Party of ideas?

As I was piecing information together about Paul Ryan's foray into plagiarism, I realized that I am always a day late and a dollar short. I work a mid-shift so by the time I read the initial postings, the updates are already out on the inter-web. But that doesn't take away the fun of discovery and putting a bit of "personal" spin on the story. I'm just glad that others have jumped on this and publicizing it.

Both Raw Story and HUffPo have updated this incident and there is an interesting back story to all this.

Maurice and Schroff subsequently began meeting for lunch every Monday, developing a family-like relationship, which they discussed on Fox News host Mike Huckabee’s show in January 2013.

“Here I was, and this 11-year-old kid was teaching me things,” Schroff told Huckabee. “He taught me the definition of lunch in a paper bag. The bag is only brown paper. But what you put into it is something we all call love.”

[,,,]
At the time of their appearance on Huckabee’s show, Schrock and Maurice promoted the Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry campaign. Two months later, the campaign released a statement opposing Ryan’s House budget proposal, which included cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) Program by $125 million.

I think SmotPoker, referring to Ryan's statement about the GOP being the party of ideas:  "The party of ideas eh? Sure, sure, they aren't THEIR ideas, but ideas nonetheless"

HuffPo in their report was able to make contact with An Invisible Thread author Laura Schroff who added her thoughts on the matter,,,

[Jonathan] Chait [of NYMag.com] writes, "It's also interesting that Anderson's conclusion from the...story is that the school lunch program makes parents into lazy slackers, while Ryan's conclusion is that it robs children of their soul." Of course, there's one party whose conclusions haven't been fully explicated within the context of Ryan's appropriation yet -- Laura Schroff,,,

Suffice it to say that Paul Ryan might be better at understanding the plights of poor people if he actually went out and attempted to meet some, instead of roughly trading second-hand accounts.

,,,If there's one ambition Schroff doesn't have, it's getting her work caught up in the Beltway hurlyburly.

"The one thing I'll say about 'An Invisible Thread' is that it's not a political book in any way." Schroff says her intention is to cross across boundaries like race and class. "When I go to public schools to talk about the book, it helps the kids have hope. When I talk to kids at private school, they feel grateful."

In responding to today's news, she was exceedingly charitable to those involved.

[,,,]
"But Maurice describes being hungry as being punched in the stomach," she countered, "And given the choice between a free lunch and not eating at all, he would choose the free lunch."

Schroff very politely rejected Ryan's "full stomachs, empty souls," construction, explaining that her life's work is about showing other people, especially children, that kindness makes a huge difference in the lives of both the giver and the recipient. "When you give a small act of kindness, expecting nothing in return, the rewards are great."

"I want people to think about what they can do to make the world a kinder world," she said. "I don't care about Republicans and Democrats. But we are talking about children that need to be fed. Cutting school lunch programs doesn't accomplish that."