Politicizing Top Chef

I was very surprised to find this administration involved in an episode of Top Chef. This begs the question of why the administration would find the need to be on a TV show. Particularly, when we have issues that are much more pressing (e.g. jobs, border protection, gulf cleanup, Afghanistan, etc.). Perhaps, this is why spending is so high. Perhaps, we need to get our priorities in the correct order. I digress.

In the first part of the episode, the producers had the chefs “work together” by using two person red and blue chef’s aprons. Each team member literally had one hand tied behind their backs. Cute, but this was over reaching, in my opinion. The commentary from the administration official (who was on the show) was all about how hard it is to work together in a non-partisan method; with a hint of how things work better when there is a single agenda. Well, the fact is that we are a representative republic. That means that “we the people” expect our representatives to work together on our behalf - keeping our interests as their primary impetus. The problem we have today is that our elected representatives are more concerned with their positions within their own party, than they are about things like ethics, integrity and fairness.

After the political message about working together, the Top Chef contestants were moved to a local Washington D.C. school, where they were expected to produce a nutritious lunch for a budget of $4 per child. Now, the administration official’s message was very clear: there is not enough money for the school lunch programs. Why is this a government problem? Lets analyze this. Whose responsibility is it to feed a child - the government or the parent? We cannot be guilted into a particular point of view - we need to be logical. Nobody wants to see starving children anywhere. That is beside the point. Back to the question. The answer is that the parents are fundamentally responsible for feeding their children. They can accomplish this one of two ways: they can send lunch to school with their child, or, they can provide the child with money to buy the school lunch. If a parent wants the child to have a nutritious lunch, then they should probably send lunch with the child. If a parent trusts the school to provide a nutritious school lunch, then they should send the child to school with enough money to buy the school lunch. Simple, huh?

Well, it’s not as simple as it sounds. At one point in time, I was a child attending public school in the Washington D.C. metro area. And, while I do not want to get too far off track, I need to describe some of the perils of taking money to school. When I was in school, it was routine practice to “mug” kids in the stairwells to get their lunch money. In fact, there were numbers of gangs that specialized in this kind of activity. Also, drugs have become a serious problem in the schools today. That said, these are reasons for not sending money to school with a child. These are not reasons for not taking responsibility for your child’s nutrition. As a parent, I understand wanting school lunch money to go to school lunches. That is why I made payments directly to the school for my children’s school lunches (when they were attending public school).

There is another thing to consider: some parents just cannot afford to provide a nutritious lunch for their children. Or, they cannot afford to provide nutritious food for their children in general. While I am sympathetic to this issue, this is not a role for any government entity (local, state or federal). People who have children have to take responsibility for feeding those children. Those who have children need to be the ones that make the decisions on how to take care of their families. If the government inserts themselves into this process, then they risk having future generations of people who will simply let the government take responsibility for feeding their children. And, that is not a good thing. This kind of approach will lead to a huge dependence on government and society for simple things like food. Remember the proverb about the value of teaching a person to fish, so they can sustain themselves? I think this is good advice.

As a society, we will have to provide some mechanism for governing those who are not willing to live up to their parenting responsibilities. But, that should be the extent of government’s involvement.

I found it inappropriate for this administration to use a TV show to attempt to once again manipulate public opinion. This administration is notorious for using this kind of media manipulation to advocate their liberal agenda. And, this is unacceptable. So, from this moment forward I will be boycotting Top Chef. I am sending letters to the advertisers for this show stating my objections to the politicized content. I encourage every American to do the same. In addition, every TV show that facilitates this kind of liberal propaganda will receive the same treatment. It’s time to reign in the liberal media!

Come on America - let’s make our voices heard!