Food Insecurity?

This Thanksgiving some of us have more to be thankful for than others. The millions -- yes, millions -- of Americans who go hungry everyday (most being children) must be overwhelmed with gratitude towards our beloved government. Why? Because the geniuses whose job it is to pervert and redefine reality have come up with one of the most cynical and heartless redefinitions since Eric Blair wrote his often-quoted novel 1948. The word "hunger" has been thrown down the memory hole. Now, if a child and his or her family goes hungry, they are, according to their government, not hungry but -- get this -- "food insecure"!

These soulless operatives, at the behest of their "superiors", rape and pillage the dictionary to obfuscate how little they care for our nation's most vulnerable and helpless: hungry children!

Many of these renaming attempts are patently ridiculous. But to lessen the Hobbesian barbarity of this administration's perpetual "war" on the disenfranchised is amongst its lowest and most loathsome rewriting of history and the truth.

Again, one must ask: What would Jesus do? Happy Thanksgiving?

Comments

[Kally]

So if according to the bush administration starving to death is "food insecurity" what are they going to call freezing to death, because people don't have money for fuel oil.

[Joeseo]

Whoooops! Now I must identify myself as "ZERO COMMENTS PENDING".

[Joeseo]

I must now identify myself as .....one comment pending. I guess it must be an "ad homoniem" attack on Corporate America and our Military Leadership deriding Black Calvary Hats worn with desert fatigues.

Anyhow, I just get sick comparing that scene
feeding our troops in Iraq vs children not eating here in America.

[godlessclif]

Eric Blair wrote his often-quoted novel 1948

Eric Arthur Blair? The real George?

That is so cool.

I never knew George Orwell wrote a book called
1948 under his real name.

It is like Lewis Carroll writing a non fiction book about Alice and using his real name.

"Alice Liddell, biography of a seven year old" by Charles Dodgeson

[Novista]

I'm thankful I can read, even when I discover real history, warts and all.

I'm thankful I never knew in the 1930's what 'food insecurity' meant. And I have to say I never remember real hunger though quite a few meals were pretty lean for a dirt-poor family. Not that we even recognised that, just that some were better off, others, worse.

I'm glad I can remember an America that was: not perfect but admired in many ways around the world. I wish I could go home again, but Thomas Wolfe was right: "You Can't Go Home Again."

It's not there anymore but I am thankful I saw it reach a peak. Not glad I saw the decline and about-to-fall.

[Dirtandiron]

I can't speak for Jesus, but I don't think he would mock people for being hungry.

[chendri887]

Considering that we are all just a bunch of isolated egos, motivated by our cultures, sub-cultures, biologies families, and irrational belief systems, it's highly unlikely that we all ever be able to resolve anything on a large scale about distribution of resources. While the more utopian ideologies put their faith in human reason and compassion to do so, the more Hobbsian ones (or ancient patron-client ones, such as Judean Christianity) rely on punitive measures (if not physical than spiritual) and a dark view of the human heart. Do these sides ever meet and seek non-warlike solutions? Yes, in an irrational way when conservatives adopt progressive beliefs after several generations, or when a "big threat" (for example, the Cold War, the War on Terror) forces the camps together in an uneasy peace. However, in the end, all of this often ends up in sarcastic verbal jabbing, as seen by the popularity of right-wing talk on radio and TV, and Beltzer sarcastically jabbing, "What would Jesus do? Happy Thanksgiving!" I completely sympathize with Beltzer but would go a step farther asking, "What would we all do if we ever could get out of this paradigm of selfish ego guarding?" It's unlikely that this will happen any time soon, but learning to listen and empathize with one another, rather than take verbal pot shots all the time, is a start. Admittedly, I, like Beltzer, feel the frustration at doing this with those on the far right, but perhaps over time, such actions will result in sincere change.

[lovethesinner]

Hey, Belz!

Right on!

I don't have anything to add, I just wanted to cheer my favorite poster.

[WARisEVIL]

U.S. demands Israel crack down on illegal Iranian pistachio importss
American officials are urging Israel to crack down on Iranian pistachio nut imports which are reaching Israel via Turkey despite a ban on Iranian imports into Israel.

U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Keenum said in a meeting with Israeli officials in Rome on Monday that the pistachio imports must stop, a U.S. official confirmed Wednesday.
Posted Nov 22, 2007 08:10 AM PST
Category: IRAN

Talk about irony!

[mouselion]

I don't think that term "food insecurity" came from the neocons and their president. It is actually a term from people who are concerned about hunger and are addressing the problem as best as they can. There have been on-going food security studies of all areas of the U.S. for a number of years. It is not new.

The Bush Administration is just trying to keep up with the lingo of the times. Sort of like when Bush proclaimed that he was for fair trade, not just free trade (not realizing he that he was co-opting the name of a movement called Fair Trade).

The bottom line is not what it is called but that it (hunger) is irradicated. You are right, however, that the Bush Adm. is exacerbating hunger among Americans with his myopic policies.

[Bongborg]

I suppose it's just easier for them to say people are "food insecure" than to say they are hungry. It probably helps them support the idea they have that it's a failing on the part of the hungry person, rather than a failure of their own humanity.

[Mariel]

Just that you ask, even ironically, "What would Jesus do?" shows that there is some hope.

Jesus put feeding the poor at the top of his priorities. We rarely read the Bible any more, so there are many who would not know that this was the top.

Too many just see the "Scribes and Phillistines" and blame the Christians. That we get this so mixed up yes, Jesus WOULD weep at that.

[Northwoodsbirder]

The story of Jesus cleansing the Temple offers some direct insights. He was faced with people of means who had turned his Father’s house into a “House of Thieves.” They were carrying on commerce within the Temple Courtyard and were selling sacrificial animals with a substantial markup for themselves, thereby taking advantage of the buyer and his need for the sacrificial animal.
The poor could offer doves or pigeons as sacrifices. That was what Jesus’s parents had offered when they came to the Temple to offer the required sacrifices after his birth. So, poverty was something he knew experientially.
So, what did he do? He held the thieves accountable. The apostle John describes the scene in the second chapter of his Gospel:

In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

Again, we Christians are caught with our behavior not matching or words. But, as before (reply “Look up in the Sky: It’s a???), we can and should condemn these actions but maintain the value of the person who holds them. And that is what Jesus did and would do.
This switching of terms is immoral and depraved. It minimizes the value of the poor as people and cloaks their need in downy softness. Jesus was never PC. He used uncompromising language to describe people and their need whether that need was physical or spiritual. He was the fulness of God’s love but he was not always NICE. He held and will hold mankind accountable.

[dow2200]

I'm an atheist, but I almost wish there was a Hell for the neo(fascist)cons who have trashed our Constitution, and ruined our country. Back to reality. Think Bush could survive without his inherited wealth? I'd like to see him try to earn an honest living. Oh, that's right, he did, and went bankrupt twice. How nice that his Saudi friends, the bin-Ladens, bought out his worthless Texas oil company. Now as President this Orwellian thug is bankrupting the U.S. Treasury, robbing the temporary Social Security Surplus to avoid taxing his bilionaire friends, and spending hundreds of billions of NON-BUDGETED dollars on his pet wars. Throw the traitor out on the street! See George beg for food! I hope the first person he hits up is a neo-con Scrooge who canes him for the audicity of wanting food.

[bbissel1]

To those of you,who like me,will be forced to break bread with right wing in-laws I suggest you do like my wife and I do. Wait till they have their plates loaded and then start this discussion. It doesn't add to their enjoyment.