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I surely hope those children were not victims of the economy, but on the other hand, they may be victims because the parents lost jobs or something similar.
On the other hand, I agree with billhover about decisions: If the adults have gotten into the situation because of poor choices, I have little sympathy for them. For the innocent victims--children--I do feel badly. The unfortunate thing is that no matter how a family ends up in poverty, it's always the children who suffer.
I run the free/reduced federally-subsidized lunch program where I teach school. Every day I feed students who come in to get their free lunches--come in with iPods, cell phones, the latest video game players, etc. This is a tiny town, so I also see many of the parents of those kids going into the local casinos regularly instead of going to work somewhere. Adding insult to injury, it's possible to see some of those parents leave the casino at the local gas/food mart and walk 50 feet to our local food pantry to pick up groceries. We've had a difficult time keeping that pantry stocked all winter. Surely the money going into the machines could buy some or all of the food we're giving those people.
It's not my job to judge those families. But I have eyes, and I do see that we're feeding kids who have more electronic toys than my grandchildren with two working parents have. Instead of working, some parents are playing the machines and leaving the schools and government to pick up the slack. Hungry children can't learn, but it seems to me that the more we hand out at school, the less responsibility some of those families assume for the care of their own family members.
Carolyn
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