Style over Sustenance

The message coming from the First Lady volunteering at a food bank could have been about helping Americans struggling to put food on the table -- if they even have a table.  Instead the message is about a pair of $540 shoes. Does this encourage Americans to volunteer?  Or does it perpetuate the selling of the Obama family image?

I don't think Michelle Obama is a bad person or that she did this purposefully.  However it reveals a concern I harbor about the new administration -- a concern about style over substance (or in this case style over sustenance).  Wearing a pair of expensive Lanvin shoes, even if unintentional, sends out a message of status and elitism. Most people can not afford these shoes and even those who can aren't able to buy them because they are sold out.  Presumably most people receiving services at the food bank are poor.  More than lacking $540 shoes, they lack power.  

Without power, poverty endures.

Fairness flashback -- On July 30, 2008, The Huffington Post did an article on John McCain's expensive shoes.