After Olbermann swipe, Davis defends stance on food program
Davis
State Rep. Cynthia Davis’ quip that hungry Missouri youngsters could work at McDonald’s — where, she says, employees eat free during their break — led her to a spot on talk show host Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” segment.
Today, the O’Fallon, Mo. Republican sent out a statement, defending her opposition to a program that provides food to disadvantaged youth.
It reads, in part:
When government takes over a family function, like feeding children on a daily basis, we take a group of people who are capable and treat them like they are incapacitated. Some have a low view of parents, presuming most of them are inept and proposing governmental intervention as the only solution.
I believe most parents are good and want the blessing and privilege of feeding their children. When families are sharing a meal around the kitchen table, much more is happening. Mealtime is the primary time for shaping values and strengthening bonds. All of this is missing or diluted when it happens outside the family. Look into your own heart and ask, “What made a difference in my life as a child?” Was it standing in a line for a cafeteria style meal at school or was it sitting around the kitchen table with others in your family?
All the children being fed in this program have parents or guardians who are already functioning in a nurturing roll. They have not been judged to be neglectful or abusive in any way. Government should not take the care of their children from them. The right way to help is to treat the root cause, not the symptom. We must support the parents in providing for their children, not circumvent them.
Davis’ statement does not mention Olbermann. Instead, it appears targeted at the Post-Dispatch editorial board, which wrote a piece critical of the lawmaker after the McDonald’s comment appeared in a newsletter to voters.
“My weekly Capitol Report is a way for me to have two-way communications with my constituents,” Davis wrote in today’s response, “and not a national manifesto for you to mock, distort, and to be quoted out of context.”
I was once a Rep. and I can tell you Rep. Cynthia Davis always would bring her family (all of her children) to all of the free dinners in Jeff City. Often times she wouldn’t be invited to the private dinners but would show up just because she knew they would have to buy her meal(s). I even saw her once take food home with her from a buffett style meal. Yes, she asked for a box to take home food. She has no idea what she is talking about! I was glad to see her exposed for what she said. Remember, this is the same Rep. that got caught paying her real estate taxes using campaign money!
Coo-Coo,
Sorry being a jerk. Once again, we should be surprise by her comments, WHY?
She can’t even apologize with some dignity and sincerity. “It’s socialism, no its the governments fault, its the liberals fault”. Damn lady, just say I made a stupid comment and shut up. But she can’t do that, typical Cynthia Davis–engages her mouth before she engages her brain.
Cynthis is not only well known for her food gathering skills. This is the same person who said got the midwifery bill passed because she felt giving birth in the hospital was like being raped.
Her excuse when she used her campaign funds to pay her real estate taxes that the Mo Ethics rules were just too hard to understand.
She also said that liberals who criticized President Bush were like “terrorists” and thank God she’s term limited and this is the last term she can serve in the house.
To dr-debunk: We’re talking about O’Fallon, Missouri, not Illinois. Just wanted to point that out before some lib bashes you for it.
To everyone else: Let’s focus the conversation. This is not about her campaign activities, her abortion stance, or how well she supervises her children on Easter. This is about her comment that government should not subsidize free food. And on that point, she’s absolutely right.
Although I think everyone should pay their own way if at all possible, I can see where there may be some children whose parents cannot afford to provide lunches for them to take to school or provide money to pay for the lunches the school provides. My problem is that, as I understand it, at least in the summer parents can accompany their children to school and eat with them…free! How many of these people show up at the school with a Bluetooth hanging out of their ear? I pay for my and my children’s meals out of my own paycheck and do without the Bluetooth for my Cricket cellphone (all I can afford).
This is not about whether we should help the poor. No one disputes that point. However, government cannot do it efficiently and tax dollars should not be spent on attempting it.
This is not about abortion, but since someone asked, opposing optional abortion is not butting into uteruses. I agree with the Pro-Choicers that a woman has a right to do anything she wants with her body. My problem is that that same woman should be expected to accept the responsibility and conseuences of her choices. Take this scenario: A pregnant woman goes to the clinic for a state-sponsored abortion. While walking from her car to the clinic, a mugger attacks her. She survives the attack, but the mugging causes the victim to spontaneously abort the fetus. The mugger can be charged in Missouri with murder. But had she made it into the clinic and the doctor performed the abortion, the doctor is innocent. Explain how it’s ok to kill a fetus (baby) in a clinic but not in a parking lot and I’ll reconsider my position.
I don’t live in O’Fallon and was not aware of Davis’ alleged campaign fund abuses. My question is: Where did the money for her real estate taxes and the truck come from? If from private campaign donors, then her actions are unethical and possibly illegal, but the issue is irrelevant here. She did not abuse government money.
Allowing one’s child to wander about is borderline neglect. The sex offender registration laws we have now sprang from a child being abducted, molested and murdered in New Jersey (Megan’s Law). What’s little known is that Megan had been allowed to roam the neighborhood from lunchtime until seven in the evening, when her family started searching for her. Had she been better supervised, she might still be living today. But the man who raped and killed Megan was punished for his crimes. The family was not. Let’s all be consistent here.
There are ethical inconsistencies on both sides of the aisle politically (Blagovich, anyone?). Let’s focus on the issue at hand and not turn this into a general mud-slinging contest. Government should not be feeding the poor. End of story.
She made Keith Olbermann’s Worst person in the world tonight again for this response to the article.
Please I beg the citizens of MO write your state Rep and Beg them to ask this Woman to step down; she is making us all look like buffoons.
I usually refrain from ad hominem attacks; I think I’ll make an exception: what a skanky ho’ible person.
I am hoping that with enough support from fellow citizens in the 19th district we can start the impeachment process. I certainly think her gross incompetencies should qualify her.
Well now we know who one-half of Olbermann’s viewers are.
20 bucks says that even after all this… Davis will run unopposed next time she’s up.
— tsquare
Thank God for term limits; she can’t run again.
Though, thank heavens, she is term limited in the house, that does not mean that comon November 2010 we’ve seen the last of Cynthia. She will be back somehow, in some campaign for something. If she doesn’t get her salary from the taxpayers her own children will be among the hungry.
And, hypocritically, Ms Cynthia will send them up to the front of the line for the subsidized lunch program.