Another stupid proposal from stupid people
A few words from Sherman Hawley
U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis is a pro-union, socialist minded opponent of free trade and a staunch ally of Nancy Pelosi. She had backing from the unions and the Communist Party when she ran for congress in 2000. She is well educated and has supposedly worked to protect workers in this country but I think she is totally out of touch with the reality of what is good for this country in her latest proposal.
She wants to prevent children from doing farm chores. The Dept. of Labor will soon put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child labor laws to children working family farms, keeping them from doing a list of jobs on their own family farms.
This is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard of and I am sure it is not designed to protect children but part of an agenda to further the intrusion of government into our private lives. This is shameful and I will bet this woman does not know or has ever met a young person who has gathered eggs, slopped hogs, carried a 5 gal. bucket of water or scooped a bushel of corn.
These chores have produced the most conscientious, responsible and hard working youth in America.
Under her proposal, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of grain, vegetables or livestock.” It would prohibit young people from working in grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, etc.
It would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA both of which I was involved in as a kid. Instead, it would replace them with a 90 hour federal government training course. Like most liberals, she thinks the government will do a better job than private enterprise can.
I was born and raised on a farm in central Illinois. I was picking asparagus for the Princeville Canning Factory at the age of 9. At 12, I was hired out to drive a tractor and plow, disc and harrow our neighbor’s fields if my Dad didn’t need me. At 15 I was hauling corn to the grain elevators with my Dad’s truck. And during all this I was feeding pigs, grinding corn, milking cows, spreading manure and handling bales of hay from the fields. Also mowing lawns and helping Mom in the garden.
I would not trade those experiences for any government efforts to protect my childhood. I don’t usually go on a rant like this, but the Secretary of Labor has pissed me off with her idiotic proposal. The majority of small family farms have already been eliminated by big Agra-Business, so this should just about finish them off. Now, if I only knew what to do about it.
Yours truly,
Sherman Hawley
p.s. I apologize if I have offended any liberal sensitivities here but I had to express how I feel.
I’m allowed to do that, right?
(I don't think that Sherm has his 90 hours of approved training... uh oh, re-training camp!)
