The Family Farm vs. The Government

I'm going to go a little off subject today - because this issue personally effects my family and many of yours, too.

There was a recent law, proposed by our Government, our Labor Department, to put an end to children working alongside their parents on the family farm. This new law would have contained various restrictions; such as: barring children 18 years and younger - from grain elevators, bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and auctions. Even showing animals at local fairs would not fit into their regulations - along with replacing many 4H and FFA programs with a 90 hour federal training course.

Well, farm families, every day citizens, 4 H and FFA groups got out the word - and they were just beginning to push back! God bless them.

Look at what the register-herald.com said:
"All it took was a massive outcry from America’s heartland and the Obama administration pulled in its horns on a plan to ban juveniles from pitching in to help out with the chores on family farms."

Coming from a farm family, myself, I know, as a child & teenager, how often my siblings and I rode in Tractors, went to Livestock Auctions, visited grain elevators, and on and on...

Imagine, if children in this country were banned from working alongside their parents - picking apples in trees, learning to drive and operate farm equipment - the family farm as we know it in our country - would become extinct and I cannot begin to imagine what would become of our American food supply, if we had to rely solely on foreign countries.

For those of you, who enjoy the TV series, The Waltons, imagine if John Boy Walton, or his brothers, Jason, Ben, and Jim Bob, had not been allowed to work in the barn and cut wood, alongside their father and grandfather. Ben might never have picked up the trade - and carried on the tradition of Walton and Sons. Also, do you recall the episode where the children watched Chance's calf being born. According to this law, the children would not be allowed to watch, because the animal was "inflicting pain."

Or, imagine Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie... she might not have been allowed to climb up in the hayloft, milk a cow, or pick up a pitchfork and clean her own Horse's stall. There are children everyday, who, like these characters on TV - live their lives just like this. And, many of them - love it just as much as their parents did - generation after generation.

For now, there is good news -

The Government may have fought The Farm - but, thankfully The Farm Won!

I am hesitant, however, to rejoice too loudly... for this is surely to be an on-going battle for the future of our country. Our family will continue to put it in the hands of the Lord - who created heaven and earth! "A man reaps what he sows." ~ Galations 6:7

Thank you to those of you who have read this post. I appreciate all of my followers. In writing this, I was trying to think of various TV shows or Movies that showed children working with their parents/grandparents on the farm. Any ideas?

Also, I think it's important for us to stand up for our rights! This is America - Land of the Free and Home of the Brave! Let me know what you think - see Comments below...