Now comes a story out of Midway, Georgia of police shutting down a girls’ lemonade stand for lack of a business license, peddler’s permit, and a food permit.
The permits cost $50 per day (or $180 per year), making selling lemonade a money losing proposition for the children who were only trying to raise money to go to a water park.
The lemonade stand was in operation for one day before police had the gall to shut the poor children down, whom I have no doubt were traumatized by the event. Midway Police Chief Kelly Morningstar said police were concerned with how the lemonade was made, what was in it, and who made it.
For heaven’s sake. These girls weren’t selling hash brownies! This was lemonade. Water, sugar, lemon juice.
Is this too difficult for government officials to comprehend?
I guess this explains why the government prefers children to go to fast food restaurants serving government approved franken fare made in factories that barely qualifies as food in most cases.
But hey, fast food establishments have all their permits in order so they are a-ok.
I myself operated a lemonade stand when I was a child to raise money for various summer activities. I can’t even imagine a police officer telling me I was breaking the law and that I had to stop. My neighbors certainly would have protested against such idiocy since they always enjoyed and supported children in the neighborhood taking on such projects over the summer that brought the community together.
It seems that in Georgia, which not so coincidentally suffers from a high obesity rate, children should be inside during the summer watching TV or playing video games instead of outside, interacting with the community, learning simple business skills and putting their arithmetic to practical use with a simple lemonade stand!
High Time for the Return of Civil Disobedience?
This government harassment of normal, everyday activities by citizens has simply got to stop. I hope the people of Midway, Georgia express their outrage to the local authorities.
Perhaps the cutting of local and state government budgets across the country will have a silver lining over time .. fewer government workers and increasingly cash strapped budgets may mean less – or even a cessation of this stupid type of government behavior.
In the meantime, it could be high time for some well placed Civil Disobedience. Citizens need to stop rolling over on this stuff. Would the police dare to cuff a Mom or Dad who told them to get lost or come back with a warrant if they tried to shut down their children’s lemonade stand?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Source: Police in Ga. Shut Down Girls’ Lemonade Stand
Picture Credit
Male Menopause: Myth or Reality?
Wow, America really is starting to become a police state.
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Every generation needs a new revolution. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government,” Thomas Jefferson.
guess they would rather see our kids selling or using drugs..They already took
God from them and anywhere God’s not permitted Satin runs the halls. That’s
the reasom for so many shooting at school. Want t take something from them. take the na tendo, x-box and the like shoot em up games from them Out law those games
It’s not going to get any better,sadly 🙁
Hmm. How do you find out about these stories Sara? Thanks for bringing it to my attention…
this just sucks, don’t they have better things to do then to harass little kids….
I would buy a glowing, smoking, green mystery cocktail from an out of town street corner vendor before I would trust anything the government says.
Yes, but if you noticed the government control on all aspects of our lives and we allow it to go on because they aren’t bothering “me”. We only knew it was a matter of time before things like this start happening. 🙁
This is a problem of local and state government, who are obviously power hungry. And it’s the same as the case in Michigan. If you’ve ever tried to open a local business, trying to get all the proper permits can be a horror show if you’re in the wrong town. People complain about the federal government? It doesn’t get any better at the local level, either.
These people should be ashamed of themselves.
No wonder the unemployment rate is so high .. its too difficult for people to be creative and start small businesses.
sadly this has happend more than once in our state in recent yrs 🙁
what a sad, twisted world our children are growing up in today… when they are just trying to figure out what this world is all about and there is SO MUCH negativity…
This is insane !
When selling lemonade, my kids would yell out, “Fresh Squeezed, Pink Lemonade.” Not sure where they got the pink lemons. heheh…
Oh Sarah…this story just pushed me over the edge. I thought the gardening story was bad but this is worse. I see so many kids in my town with little lemonade stands and am glad to see that they are outside in the fresh air and sunshine! In this economy there are a lot of folks who can’t afford to send their kids to camp…so how wonderful it is to see kids learning how to entertain themselves and be entrepreneurial at the same time. They are also usually running around as well, while waiting for “customers”. We should all be happy they are not sitting in front of the TV…both for it’s association with obesity as well as the simple fact that the content of kids programs today has a lot left to be desired.
I don’t blame the police. I suspect they were being pressured by some very foolish town fathers…who have way too much time on their hands. You are right…slashed budgets and staff does have a silver lining.
Thanks for bringing these issues to our attention.
Love,
Mary
I do think some Civil Disobedience is called for in these situations. We citizens cannot simply roll over when the government tells us to jump.
Yes, insane.
#BigGovernment insanity – Shutting down lemonade stands. http://t.co/xfDIFiD @HealthyHomeEcon
People better start waking up. Obeyme just signed many new executive orders putting 25 agencies in charge of harassing rural life. Hidding in the so called “healthcare bill” were plenty of things to wipe out our freedoms on our own land. Govt intervention, FEDERAL intervention is NEVER about safety or our own good..it is about CONTROL! For when they cry peace and safety..destruction will come upon this swiftly..I Thes 5:3…STOP ASKING THE GOVT TO PROTECT US PEOPLE….They can’t!
Well said, Amber.
we can whine all we want. but what CAN we DO about it?
that is what I want to know… ACTION is what is needed not just whiny words..
tell me what I can do this is an OUTRAGE!!
As long as career politicians are making policy, nothing will change. Regular people, who understand the Constitutional limits of government, and can’t be bought, need to be in office.
I’m sorry, that was a little incorrect. Things WILL change, for the worse…
Good question, John. As I mentioned above, citizens need to stop rolling over on this stuff. If my kids had a lemonade stand and the police tried to shut them down, I would tell them to get lost. I seriously doubt the police would cuff a Mom or Dad of kids running a simple neighborhood lemonade stand. And, if they did, the publicity would be so embarrassing that they wouldn’t be able to get out their front door of their house for fear of all the cameras and microphones shoved in their face for comment.
That’s called Nullification. When the federal gov’t runs roughshod over the States, they need to “nullify.” When the State runs roughshod over the city, they need to “nullify.” When any of them run roughshod over the people, we need to “nullify.” See:
Hi John,
I believe if millions of people did a long march to Washington D.C. demanding to preserve our rights according to the original constitution, we the people would win. I think it is about time we do something like this, or very similar. We honestly can’t wait until most, if not all, of our freedoms have been taken away from us.
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Every generation needs a new revolution. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government,” Thomas Jefferson.
John,
What do you think the Occupy protests were? These global protests did nothing to change the systems that are controlled from the top down by those who hold the most assets and who benefit directly from these systems. This is also true at the local level. Cities have no vested interest in saying “yes” to anything, no matter how reasonable, due to liability concerns and/or effort required on their part bureaucratically, and, of course, our favorite excuse, “budgetary constraints.”
It is outrageous. It’s time to tell the government that we don’t want their so called protection anymore.
Google the Food Safety Modernization Act which passed the House & Senate & was signed into law this year. Talk about govt intrusion/micro-managing.
I read about another incident like this weeks ago, during some professional golf thing. This kind of thing is going to become more common and we are in a police state more than ever in our country’s history.
Do people who have garage sales or patio sales need a license? Some of them sell food and drinks on hot days in my area, so does that make them criminals? What if someone gets a drink from your garden hose?? I mean, this has two open ends and can be made to apply to almost any situation the police decide to pursue.
I’m sorry to say it, but it’s going to take a revolution in the streets to stop this sort of thing. People will have to fight for the rights we already thought we had. How sad.
Ridiculous. Back of Gov’t. At some point the gov’t has got to stop taking away the responsibility of it’s citizens… if I want to buy lemonade from kids that live down the street from me then I should be able to take the “risk” on “how the lemonade was made, what was in it, and who made it.” I’m going to guess it was made by stirring water, lemon juice and sugar together by the kids (and their parents.) Like you said… a heck of a lot better then any of that processed crap you can get at the local drive through!!!