‘Food insecure’ Sesame Street Muppet instills fear of hunger in young viewers

posted at 11:23 am on December 11, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Media ]   

One key difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals take no prisoners in getting their message out. In November, members of the Occupy Wall Street movement had no qualms about airing their grievances on children, shouting taunts and jeers at 7-year-olds on their way to school.

Now the youngest members of society are under the gun again. This time the attack on childhood is subtler and coming from an august source. Sesame Street, the decades-old PBS show that once taught children to count and spell, is now raising the specter of hunger among its young and impressionable viewers. It is also explaining how when mommy and daddy run out of food, the nanny state can help restock the family larder. CNSNews reports:

A ‘food insecure’ Muppet is helping to promote a national ‘Food for Thought’ campaign that teaches poor families to seek out nutritious food and to eat on the taxpayers’ tab.

At the National Press Club on Thursday, Lily the Muppet—who worries about her family not having enough money to feed her properly—pitched free food at school:

‘Sometimes we can’t always afford to buy all the food that we need,’ Lily said. ‘I mean, but we’ve been finding lots of ways that we can get help.…Yeah, for example, at school I get a free breakfast and a lunch … part of the meal plan.”

The article goes on to quote Rev. Douglas Greenaway of the National WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Association, who not only praised ‘Food For Thought’ but allowed as how the campaign “is really a deficit reduction strategy, and we hope policymakers will take notice of that.”

The good reverend didn’t elaborate on how spending taxpayer money, never mind how beneficent the goal, reduces the deficit. Maybe he was channeling Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who intriguingly proclaimed that food stamps create jobs.

Lily’s message, meanwhile, is being circulated in schools, hospitals, and food assistance programs via a multimedia campaign. Included among the instructional tools is this video, complete with a smarmy music track and testimonials by parents, many of them on the verge of tears.

That many American families are struggling to make ends meet right now is undeniable. So is the grim fact that poverty levels are at a record high across the nation. But if instilling fear in young children is part of the liberal solution to this problem, count me out.

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