My daughter wrote this great piece on her blog. I ask all of my readers to follow this link, read and think about what she has to say:

http://daegansquebecadventure.blogspot.com/

Pandora's Happy Meal

Most people are at least vaguely familiar with the story of Pandora’s Pithos (that is Pandora’s Jar – not Pandora’s Box, as often mistranslated) – an ancient myth that posits yet another misogynist claim regarding the introduction of chaos into the world (remember that apple in the garden? Who takes advice from a talking snake?!?).

But many folks either forget or never learn the most intriguing portion of each of these tales:

·      Before banishing Adam and Eve from the garden, God sat down at the most high holy sewing machine and made garments of hides for them before sending them out into the world (a very tender, poignant moment for the three of them, not so much for whatever animals had skin in the game.)

·      After all the pesky war, famine and pestilence were released, Pandora noticed a crumpled little thing still in the jar: HOPE.

Both of these foundational myths speak tellingly of our human condition. Most of us possess a certain dignity and decency, and, given the opportunity, will do the right thing, given enough information and enough thinking time to make informed, thoughtful decisions.

Key phrase from previous statement: most of us.

This week, a new law goes into effect in San Francisco, requiring any restaurant meal accompanied by a free kids toy to meet certain very basic nutritional requirements. McDonalds immediately snapped into action… charging 10 cents for the crappy little lead-encrusted doodads they place in their Happy Meals. Get it? They are no longer giving away free toys, so they don’t have to change the fat, cholesteral and sodium enriched sludge America’s youth is hoovering up at an ever-increasing rate. HAH!

I wanted to grumble about McDonalds, but I can’t imagine any sentient being on this or any planet who can somehow fail to be aware of what McDonalds “Food®” does to the human body. I mean, just pull your head up out of the trough and check out your fellow diners…

Burger joints marketed to children long before our current obesity epidemic (Willard Scott was the original Ronald McDonald, and I would pay big money for a Foghorn Leghorn or Speedy Gonzalez glass from way back when).

The Garden of Eden and Pandora myths were humanity’s struggle to reason out why some people did nasty , destructive and/or stupid things. The history of civilization since is wrapped up not so much in origins as what to DO about evil already present. Our most reality-based answer to date comes from  Scottish sociologist and educator R.M. MacIver (1882–1970) who posited in 1926 that you can’t legislate morality.  Even the academes eventually can only throw up their hands, put down the chalk and step out for some fresh air.

Let’s extend this now. McDonalds’ San Francisco Two-Step is really nothing more than a cynical reflection of a corollary to Dr. MacIvers bonny truism:

Turns out you can’t legislate wisdom, either.

But slow down now. Don’t get me wrong. I am sick to death of the lunk-headed neo-con scream machine ripping into Mrs. Obama for mounting an effort to fight childhood obesity. We have a looming health crisis that is already threatening to overtake our already massive healthcare crisis that some would choose to simply whistle past in the dark. The first mom is the perfect person to lead by example, especially on an issue that hits so hard in minority and impoverished populations. Even if we decide we are not our brother’s dietician (and remember the original speaker of the original line – humanity’s first murderer), since we are all living in America, we all pay for some people’s bad choices through higher insurance rates, skyrocketing medical costs, over-crowded hospitals and some really wide, slow folks in the grocery store snack aisles.

Mrs. Obama’s is a sane, rational approach, and an appropriate use of her elevated, influential position. With Type II diabetes nearing epidemic status, obesity rates increasing exponentially among our children, and factory farms turning out cheap, cruelly produced, chemical/hormone/bacteria tainted “mcfood,” Pandora’s Happy Meal Box has already been opened.  With McDonalds spending more than $2 billion a year on advertising, the chaos is swirling and winning. What can we do?

Constitutional scholars, libertarians and deep-pocketed corporate sycophants aren’t about to let us impose healthy eating habits on the general public, but we can relentlessly clothe every person within earshot in wisdom on their way to the marketplace (For example, I highly recommend the movies “Super-size Me” and “Food, Inc.” every chance I get.). Four of the people I love most dearly in this world (my wife, daughter, sister and brother) are healthy food evangelists. The rest of us should speak up as well.

We can’t outlaw junk food, but, perhaps, even with so much damage already done, and in the shadow of all that money and corporate influence, we can still scrape Hope up out of the empty Happy Meal box. When you can't legislate, educate.