A Free Lunch

There are two countervailing trends in American culture that define a divide so deep it is probably unbridgeable. There's the part of America that declares "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!", and then there's the part that insists that every child in school be provided with a free lunch. Generation after generation, the first part of America diminishes and the second part increases. It's inevitable that, eventually, the first part will be a distant memory, the stuff of Trivial Pursuit, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy! Jeopardy!] or obscure academic discussions, while the second becomes as commonplace as the air we breath.

You might wonder, then, why haven't the members of Congress ensured themselves a free lunch? Apparently, there's an issue about quality and financial viability. See "Senate Votes To Privatize Its Failing Restaurants."

Fortunately for people who live on the margins of the economy, however, the President, who always eats for free, and for whom the cost of fine dining is no object, believes in sharing the wealth. Ergo, the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is always growing in scope (along with the National School Lunch Act and WIC).

The issue regarding "a free lunch," however, goes much deeper than a mere question of supplementing the nutrition of the indigent. Ultimately, it comes down to the definition of the word Family.