Obesity: Pandemic or Government Scheme?
Recently my athletic 6’ tall, 198-pound football and baseball-playing son was served four marble-sized meatballs and a whole grain roll for lunch. Needless to say, he was starving by the time P.E. class came around and barely made it through football practice after. My fifth grader (also a football/basketball player) also came home famished after eating the same menu. While others and I have worked so hard to get free lunches for needy children, it seems the Obamas are trying to starve them!
Redefining obesity in 1998 by lowering the BMI weight standards caused the biggest rate of obesity increase. Overnight, millions of Americans went from “average or normal” to overweight. Today 49% of children in America are considered by the CDC to be “food insecure”, meaning they don’t get enough food at home and often only eat at school or other programs such as summer lunch programs. That is a much more significant number than the proclaimed obesity rates. The effects of starvation are always the same: death. The effects of overeating and obesity vary widely. Many scientists even disagree as to causal effects of obesity.
In this declining economy with soaring prices and unemployment, children are at a greater risk of starvation than obesity. This is obvious by looking at the increase in food stamps alone.
The food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has grown from 26.3 million people in 2007 to 44.7 million last year, an increase of nearly 70 percent.
Meanwhile, the “Obesity Pandemic” is a manufactured misrepresentation. Even in the time I began doing research for this article, the CDC has made changes to their charts and tables, seemingly twisting numbers to fit their whims. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find a standardized methodology for measuring obesity or its effects. The WHO (World Health Organization), FRAC (Food Research and Action Center), the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and the Harvard School of Public Health all give different data and percentages, making it very difficult to determine anything meaningful.
The “Obesity Crisis” became a talking point under the Clinton administration and has become the spurious offspring of the socialist agenda. Obesity initiatives give the impression of being the government’s newest way to control the populous.
Using obesity as her propagandized “cause”, Michelle Obama started “LetsMove.gov”. She was quickly able to infiltrate the public school system (of which her children do not attend, by the way). She started with the school fitness routines and moved on to school lunches, claiming they needed to be healthier because so many children were obese and at-risk for overeating. Clearly, according to the number of children on food stamps and free school lunches, this isn’t so.
Michelle and her husband, the President, have also managed to use this theme as reason to ramrod their “data mining” through the public school system. They call this the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The purpose of this initiative, on its own site, sounds all warm and fuzzy. They claim it is an initiative “to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.” Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? They also repeat throughout the site it is a “non-mandatory, state-led, state curriculum”. They even stress that, “The federal government was NOT involved in the development of the standards.”
Unfortunately they neglect to tell you that any state refusing the curriculum does not receive federal funding from the so-called stimulus package. To date, 45 states are participating. If you read the US Department of Education government website, they clearly outline this core initiative in the “Strategic Plans 2011-2014” plan. The opening of the site has this to say:
“Reaching the President’s goal will require comprehensive education reforms from cradle to career, beginning with children at birth, supporting them through postsecondary education, and helping them succeed as lifelong learners who can adapt to the constant changes in the diverse and technology-driven workplaces of the global economy. Our youngest children must be in early learning environments that prepare them for success in kindergarten and beyond. We must continue to close the achievement gap and ensure that elementary and secondary school students are on track to graduate from high school ready for college and careers.”
It looks like the government is involved quite a bit to me.
Sadly, my own state of Kansas has already implemented the standard. Most schools will begin the privacy invasion beginning in 2014. We first became aware of it when our children came home with “activity trackers”, pedometers that measure activity throughout the entire day including calories burned. They are required to wear them even at home and on weekends! Sound Orwellian? Well, it’s happening. I complained and, after school officials discussed it, they decided to allow my sons to opt out, as they would still have enough participation. However, within 2 weeks my sons were wearing the devices again, and we were sent a letter stating it was mandatory. The children grades K -12 are all also subjected to daily interrogation over what they eat at home. They are required to write down a food diary. They are tracked off and on weeks at a time. Next year full implementation will begin and, according to the website, more intrusive measures will begin.
Am I the only parent who has objected to this? My objections, thus far, have been ignored.
Socialists, leave our children out of your political scheme! They need to be fed and educated but their parents are the people with the sole authority to decide how that is done. The government needs to step back and remember that “We the people… secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
