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A Few Clouds Michelle Obama tackles twin-taco lunches
Who can forget Jackie Kennedy guiding us through the White House in a 1962 TV special? In an unlikely pussycat voice, she pointed out the historical paintings and antique furnishings at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Nancy Reagan had her projects, too. To drug addiction she just said “no.” To extravagant designer gowns and spectacular dinnerware, she said “yes.”
Of course, it was Eleanor Roosevelt who opened doors for activist first ladies. She championed the poor and fought for civil rights and labor reform. Abigail Adams, 150 years earlier, had urged her husband, President John Adams, to help fight for greater equality for women. She famously said, “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.”
Hillary Clinton might have liked Abigail. She tried to be a serious partner to her husband, too. The first first lady to have an office in the West Wing, she was determined to help bring about health care reform, but after her efforts went down in flames, she took on less threatening, more typical first-lady projects.
Laura Bush stayed within the traditional mold, supporting education issues, reading and women’s health. Her mother-in-law had also plowed familiar first-lady ground, with do-good, feel-good projects.
Now we have Michelle Obama telling the kids to lay off the chips and fries, get off their increasingly big butts (my words, not hers), and go out and exercise. Her focus on childhood obesity is significant and quite serious. It doesn’t sound like a popular public issue brainstormed by committee for its political value.
Michelle gets out in the White House garden in her rain jacket and boots to plant vegetables with local schoolchildren. A symbolic effort, it sends a powerful message to kids and their parents that healthy food is what we grow, not what we mix up in a bowl and throw into a fryer.
We have eaten ourselves into a nation of fat people, and the primary responsibility lies with parents who have allowed their kids to consume junk food and high-fat meals while resting their increasingly flabby limbs on the living room couch.
