money to pay for lunch. The school’s policy (which I find abhorrent) is to warn kids — because, you know, it’s their fault when they’re in elementary school — and then give them one slice of cheese between two white hamburger buns, with some milk. As their lunch.
So set aside the humiliation these kids are going to feel, through no fault of their own, and think about the lack of nutrition they’re getting. Think about how that lack of nutrition prevents them from learning to their full potential. Consider that these ARE CHILDREN WHO ARE HUNGRY and the option was to just throw food away, instead of giving it to them, or give them this fucking cheese sandwich thing.
Now consider that our politicians want us to take it as an article of unimpeachable faith that America is THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH FULL STOP DO NOT EVER QUESTION THAT.
Okay. If that’s true, why do we, as a nation and a culture, decide that it is acceptable for children to be hungry and underfed in a public school that we, as a community fund, but it’s entirely acceptable to make sure billionaires keep as much of their money as possible? Where is the fucking empathy for the poorest children and their families?
Every time this comes up, someone gets onto comments and goes on a rampage about Personal Responsibility. Some guy today went into full-on internet argument mode because this policy was supposed to SEND A MESSAGE TO THE PARENTS TO JUST STOP BEING POOR ALREADY AND BE MORE RESPONSIBLE.
I wonder what that guy would do if he actually had to face one of these hungry children. Would he get down on one knee, look that child in the eye and say, “hey, this is about teaching your parents a lesson about personal responsibility. Deal with it.” Or would he actually, you know, have some fucking single shred of human compassion and decency, and give the child a regular lunch?
That I don’t know the answer to this question — really, genuinely don’t know — makes me seriously ashamed of my country. There are tons of people in America who would let a child go hungry to make a point, and they’d feel really good about that.
And those people are all over the Internet, setting examples for the future about what’s acceptable behavior and what it means to be American.
…maybe this doesn’t make sense, and maybe I’ve constructed a fallacy I can’t see at the moment because I’m really goddamn emotional about all this stuff.
But I feel like this enormous swath of our population has no sense of humanity and empathy, and that’s profoundly upsetting to me.
We’re letting children go hungry to teach their parents responsibility?
Let me try to break down how that won’t fucking work.
Case One: Parents aren’t paying for lunch, because they can’t afford it. Maybe they’re right on the edge of qualifying for free lunch, but they don’t quite make it. Maybe something came up in their lives recently which took all their extra cash. (car trouble? housing issue? medical bills?)
In this case, the parents aren’t going to learn anything other than their school district is full of non-compassionate fuckwads. They aren’t being irresponsible, they’re just poor. There is a difference. Really.
Case Two: Parents are abusive and/or have an addiction that takes priority over their kids. These type of parents aren’t going to care one way or the other if their kids get fed. Making the children suffer for the short comings of their parents will only solidify the idea in their minds that no one in the world cares about them.
Case Three: Parents are actually just super absent-minded and keep forgetting to give the kids lunch money. Maybe they really are irresponsible. How is hurting the children actually going to help this? Why not call the parents? Send home notices? Heck, get collections involved or something if it gets that high, but make it the parents’ problem, not the kids’.
I’ll repeat that last part, in case you didn’t hear it.
NOT PAYING FOR LUNCH IN THE PARENTS’ PROBLEM, NOT THE KIDS’.
Don’t punish kids for their parents’ shortcomings.