It’s a curious and rather sad sign of the times that opening a lemonade stand and selling drinks has become an act of civil disobedience. That is what a group of protestors who were arrested selling lemonade on the law of Capitol Hill found out.
Meg Mclain, K.N. Dill and Will Duffield, selling the lemonade in accordance with Lemonade Freedom Day, were arrested by Washington Capitol Police and charged with failure to obey a police officer, unlawful conduct and vending without a permit. The selling of any item on Capitol grounds is prohibited.
Lemonade Freedom Day was created in response to a spate of law enforcement harassment across the country against children setting up lemonade stands. For example, a year ago, a 7-year-old girl named Julia Murphy got a scary introduction to government regulation of business and police power to ruin one’s day when law enforcement in her Oregon town shut down her lemonade stand at a local art fair and threatened her with a $500 fine. Forbes Magazine has listed numerous instances of children’s lemonade businesses that have been summarily shut down in a similar manner.
Kids setting up lemonade stands and earning a little extra money has been a staple of American neighborhoods for generations. The children learn a valuable lesson in business and in the process earn a little spending money. And there is nothing like a glass of free squeezed lemonade on a hot summer day.
But with the government interposing itself in every aspect of American life, this idyllic characteristic of growing up is rapidly becoming endangered. In fact, setting up a lemonade stand and selling drunks has become an act of civil disobedience.
This state of affairs has been caused by well meaning adults who want to protect and help people, but pass overly restrictive laws and inflexible regulations in the process. Thus, Americans are greeted with the spectacle of government busy bodies frightening children to death by treating them as criminals for doing something that is a traditional in America as playing baseball. Government needs restraining in this regard, so that a great American tradition is not smothered in regulation and oppressive law enforcement.
Sources: Capitol Police arrest Lemonade Freedom Day protesters, C.J. Ciaramella, The Daily Caller, August 20, 2011
Lemonade Freedom Day, Website
Portland Authorities Shut Down Julia Murphy’s (Age 7) Lemonade Stand, Mark R. Whittington, Associated Content, August 6, 2010
The Inexplicable War on Lemonade Stands, E.D. Kain, Forbes, August 3, 2011