I grew up in Evansville, Indiana... For Southern Indiana that's The Big City and where all come to get a taste of Big City Life -- ya' know the Mall, the AppleBees, and, if you are feeling fancy, the Chilis. To the south, just over the Ohio River, is Kentucky and Evansville's neighbor cities: Henderson and Owensboro Kentucky. Despite the state line Henderson and Owensboro are the 'Burbs to Evansville's big city.
Natives know this Area as the Tristate. Even in those fleeting Best of Times this part of the country never felt the full light of prosperity. Now that the script has flipped to the second act, bringing with it those evil Dark Times we've half-heartedly named "The Great Recession", the Tristate is doing about how you'd expect. Jobs are scarce, times are hard, and if you stare into the shadows long enough you'll see the Ghost of Ole Tom Joad staring back.
It is against this backdrop of dying Middle America I bring to you this story which gives the most cartoonish Dickensian Villain a run for his or her money.
From WFIE.com (the Evansville NBC affiliate):
HENDERSON CO., KY (WFIE) - An upcoming audit from the Kentucky Department of Education has Henderson County school officials zeroing in on unpaid school lunches.
Officials said they are $40,000 in the red, and Monday, school officials said it's time to make some major changes.
The fact that school lunches go unpaid in these United States today is no great shock. One does not even need to say it, you pass another man on the street or exchange a passive glance in a bar, and the words are writ large on his face, "It's tough out here."
Continuing:
"No one wants to be mean and no one wants to tell a child 'I'm sorry'," Henderson County School's director of child nutrition Sabrina Jewell said.
An Artist's Rending of Sabrina Jewell:
Monday, Jewel admits compassion is to blame for $26,000 in unpaid school lunches.
Go ahead and re-read that last bit again. Compassion is to blame. Not the bad economy. Not falling tax receipts. Not even poor management by the Henderson County School District. Nope. Compassion is the culprit here. Damn that compassion. Damn that small trickle of conscious that makes ones' heart sink for a hungry child. If you'd people would just stop being all compassionate the Henderson County school system wouldn't be $40,000 in the hole.
When I first read this story my first thought was, 'Oh god they are going to be turning kids over to Bill Collectors for their lunch money'. I could just picture a down-trodden Second Grader picking up a errant phone call from George at Asset Credit Protection Management, "Billy? This is Attorney John Grey. Your school lunch account has been placed with us for collection. You owe us $1.50. This matter must be paid immediately or you will be sued for a money judgment..."
Thankfully not even someone who blames compassion for a budget shortfall is evil enough to hire Third Party Debt Collectors to shakedown the Third and Fourth grade for coin. Instead:
Jewell said several Henderson County schools have already adopted an alternative meal plan.
Kids that go unpaid for a certain amount of time won't get their choice of corn dogs or pizza.
Instead, they'll eat what the school gives them, free of charge.
And they'll like it!
If the Henderson County School Board passes the proposal, kids who have $10 in unpaid lunch bills will be given a cheese sandwich and the option of milk or juice.
"It is a minimum meal, but it does meet the requirements," Jewell said. "You know, it does provide the kids something to eat."
Pfft! It's Food. It isn't like we are taking ketchup and calling it a vegetable. Yet.
I don't begrudge the Henderson County School System an effort to make up a budget shortfall. No doubt, budgets for most public schools in most states are in the red, but this ... This is cruel and ugly and tone deaf. This echoes back to the 19th Century, to the smoke choked alleyways of London and New York, to those orphanages and poor houses who spooned out thin gruel to dirty faces and whacked the errant ones on the back of the head when they had the temerity to ask for seconds.
The world is getting warmer the scientists tell us. For the Average American, however, the World is getting colder.