Campaigning on behalf of his brand of economic fairness and how he intends to extend equity to the middle class, President Obama’s recent speech in Osawatomie, Kansas was liberally sprinkled with the words “fair” and “fairness.” However, of late, in order to extend fairness in other areas it seems as if truth is perverted and history mocked.
One such example took place in what is almost certainly a politically correct academic institution where the school lunch menu hinted that the ‘fairness’ fad has worked its way down to the cafeteria.
At Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC, seems being ‘fair’ may have taken precedence over respect toward “a date which will live in infamy.” By featuring Asian food on the school lunch menu, it appears as if the private school Barack and Michelle Obama’s daughters attend felt that commemorating the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor presented an opportunity to extend fairness toward our former adversary, Japan.
Awkwardness aside, if culturally diverse lunch menus are not the Sidwell objective, in the future maybe someone in the history department should check the scheduled set of food choices against American days of remembrance.
In all fairness, serving Asian food on Pearl Harbor Day may have been an honest mistake, or it could be that making Japan’s sneak attack the focus of the day just didn’t seem “fair” to the Fairness Police.
Perhaps school officials were concerned that unabridged American history would be offensive to those the school’s website calls “academically talented students of diverse cultural, racial, religious and economic backgrounds” and consequently looked for a way to introduce impartiality into the day.
This is the likely scenario, because Lord knows a tony institution touting a prestigious $30,000+ -a-year education with historically-challenged cafeteria workers on staff would not fare well among the upper end of the 1%.
According to the Sidwell Friends on-line employment application, the ladies in the hair nets should at least have a high school education and be aware that 70 years ago in Hawaii a US naval base was attacked by Japan. Battle ships were sunk, aircraft were damaged, and thousands of Americans were killed and wounded.
Therefore, it’s likely cafeteria workers know all about Pearl Harbor. Which means lunch ladies may have been the ones to set in motion the precedent to serve the cultural cuisine of our enemies, past and present, on days that mark our entry into world wars or events that recount untold horrors directed at American citizens.
Think about it; what could be fairer or more culturally sensitive than to serve noodle salad and edamame on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day?
Moreover, if its true that on the anniversary of the bloodiest attack ever on US soil before September 11 th, Sidwell Friends chose as a primary goal to use the occasion to make friends and foster fairness, then it’s highly possible the Obama girls can anticipate schnitzel and spätzle on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Better yet, on the next 9-11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, to prove impartiality and in fairness to Arabs the world over, the Sidwell lunch menu should be careful to follow that promoter of fairness Barack Obama’s advice and ‘negotiate without preconditions’ a menu that includes chickpea balls and fried bread.
In the end, it’s all good. Because regardless of whether fried tofu showed up on the menu on purpose or by mistake on Pearl Harbor/Asian Food Day, students at Sidwell Friends School were certainly academically enriched by learning about and partaking of the same kinds of tasty morsels that would have been pleasing to the admirals who worked up quite an appetite executing the assault on Pearl Harbor.
