“A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker makes clear what is obscure.” — Hugh Kingsmill
Last month, while speaking at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, presidential candidate New Gingrich drew the hue and cry of liberals everywhere when he suggested that children can learn the value of a paycheck by maintaining their own buildings.
On the face of it, I was perplexed why people were so up-in-arms about Gingrich’s suggestion. But then as I read on, I understood what the real issue was. Newt also said,
“Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor, and pay local students to take care of the school,”
“Get rid of the Unionized Janitors…” Those were the magic words. It’s not too much of a stretch to see where Unions would get all whipped up over the comment, but Unions hate Gingrich.
The Nation’s Union apparatchik and their paper-thin sensitivities where we’ve seen them act like playground bullies or emotive school girls, aren’t capable of behaving like adults. And of course, acting in concert with the child indulgent advocates, the knee-jerk response is nearly predictable.
I have to laugh at these birds. Laugh because had they seen me as a 13-year-old driving a Diesel-powered Massey Ferguson 1080 farm tractor pulling an oversized wagon loaded with hundreds of bales of hay, that would have given them a coronary. Trudging through piles of cow crap to operate milking machines…oh my God! child labor! and for $1.65 an hour. Call the feds! Call OSHA…call the KGB!
Note to self: Cease ordering my 13-year-old from raking leaves, taking out trash, doing dishes, cleaning her room, picking up dog crap, and other forms of manual labor that could be construed as a labor law violation. No more allowance for you! I am now going to teach socialism and simply “give” my kid money. That way she can grow up to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The state will be proud!
And not to be outdone, Willard “Mittens” Romney weighed in on Gingrich’s child labor law assertions while in Granite State. “He wants to repeal portions of child labor laws, I certainly don’t agree with that” No, Willard, you don’t because you are a rank statist, flip-flopper and a RINO. Some of the most inane portions of labor laws otherwise preventing willing, able-bodied young people to work, you would keep. Pure statist liberal pandering if I ever saw it.
It has been said by others that Mitt is a smart guy. But even a person of nominal intelligence like me understands how child labor laws have become a patchwork of expansion that denies the youthful generation employment they so desperately want. But somehow, the charlatans are allowed to get away with expanding Newt’s comments to mean he is advocating for a return to an era where children worked in the woolen mills on dangerous machinery with its potential loss of limb, life and permanent injury. Seriously?
Mitt is a panderer. He will tell us exactly what we want to hear, or what he thinks we all want to hear. A little hard work only benefits our youth. Youth jobs after school are part of our American Fabric. But in the last couple of decades, we have replaced that fabric with the vinyl of public assistance. The very notion of a young person obtaining a job to help out his or her family struggling financially, is now a dastardly one. The government nipple has since replaced that ethos. This is a classic example of why Mitt Romney should not be the nominee to face Obama. But should Mittens be the nominee, I will cast my vote, but while holding my nose and not liking it.
