BY RUSSELL TURNER
ONE PROBLEM AMONG MANY
Our country faces many problems, and if we as Americans don’t start looking and acting upon those problems our days as a great nation are numbered. Anyone that has any common sense can see that the financial problems we have today can lower our nation to the status of a third world country. The financial upheaval that we are facing will be more disastrous to us Americans than it will be for the poor countries of this planet. The citizens of the poor nations are accustomed to living poor whereas we Americans have become accustomed to the good life. In my opinion, one of our major problems is the fact that far too many people have never learned the value of a dollar.
A few days ago I read where the U.S. Labor Department had proposed new rules regarding child farm workers. The new rules would bar teens “from riding on a tractor, herding and branding cattle, and grandparents are barred from having their grandchildren work on the family farm. I would like to know what kind of childhood the bureaucrats proposing all of these new regulations had while growing up. Being from the country I know something about the farm life style, and I can say the vast majority of farmers want the best for their children and do not look on them as indentured servants or slaves. I was raised on a farm and the chores and work that I did as a child taught me discipline and respect for the hard work that my parents endured in order to take care of me and my sister.
As a child I picked strawberries and I used the money I made to purchase some of my school clothes. Anyone that has ever picked strawberries on the rock covered hills in eastern Oklahoma knows that it is hard work. Like most children in my area, we were eager to get out of school in order to make some money. While it was hard work and I did earn some money, the lesson of learning to manage money was worth more than any money I might have earned. Every night I would empty my pockets of nickels, dimes and quarters that I earned that day and put it in a quart fruit jar. Someone that has never earned any money on their own has a hard time understanding the conversion of labor into money.
Our government needs to stay out of our everyday lives and take care of things such as national security and leave the family farm alone. Maybe they think having children setting around a television eating junk food and playing video games all day instead of learning the value of a dollar will create a better America. I DON’T.
ONE PROBLEM AMONG MANY
Our country faces many problems, and if we as Americans don’t start looking and acting upon those problems our days as a great nation are numbered. Anyone that has any common sense can see that the financial problems we have today can lower our nation to the status of a third world country. The financial upheaval that we are facing will be more disastrous to us Americans than it will be for the poor countries of this planet. The citizens of the poor nations are accustomed to living poor whereas we Americans have become accustomed to the good life. In my opinion, one of our major problems is the fact that far too many people have never learned the value of a dollar.
A few days ago I read where the U.S. Labor Department had proposed new rules regarding child farm workers. The new rules would bar teens “from riding on a tractor, herding and branding cattle, and grandparents are barred from having their grandchildren work on the family farm. I would like to know what kind of childhood the bureaucrats proposing all of these new regulations had while growing up. Being from the country I know something about the farm life style, and I can say the vast majority of farmers want the best for their children and do not look on them as indentured servants or slaves. I was raised on a farm and the chores and work that I did as a child taught me discipline and respect for the hard work that my parents endured in order to take care of me and my sister.
As a child I picked strawberries and I used the money I made to purchase some of my school clothes. Anyone that has ever picked strawberries on the rock covered hills in eastern Oklahoma knows that it is hard work. Like most children in my area, we were eager to get out of school in order to make some money. While it was hard work and I did earn some money, the lesson of learning to manage money was worth more than any money I might have earned. Every night I would empty my pockets of nickels, dimes and quarters that I earned that day and put it in a quart fruit jar. Someone that has never earned any money on their own has a hard time understanding the conversion of labor into money.
Our government needs to stay out of our everyday lives and take care of things such as national security and leave the family farm alone. Maybe they think having children setting around a television eating junk food and playing video games all day instead of learning the value of a dollar will create a better America. I DON’T.
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