Stand Up Against the War on Lemons

Growing up I was always told, “When life gives you lemons make some lemonade.” Granted this was a way of teaching a disgruntled child a valuable lesson, but some of us actually took it literally and made the lemonade. The overachievers, like me, set up lemonade stands in the front yard and sold cups of the freshly squeezed juice for a quarter or sometimes two (depending on how much sugary goodness was added that day). 

A child’s lemonade stand should give adults nostalgic memories of childhood; however, adult, law enforcement officials are shutting down children’s lemonade stands; writing $500 tickets to children’s parents and even arresting people who are selling lemonade on public property. Sounds pretty ridiculous right? Unfortunately this pathetic national issue is very real and even more frivolous. It seems to me that our government loves to waste our nation’s law enforcement and financial resources, which also probably partially explains our $14.587 trillion debt as of August 11, according to the Wall Street Journal.

One of three incidents that occurred in Coralville, Iowa at the beginning of August involved four-year-old Abigail Krutsinger. According to KCRG News of Cedar Rapids, police shut down Krutsinger’s 25-cent lemonade stand that was located eight blocks away from the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Race Across Iowa (RAGBRAI).  Her stand (which made all of five bucks in the full 30 minutes it was open) went against an ordinance that protected bicyclists from “possible health issues.” According to local police, a permit to legally sell lemonade during the two-day race would cost Krutsinger $400. One parent actually laughed at the cop who told her this ridiculous information, which is probably a lot nicer than how I would have reacted if it was my kid.

It is understandable to have certain permits to sell food for events, but when does the enforcement of the law go too far? Krutsinger’s father seemed to think that the city crossed a line when they shut down his daughter’s lemonade stand. The little girl was only four at the time; she was not making a profit off of the stand (let’s face it plastic cups, sugar, lemonade mix and lemons cost more than five bucks these days) and she was a full eight blocks away from the race. Plus, the excuse from the city that they shut it down for health reasons is absurd. From my personal experience, I have never been harmed by lemonade sold by a child.

Since several cases of lemonade stands being shut down occurred, a national movement started and National Lemonade Freedom Day was created on August 20, 2011. So everybody mark your calendars for next year’s lemonade stand extravaganza, because it is tax free and the government might forever ban them.

This makes me wonder if government and law enforcement officials had childhoods deprived of the freshly squeezed juice. Officials across the country must have lost sight of their inner child and forgot the American way of the lemonade stand.   Maybe this is the issue with our government – well, one of many anyway.

 

I found this image on http://www.lemonadefreedom.com/