What lesson are we teaching our children?

 
Little Girl Told She Can’t Sell Mistletoe to Raise Money for Healthcare, but She CAN Panhandle
December 4, 2013
Posted by Warner Todd Huston

The stupidity of the age in which we live in America today is seen once again in the case of an 11-year-old girl in Oregon who has been told by authorities that she isn’t allowed to sell mistletoe to raise money to pay for her dental treatments. However, they have told her, she is allowed to beg on the streets to raise the money.

So, we are telling kids not to try and work for their money, telling kids they aren’t allowed to start a small business or start a sales campaign to raise money for something they need, but we are telling them that they can loaf on a street corner and beg passersby for money?

In our capitalist society where we are supposed to be encouraging people to work hard to better themselves we are telling kids to just sponge off strangers? Is that our America today?

The little girl, Madison Root of Newberg, Oregon, needs about $4,800 to pay for braces on her teeth and so she lit on an idea on how to raise the cash. In this holiday season she would go down to Portland’s Saturday Market and sell mistletoe that she cut and packaged all on her own.

The holiday sprigs came from her uncle’s farm and little Madison cut the stuff, wrapped it in plastic, and tied it with a little red bow all on her own and then carted her wares into downtown Portland expecting to begin her fundraising effort.

As soon she set up her little corner a security guard demanded she cease and desist because she didn’t have a city license to sell.

But little Madison was told she could panhandle on the streets because that is “protected free speech.”

So, the city of Portland has no problem putting a little girl out into the dangerous streets to wander around begging for money but the city won’t let her sell something useful to raise money for he orthodontics?

Is this America?

Source: http://abcnews.go.com