"The Nanny State"

So our all knowing government is now in the business of telling us what we can and cannot eat and drink.  In case you've been hiding under a rock, let me bring you up to speed.  Not only are we not able to be entrusted with firearms, the mayor of New York City has decided he should tell you what to drink.  He is trying to enact a "soda ban".  So as someone who is anti big government, you know this is crossing the line big time in my book.  Then add on top of that, some bloody Brit with a talk show saying he believes we all need "The Nanny State".  I would love to see the faces of our founding fathers when they are presented with the notion that the people of this great democracy need a nanny state.  It would be a real spin on Patrick Henry's statement, "give me liberty or give me death,'whatever the federal government thinks is best'"!  NOT!

But one of Bloomberg's quotes really got me to thinking.  He defended his soda ban with this statement, "We're simply forcing you to understand what's better for you".  So before you dust off your anti Socialist hardware, let's think about that statement for a second.  The key is the forcing you to understand part.  When kids graduate a high school in NYC, only twenty percent of them can read on a twelfth grade level.  Eighty percent of the kids can NOT read proficiently enough to understand the ingredients on the side of the soda can.  So instead of fighting for better education, or education reform, or anything involving teaching, we are just going to have the smart government people make choices for you.  You see fixing the education system and pouring knowledge into our kids is just plain hard.  The ideals of trying to move up in society are now things of folklore. Our society is now so apathetic that we no longer care if a kid has a dream of getting an education and moving out of the projects.  This is the birth of class warfare, which by the way is still in place in the country that the bloody Brit was born.  England still has a house of lords and a house of commons.  You are born with your class sealed on your soul.  When you are prevented from bettering yourself, then apathy sets in so hard "the nanny state" is totally necessary.

But I don't blame the government or the education system.  The apathy starts at home.  When you bring a child into this world and you expect the government to raise it, you are preventing upward mobility.  If you think that your child's ability to read is solely depended on the 1st grade teacher, you are sealing your kid's fate.  It takes time, effort, energy, persistence, caring, love, and a dozen other qualities to pour everything into a kid that is necessary for him to succeed.  At one time in this country seeing your children better themselves was a source of national pride.  Now children are nothing more that a tax deduction or an extra hundred bucks on a welfare check.  So don't be angry at the government for instituting the nanny state, be angry at society for not seeing the true value of a child.

To let a child know you believe in him will empower him more than any school or government system could ever dream.