Area woman named worst person in the world

Cynthia Davis enjoying what surely is a rare restaurant meal (2001 Post-Dispatch photo by David Carson).
Thanks, in part, to a recent Post-Dispatch editorial, Missouri state Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, was the subject of Keith Olbermann’s scorn this week on his “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” show on MSNBC. In fact, he named her the World’s Worst Person – twice.
Watch the clips here and here.
She was ridiculed both in our editorial and by Olbermann for her condescending remarks about child hunger in a newsletter. One of her helpful comments was that “hunger can be a positive motivator.”
She’s right. Hunger for political relevance can motivate a vapid suburbanite (who is supported by taxpayers) to make astonishingly inappropriate and inaccurate remarks about poverty and families. Read her newsletter here.
Here’s one “tidbit” from Ms. Davis that was not included in the editorial or on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show:
“It really is all about increasing government spending, which means an increase in taxes for us to buy more free lunches and breakfasts. Parents get the same food stamp allotment regardless of how many extra meals are being provided to their children over the summer. This equates to an increase in taxpayer funded food programs.”
Likewise, parents who receive “food stamps” (now called “benefits” from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) also do not get an increase in their allotment when their children are on summer (or any other) break from school, which means that the same SNAP benefit allocation may have to provide one or two more meals per day per child.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service information sheet on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program:
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49 percent of all participants are children (18 or younger), and 61 percent of them live in single-parent households.
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52 percent of SNAP households include children.
So, is Cynthia Davis worthy of Olbermann’s World’s Worst Person title?
(By the way, we do have a response from Ms. Davis. We’re going to run it on the oped page next week.)


Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky.
Ms. Riley - Just how do you know her statements are “inaccurate.” How much PERSONAL experience do you have on this subject? I have plenty and a lot of what she says is true.
I don’t have time to go into lengthy post, but I can tell you there is a very large number of children in the schools my children attend receiving free lunches who do not qualify. It is really quite simple to get. You fill out a form stating your income, that the school district doesn’t verify, and viola! I could get it for my kids too, by listing just my salary as opposed to combined (as alot of people do). It sure would be easier for me not to make my kids breakfast and lunch and it would certainly save me some money, but I have integrity and feel I should do my job as a parent and refrain from stealing from taxpayers.
The editorialists at the Post-Dispatch are so, so naive as to the way things REALLY work.