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Problem Solved
- Too many choices: Let’s simplify things
- Another faulty response to hunger
- Don’t use hunger statistics to mislead
Too many choices: Let’s simplify things
Recently, I was near a toy section at Walmart and overheard a father and young son talking. Evidently the boy had some birthday money burning a hole in his pocket and Dad showed a lot of patience while the excited boy was indecisive. The boy was overwhelmed with the options.
Having too many choices can nearly immobilize us. It can be an extensive restaurant menu, the cereal aisle at the grocery store, or selecting a paint color from 15 different shades of off-white. Recently I was looking for Christmas lights and was amazed at the vast inventory to choose from. It was easy to relate to the frustrated boy in the toy aisle.
We’ve hosted dozens of guests from around the world. Despite their varied backgrounds, one thing we noticed they all had in common was their frequent and unabashed comments of the extreme abundance of choices that are available in America.
During this season of gift-giving, it may do us good to tone down our purchases, even though we have unlimited choices, and focus on the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. Remember, sometimes having less can be a bigger blessing than having more.
Mike Ruby, Muscatine
Another faulty response to hunger
The governor’s position on rejecting the federal plan for feeding school children during summers brings to mind two historical figures, namely Oliver Twist and Marie-Antoinette.
Dickens’ classic has 9-year-old Oliver in the workhouse, holding out his empty food bowl and asking, “Please, Sir, I want some more.”
What? “Oliver Twist has asked for more!”
As a result of such impertinence, young Oliver was ordered into instant confinement while others on the workhouse board declared “that boy will come to be hung.”
Of course, Oliver was spared, but the hunger persisted.
Which brings me to Marie-Antoinette, who was queen of France (1774-1793) during a time when droughts caused severe shortages of the grain required for making bread. Peasants, who were the hardest hit, responded angrily.
“The want of bread is terrible,” according to an English agriculturist traveling in France. “Accounts arrive every moment from the provinces of riots and disturbances, and calling in the military, to preserve the peace of the markets.”
It was in the heat of mounting protests over starvation that Queen Marie-Antoinette purportedly responded by saying, “Let them eat cake.”
Let’s hope Iowa school kids don’t suffer from either of these outcomes.
Tom Emmerson, Ames
Don’t use hunger statistics to mislead
“About 11% of Iowans don’t know where their next meal will come from.” This was a front-page statement in the Dec. 1 Register. Similar statements have been made on TV and the internet as part of fundraising campaigns for organizations that provide food to people who can’t afford the food they need. My wife and I understand that help is needed, so we regularly contribute to food pantries and other organizations that provide food to those in need.
But the statement above is an exaggeration of the real situation. The actual questions in the USDA Household Food Security Survey ask if the family members have experienced various types of food insecurity at any time during the past 12 months. So, the headline should have read, “About 11% of Iowans didn’t know where their next meal would come from at least one time in the last 12 months.”
I want to encourage people to be charitable and to help those in need. I just ask that those who help with the fundraising not exaggerate the extent of the problem.
Kurt Johnson, Urbandale