Speak Out: Should We Ban Bake Sales?

Is the bake sale following cigarettes, the three-martini lunch, big-time boxing and disco music in the relentless march of time from mainstream Americana to American outcast?

Word has come from Massachusetts, the birthplace of the American Revolution, that , along with sweet treats as rewards for achievement, holiday parties, pizza sales and perhaps white bread in the lunchroom.

State officials are pushing to extend the ban to school-connected events any day, any time, the Boston Herald reports. All to battle what's seen as the epidemic of childhood obesity.

Massachusetts is not breaking new bread here.

New York City enacted a bake sale ban in fall 2009, The New York Times reported. And Bloomberg traces the growing food fight over the possibility of a partial federal ban coming from the Obama administration.

As I sit here on the sofa, wolfing down my breakfast of Derby pie and black coffee while doing my sedentary job, watching the on TV, and thinking back on my daily high school lunch of popcorn and Hostess snacks, I have to ask:

Are those Yankees on to something? Or has the world gone mad when parents can’t sell a few cookies and brownies to pay for the band trip and new sports equipment?