Now, Where Did I Put that Soapbox?

I'm rapidly becoming depressed with this subject. No, strike, that, I am rapidly becoming completely flabbergasted by meanness and ignorance.

Look this up for yourselves if you don't believe me.

Here we go, frequent readers may just want to skip down to the cute kitten picture at the end:

The human brain. It determines everything about us. From the first two cells that collide to eventually become a grown human being, the brain controls it all.

And the brain needs things. Water, sugar, proteins, fats, you know, more commonly known as FOOD.

If the brain does not get these things, the human with that brain will not be able to reach its full potential.

While a woman is pregnant, she needs proper nutrition to provide her growing baby's brain with what it needs to develop.

After a baby is born, the brain is not finished. The brain has another two years of optimal growing time before settling down and being whatever it's going to be.

If a baby does not get proper nutrition (among other things) the brain will not develop properly.

If a child does not get proper nutrition, their brains do not develop properly.

WIC was created with these biological facts in mind. It is a forward looking program. If we can intervene prior to and just after birth, we give the brains of at risk populations a fighting chance to not have the next generation be at risk.

WIC only allows healthy foods to be purchased, unlike food stamps that you can spend on anything.

WIC promotes breastfeeding and assists mothers with this.

WIC is primarily for the working poor. Check out the income levels on the link above.

Military families, families of police, fire fighters, teachers qualify. My nurse friend with a disabled child who needed a specialty formula qualified. The woman ringing up your groceries probably qualifies.

I do not, cannot, fathom the things I hear against this program.

Not when big oil gets more in your tax dollars by way of federal subsidies. Not when multi millionaires get tax cuts. Not when foreign countries get billions in aid.

Save your vitriol and loathing for that.

Leave the damn poor working families alone.

Loki paraphrases Congress: Soldier's babies eat cat food, oil executives' children eat caviar!