Alec Baldwin and the Children

Alec Baldwin rubs me the wrong way. He just does. Sure, he can be kinda funny sometimes (the movie Elizabethtown comes to mind), but he is to me like petting a cat the wrong way (the cat being me, of course.) So I naively thought that I could escape the man by simply not watching any movies or shows he is in. I was wrong.

Random Cute Non-Obese Child

I was listening to some radio program recently on my local station, and the commercial break came up. And lo and behold, a PSA came on starring (you guessed it) my favorite star. His Baldwinian gravelly opening words were something like, "Like any parent, I worry about the health of our nation's children." He went on to talk about obesity rates among children and eating healthy, and ended by plugging whatever foundation was sponsoring him.

Once the mind-numbing effect of the PSA wore off (they all seem to be mind-numbing, regardless of their content), I was left with an oddly uneasy feeling. What was wrong?

It took some days of pondering this, helped by the fact that the station played this particular clip every day during the time I listen. It took a couple of close hearings, but I finally figured it out.

I actually don't really care.

Now, certainly, I must qualify that statement, as I am sure otherwise I will be instantly labeled as a black-hearted villain who loves to stuff trans fat down infants' throats for the fun of it. I do not mean I don't care about what other American children are going through. Far from it. What I do mean is that I only really have the time and the drive to worry about the two children for whom I actually can control the food intake, namely, my own two children.

This is an extremely important point, especially in modern American politics. Americans of certain ideological bents seem to have an obsession for generalized problems rather than specific suffering people. As the parent of my two children, I am responsible for only my two children. Period. Not the children in the next house over, or down the street, or on the other side of the country. I am in control over what food goes into my  refrigerator and into my childrens' mouths, and therefore I, and no one else excepting my wife, is in the end responsible for their eating habits. As it should also be with every other parent. They are the ones who control their child's intake of not only food and drink, but of everything else that is consumed in life.

I finally understood the irritation I felt in hearing Alec Baldwin make that claim. I as a parent take care of my own first, and as I have a difficult enough time governing my own household, I will leave the governance of others to their respective governors. I need not worry about what they are doing until I do my own well. Not to say I cannot offer counsel and support to others. But the PSA's immediate appeal not to individual parents, but to a broad base of peer pressure, was what did in its final message. It was condescending and patronizing and took no account of individual responsibility.

This is true not only of feeding your kids, but of every other aspect of responsibility in life. Others are always ready and willing to stick their proverbial oar in when they deem you are not doing your own particular job well. So do your own part well, and don't worry.

And Be Aware.