the attitude with arnie arnesen the Thurs edition oct. 9 noon to 1pm EST streaming on wnhnfm.org

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Arnie Arnesen

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Oct 8, 2025, 5:52:55 PMOct 8
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The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts: Feed the Damn Kids
producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon&7pm EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH
opening thoughts:
I read this and realized I needed to dedicate it to my friend, State Representative Art Ellison, who, as he was dying in hospice kept demanding of the NH legislature that they just feed the damn kids. NH is the fourth richest state in the nation, that we cant find the will to feed all our children speaks volumes of our compromised values and a commitment to protect the rich. I was crying as I read this but add to this that Trump has made it even harder to feed the kids both by cuts to SNAP and making it more difficult for children to qualify for free lunch. (go to comments for details)
They call it “lunch shaming.” I call it cruelty. For nearly four decades, I stood by and saw it play out in my classroom’s shadow. Then one ordinary Tuesday, I finally broke the rules.
My name is Daniel Whitmore. For 38 years, I’ve been a history teacher. My days were spent inside gray cinder block walls, with shelves of fraying textbooks and the steady drone of the dismissal bell at 2:15 every afternoon. I taught U.S. history—wars, speeches, the Great Depression. I told my students about bread lines, dust bowls, and families that had to scrape together pennies just to put food on the table.
But the hardest lesson wasn’t in any chapter. It happened every day in the cafeteria.
It was a Tuesday when I noticed it with new eyes. One of my quieter sophomores, Jamie, a boy who sat at the back of third period, was in the lunch line. He was a good kid, always sketching little Union soldiers or Civil War cannons in the margins of his notes. That day, when he got to the cashier, she leaned over and said something. His shoulders sagged. She slid a tray toward him—but it wasn’t the hot meal everyone else had. It was the dreaded “alternative meal”: two slices of white bread with a slab of cold cheese, and a carton of milk.
The IOU meal. The shame sandwich.
Jamie walked past his group of friends and sat alone at a corner table. He didn’t touch the food. He just stared down at the table, his face pale. It wasn’t just a sandwich; it was a public announcement that his family was broke.
In that moment, something inside me cracked. I’d been teaching about history for decades, but right there I saw what humiliation looked like—served up between two slices of bread.
The next morning, I walked into the main office before classes began. Clara, the cafeteria manager, was counting receipts. She had worked there almost as long as I had.
“Dan,” she said, barely looking up. “Don’t tell me the copier’s broken again.”
“It’s fine,” I said, sliding a folded fifty across the counter. “This is for the kids. If someone can’t pay, cover it from this. Don’t let them walk away with that cold sandwich.”
She stared at the bill, then at me. Her eyes softened, and with a small nod, she tucked the money into her apron without a word.
That became my routine. Every Friday, I dropped off a bill—fifty if I could, a hundred when there was a little wiggle room in my paycheck. I started calling it the “Hidden Meal Fund.” Clara never mentioned it, but I noticed. Sometimes I’d catch her quietly serving a full tray to a kid I knew was struggling, and across the room, she’d give me a little nod. That nod meant the world. It was our silent pact.
For a year, I did this. No announcements, no pats on the back, just quiet defiance against a cruel system.
Then one afternoon, my brightest student, Emma, lingered after class.
“Mr. Whitmore?” she asked softly, twisting her backpack strap. “This isn’t about the assignment.”
“Go on,” I said.
“I know it’s you. The lunch money thing.”
My stomach dropped. I imagined a meeting with the superintendent, a lecture about school policy, maybe even disciplinary action.
But Emma’s face wasn’t accusing. It was glowing. “My mom works in the office. She saw the entries in Clara’s reports. The donations. She figured out who it was. And, well… we want to help.”
The following Monday, my AP students set up a bake sale in the main hallway. Their sign said: “Bake Sale Against Hunger. No Student Left Behind at Lunch.” By the end of the day, they dropped a shoebox on my desk stuffed with crumpled bills and coins. Four hundred and twelve dollars.
The administration knew. Everyone knew. And still, they turned their heads and let it happen.
Now, I’m preparing for retirement. The “Hidden Meal Fund” is no longer hidden—it’s become The Fund, run completely by students. They organize fundraisers, bake sales, and car washes. They own it now.
For 38 years, I tried to convince kids that history was about battles and bold leaders. But that wasn’t the real lesson. The truth is, history is shaped in quiet corners, in acts of compassion no textbook ever records. Sometimes it’s written in a cafeteria, when a teenager is spared the humiliation of being branded poor over a sandwich.


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part one:  housing
Jesse Coburn covers housing and transportation, including the companies working in those fields and the regulators overseeing them. I joined ProPublica in 2024 after three years as an investigative reporter at Streetsblog. My series there on the black market for temporary license plates led to enacted or proposed laws in three states as well as civil penalties and criminal investigations.Before that, I was a reporter at Newsday, where my stories on wrongdoing in Long Island local governments spurred investigations and reforms.
Millions Could Lose Housing Aid Under Trump Plan Drafts of unpublished rules obtained by ProPublica detail plans that would open the door to full-time work requirements, two-year limits on living in federally supported housing and stripping aid from families if one household member is in the country illegally. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-housing-reforms-aid-hud-immigration-homelessness

part two: the billionaires the book Burned by Billionaires
Oligarch Watch columnist Chuck Collins is author of the new book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet (The New Press). He directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he coedits Inequality.org. His previous books include The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, Born on Third Base, and, with Bill Gates Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.

Boom time for US billionaires: why the system perpetuates wealth inequality

As the super rich grow even richer, inequality expert Chuck Collins says the system is broken – but it can be fixed


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KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP -  Anonymous 

D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
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Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
Award Winning Public Affairs Show (NHAB 2018)
airs noon to 1pm and 7pm EST M-F at 94.7FM (concord nh)
Home Station - wnhnfm.org
Part of the Pacifica Network
go to wnhnfm.org for streaming live 

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