It's a first lady faux pas -- wearing expensive, high-fashion French designer sneakers to a food bank.
Michelle Obama wore the sneakers, made by Lanvin, while helping feed the poor at a Washington food bank on Wednesday. The pricetag on the footwear? A cool $540.
Oh good grief, don't they ever even think.
When my kids were young I've spent time in these lines. Let me tell you what this looks like from the other side if you've never been there(and if you haven't you have no real idea, your comment on my statemement nmeasn you've spent a couple fo years in these lines also, or you don't even qualify to comment).
Mocking the poor. Showing off. No compassion, no caring.
I can assure you that for every one person that was offended by the sneakers there were an equal number willing to sell their soul to the devil to get a pair just like them.
Just goes to show that no matter what the Obama's do there will be criticism. Guess it goes with the territory.
I'd rather she dress up than go as a bag lady. Like it or not there is an image the first fmaily is expected to live up to.
[Guess that was not true with Andrew Jackson, but even he did not always wear buckskin.
I wouldn't. Do you wear expensive shoes [hundreds $$] to distribute food and necessities?
Which is why she was there-- not to get the votes for her husband from those in the line, but from those who see pictures and read about her. IOW her purpose was political, not benevolent. "Image to live up to" indeed!
Criticism, deserved and undeserved will never end.
Had Mrs. Obama went by Walmart and bought an inexpensive pair of shoes to wear, she would be labeled as a hypocrite.
Had she not went at all, she would be labeled as uncaring.
Since she went, she is labeled as only looking for a photo op.
Seems like there is enough to criticize the Obama administration about without resorting to foolish things like this.
I had no dog in this fight until you put yours in.
For some poor it will seems as mocking.....
a way of showing a difference of worth even if its only monetary.
Sort of an I'm better off than you flaunting.
For those who may go barefoot or have shabby shoes to wear, well........
it definitely puts this out of their range of hope.....
unless they shoplift, or steal..... which may require battery or assault.
I'm not saying that it is right to have those feelings.....just that it is realistic to expect that most poor, if a difference is either observed by them or pointed out to them, would likely feel not only a smarting difference and distance between their desperation and feeling of 'have not' and the select ones who ..... to them anyway, appear 'to have all' effortlessly.
Personally, I wonder who and how many noticed the shoes on a person behind the sering line?
I think someone had to point this out and that person is as insensitive as they are trying to point to the first lady.
For many in high office who do these kind of 'benevolent' offerings of service....
the object is too infrequent and too brief, but the publicity behind it so much to their advantage 'image producing' that I find difficult in it serving as more than a show.
About that show.....
I have my own opinion and I'm sure others have theirs.
Next time I donate to the local charity, I'll make sure to steal a grocery cart to push the stuff there in. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to see my expensive vehicle and think I am mocking them!
Sag38, as inclined as I am to agree with you w/o reservation....
I'm not entirely certain that these things originate from 'the right'.... or that some work to put words in 'the right's' mouth.
........As for all 'the right' talking heads we see on t.v.
and 'the left' talking heads (for that matter).........
I'm inclined to believe they earn their paycheck from riding a donkey or an elephant as long as they can, and some of them with bullying, sensational, and exaggerated importance over shallow issues (far too often) which do more to incite and inflame than inform.
On both sides....
if they loose their audience.... from those who approve and those who are incensed....
they loose their jobs:
Perhaps we'd all then be better off and could get some real news with steak instead of distractions and tofu!
I wouldn't be surprised.
One of my call-a-bus (taxi) customers works in the welfare office.
She has told me that it is not uncommon for clients to come in with clothing, shoes
and accessories (ie expensive radios) that are well above their reasonable price range.