A Lesson To Sink Teeth Into

My husband and I went to the polls together on Election Day. Inside I had the thankful feeling of living in a country where we had the privilege of being able to vote, to make free choices - whether you supported one candidate or another 100 percent.

We did indeed feel empowered to be able to make choices in our lives. Hopefully, we all strive to not only make the right choices, but set good examples, particularly for our children, the next generation.

We entered the school cafeteria where the polls were. Undoubtedly, this place was chosen with the intent of affecting the children who would see all these patriotic grown-ups doing their civic duty.

We were blown over with the smell of cinnamon rolls and jelly donuts and the sight of these being stuffed into the faces of mostly over-fat children. The cafeteria was screaming with hyped-up children high on sugar.

Now we do not have children of our own, so I cannot be an expert on that. But we do know what it takes to keep our bodies healthy and we take full responsibility for that. We feel that our lives are a God-given privilege and to make unhealthy choices on food and lifestyle is literally to thumb our noses at the One who blesses us with good health.

Why then do people who make decisions for our next generation - people who are supposedly experts on the health and welfare of children - why would they feed these children sugary, fatty junk - this may be the only breakfast that some kids will get - and then blame the kids when they’re wild and disobedient?

Why would they then just fix the problem by putting the children on Ritalin or putting them through expensive therapy, when the simple solution may very well be sitting on their plates at mealtimes?

Wake up, people. This is an easy, inexpensive experiment. Give these kids healthy food. Give them good examples in healthy eating and lifestyles that they can use for a lifetime. How hard can this be?

Maybe it’s me, but I think it’s a no-brainer. I know it’s not expensive. We eat this way at home and our good health demonstrates that it works. Why would anyone carelessly mess around with what goes into these innocent little bodies? How about making some right choices and get these kids off to a good start - for the day and for their lifetime?

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.