When I was 14 my father abandoned
me and my mother, sister and brother. We got free lunches at school. To hide
that from the other students I would not go to the cashier until
there was no line but I still often got caught and the look on the faces of the
other students was painful to me.
The memory of those times came back when Newt Gingrich proposed to eliminate or
relax child labor laws, as was done in Maine this year, so that schools can
hire poor children, ages 9 and up, as janitors to "mop floors and clean
restrooms" in their schools.
It wasn't hard for me to imagine how I would have felt when other students saw
me cleaning bathrooms in school. The work would not have bothered me but I
would have been ashamed.
I’m more disappointed with the audiences that have applauded each time
Newt has made this proposal.
Gingrich also said that poor children don't know what its like to work for
money unless its illegal. More than 15 million American children are living in
poverty. Does Newt really believe that none of them know what it is like to work?
Gingrich is leading in the
polls. He may be leading not in spite of his proposal but because of his
proposal.
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