Lemonade Stand Meme

5-year-old girl takes on Westboro with lemonade stand

mooretoons — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:15:37 -0400

5-year-old girl takes on Westboro with lemonade stand:

It has been a while — a year or more? — since I last updated this blog, but really, not much has happened in the lemonade stand wars. Yet today I found this story and couldn’t resist. Once again, a lemonade stand is used as a tool for political expression, but this time it’s not some anti-government right wing agenda driving it. This protest is much more leftward - to promote love and appreciation of the LGBT community - and aims not at the government, but a church. The Westboro Baptist Church, to be precise, who continue to do their damnedest to alienate themselves from the rest of humanity.

This story has a lot of interesting angles: cute little girl, pink lemonade, huge donations from online crowd-funding, defiant soldiers on motorcycles lending their support, and WBC living down to expectations by attacking the little kid and her dad on Twitter. That last is least interesting, but should be noted. It’s the use of both traditional and online methods of raising money and awareness that charms the hell out of me: what is more “brick and mortar” than a lemonade stand? Well, the stand is actually a table and a hand-drawn sign, but that just makes it more “old school.” Combining it with online crowd-funding you get a lovely combination of old and new, a very early 21st Century approach to commerce and politics.

One last thing: here the lemonade stand itself is not the subject of controversy, but a vehicle for it. The article doesn’t report the police attempting to take it down, so I wonder if the dad took care of the necessary paperwork; or if local ordinances are less restrictive. As the stand serves more of a political function, maybe it’s protected by the First Amendment? I don’t know what the balance between health and expression is, and I doubt this story will play that out. Instead we get dudes on motorcycles buying pink lemonade from a 5-year-old girl. Too cute.

Dan Vs. The Lemonade Stand Gang

mooretoons — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:49:28 -0400

Dan Vs. The Lemonade Stand Gang:

Not a news story, but a recent episode of Dan Vs. on The Hub network. If you aren’t familiar with the series, it follows the episodic conflicts of a cranky guy in his late 20s/early 30s with some aspect of modern life. Here’s the description of this episode:

Dan starts a crusade against a gang of thuggish children who are aggressively selling lemonade outside his apartment building.

So, no, the cartoon has nothing to do with the right wing’s bucolic image of children innocently selling lemonade to grateful thirsty adults — it just undermines it. Woohoo!

Three Arrested on Capitol Grounds for Illegal Lemonade Stand

mooretoons — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:54:00 -0400

Three Arrested on Capitol Grounds for Illegal Lemonade Stand:

I was pretty busy this weekend, so I lost track of Lemonade Freedom Day. Honestly, I didn’t expect anything interesting to happen, just a small group of people bellowing incoherently about government intrusion, Big Brother and bureaucratic oppression on a child’s sense of ~~wonder~~ entrepreneurship.

Hence my suprise/delight at finding this story from the Ministry of Untruth itself, FOXNews. Three people were arrested for attempting to sell lemonade on U.S. Capitol grounds, which, as the article points out, is illegal. Cue the righteous indignation:

One video taped on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol shows a police officer on a bicycle pulling up to the stand to inform buyers that the stand is illegal. After several minutes of calm debate, another officer notifies the group that they can’t be selling items on federal property. A separate video shows a police officer handcuffing a woman while a person off-camera yells, “Unchain these women.“

In the videos, the activists say they have a right to sell lemonade free of police intrusion because “we own this property, our taxes pay for this property, and your salary.”

“Selling lemonade — that’s not a charge,” U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider told Fox News in an email. “Three people were arrested by USCP for failure to obey a police officer, unlawful conduct, vending without a permit.”

“Lemonade Freedom Day” earned support from thousands of people across the country, including dozens who wrote in on the Facebook page that they created stands for their kids to sell lemonade. The effort to “liberate lemons” was intended as a challenge to a recent string of police actions that have shut down the hallmark childhood entrepreneurism.

All emphasis mine. “Police actions”! Yes, the police arrested people here. That’s what they do when those people break the law. I know, I know, it’s FOX: I shouldn’t expect them to distinguish between this arrest and the other incidents when police or health inspectors shut down lemonade stands operating without a permit without arresting people. I also love how the article makes this event seem like a mass movement. “Thousand of people from across the country” demand liberty for their lemons! “Unchain these women!” (Which just put Ray Charles in my head. So that’s an unexpected bonus.)

So that’s FOX. Meanwhile, The Atlantic is weighing in on this issue, pitting the controversy between Robert Fernandes, Lemonade Stand defender, and public health officials like Jon Kawaguchi, who works for the county I happen to live in, Multnomah.

What They’re Really Fighting About: Government interference versus entrepreneurship. Fernandes believes that by eliminating lemonade stands, the local governments and the United States are stifling the ideas of entrepreneurship and spontaneity. Government officials believe that there are steps to starting your own business and that entrepreneurship has to follow a certain set of rules.

Who’s Winning Now: Lemonade stands. Even though those arrested at The Capitol have a history of rousing authorities, for now Fernandes has the upper hand. We understand the dilemma local governments face and those with fragile constitutions are more than grateful for health-code inspections and food-preparation rules at various grub hubs. It’s just that laying down the law on children operating lemonade stands isn’t going to win fans, especially when officials in cases like 7-year-old Julie Murphy’s are made to apologize.

Winning!

Anyway, I think my friend Brian McFadden has a more insightful take on how lemonade stands would fair in the “free market” of so many libertarian fantasies.

Take A Stand For Lemonade Stands!

mooretoons — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:44:22 -0400

Take A Stand For Lemonade Stands!:

Did you know the U.S. government has education camps? Neither did I. But Chuck Muth at the Nevada News sees lemonade stands as our weapon against Big Brother:

One of the reasons unemployment continues to be so high today is that our government education camps devote their time and attention to teaching our youth how to be good employees instead of good self-employed entrepreneurs. After all, what if they grow up and, you know, make a profit or something. Oh, the horror!

One of the reasons unemployment is so high is because state governments have been sacking public employees as part of “austerity” measures that gut social services, bust public employee unions, and further the destruction of public education. Also, corporations have been sitting on trillions of dollars, refusing to hire back the people they laid off or new employees, because they found ways to squeeze more productivity out of the workers they kept; now they are starting to hire overseas. It doesn’t help that the recently manufactured debt ceiling crisis put the country’s financial responsibility in question.

But if you remain convinced that setting up lemonade stands is good for your kid’s future prosperity, Muth tells us that August 20th is Lemonade Stand Day! You can learn all about it at lemonadefreedom.com. Says Robert Fernandes, the proprietor of this operation:

Recently, we have seen many news reports of lemonade stands being shut down by police and other government workers. When kids sell things, such as lemonade, they are learning some very important lessons. They are learning about money and about being an entrepreneur. They are also learning how to be a productive member of society. They are learning about responsibility. They are participating in free and voluntary trade with willing participants. Selling lemonade is not a crime.

FTR, no one said it was. But doing so without a permit — like setting up any food business without complying with local regulations meant to protect the public and other businesses — is.

This Time the Police Apologize

mooretoons — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:25:37 -0400

This Time the Police Apologize:

How strong is public sentiment concerning little girls and lemonade stands? Strong enough to force a police chief in Appleton, WI to apologize for one of his officers enforcing the law and describing it as “not our finest hour.”

Ten-year-old Lydia Coenen and her 9-year-old sister Vivian Coenen were near their Appleton home Sunday morning, preparing to sell lemonade to people heading to a car show. But an officer told them the sales were prohibited by city ordinance.

The law went into effect last month and bars licensed vendors from selling food and drinks within a two-block radius of a special event.

Police have apologized to the family. Police Chief David Walsh says he’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Selective enforcement of the law is the American way, kids!

BTW, if you were recently beaten, tazed or shot by the police, don’t expect an apology to come as swiftly as these sweet little girls received.

Even With a Permit, There's Trouble

mooretoons — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:10:36 -0400

Even With a Permit, There's Trouble:

This story is not about Teh Evil Bureaucrats shutting down a child’s lemonade stand, but I include it here to offer some contrast: even a vendor with a hawker’s or peddler’s permit still faces opposition from competing businesses. In Taunton, MA*, a lemonade stand franchise business recently set up a stand near a newly built local court house, upsetting brick-and-mortar businesses in the neighborhood. Adding an odd twist to this story, one of the owner’s of this franchise is running for mayor.

The franchisees — City Councilor and mayoral candidate Thomas Hoye and his partner James Gracia — say they’re simply trying to augment their primary business venture, an ice cream and frozen lemonade shop on Winthrop Street called Tom & Jimmy’s Ice Cream Parlor.

But two longtime business owners on the Broadway block are nervous that the summertime stand will cost them sales, by means of waylaying potential customers from patronizing their establishments.

“We had three years of heartache, and now should be the time to reap the harvest, and I can’t because they’re in between (us and the trial court),” said Tom “Tommy” Clark.

The 79-year-old Clark, owner of Park News at 30 Broadway, said he’s unhappy, especially after having endured sustained inconveniences — mainly the loss of parking spaces — during construction of the $80 million courthouse project.

Clark, who with wife Anna has run the newspaper and magazine shop since 1950, reasons it’s not just cold beverage sales that he’s losing to impulse buyers stopping off at the frozen lemonade stand.

He says it could diminish sales of unrelated product such as lottery tickets, tobacco products and candy bars. And he says he’s the one with the overhead.

“They don’t pay rent, and they pay minimal taxes,” Clark said of the lemonade franchisees.

Next door at Jimmy’s Restaurant, owner James Mitoulis is worried that the presence of the lemonade mobile stand will snowball so that food vendors from other areas will be tempted to flock to the trial court block.

There is more to the story, including more from the franchisees, as well as comments debating the issue below the article. To be clear, I am not taking a side on this issue; for one thing, I don’t live there, so I don’t know the local politics. I don’t have “a dog in this fight,” as the saying goes. But I think the story highlights the business environment concerns that arise whenever someone sets up a seemingly innocent lemonade stand. Here we have an established local business that went through the necessary bureaucratic hoops to obtain permits to sell lemonade around the parks and other public places, and even when obeying the regulations of the permit, their presence still pisses people off, justifiably or not. Is it any wonder that local authorities will shut down an operation working without a permit?

Not the tauntaun you’re looking for.

"In the meantime, it could be high time for some well placed Civil Disobedience."

mooretoons — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:35:45 -0400

"In the meantime, it could be high time for some well placed Civil Disobedience.":

Outraged by the “three little girls” story, Sarah The Healthy Home Economist calls for 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?

I can think of a lot of issues we should be using civil disobedience methods to protest against. Granted, a lot of those issues involve preserving public sector jobs against right wing assaults on collective bargaining, or providing a free public education, or giving every citizen access to quality health care, regardless of their ability to afford it. Other issues involve quagmire wars and violations of civil liberties and rights that are far more fundamental than the right to sell lemonade on my front lawn.

The Government War On Kid-Run Concession Stands

mooretoons — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:59:31 -0400

The Government War On Kid-Run Concession Stands:

A follower alerts me to this awesome list of outrage maintained at the Freedom Center of Missouri.

Just links to articles and descriptions of contents. To his credit, the cataloger refrains from editorializing within his descriptions. It’s funny, because I can’t see anything to object to in, say, “Philadelphia Department of Health shuts down cancer charity’s lemonade stand for lack of permit, hand-washing station.” I always tell my kids to wash their hands before they eat.

Anyway, this list is still presented in a context of a “Government War” on kids and their innocent entrepreneurial urge to sell lemonade. Also, the list goes back to 2001. That’s ten years of libertarian outrage in the cause of lemonade stands. I could have started this tumblr years ago.

"Welcome to the new American economic police state."

mooretoons — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:30:15 -0400

"Welcome to the new American economic police state.":

You can’t make this stuff up:

Quietly, the Obama government has expanded the scope and reach of the nation’s lemonade stand destroyers. Until he is out of office and America elects a new chief of police that gets what capitalism is really about the economy will be mired in the mud in my opinion.

To his credit, the author preceded this statement with a Both Sides Do It caveat. I think that’s to his credit. Or just a rhetorical gesture that means nothing.

"a sad day for American's" (sic)

mooretoons — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:20:28 -0400

"a sad day for American's" (sic):

This is the kind of commentary these stories inspire.

It is a sad day for American’s when children get fined for a lemonade stand.

You know what were happy days for Americans? When unregulated bankers and investors destroyed out economy. Or Abu Ghraib.

That is exactly what happened in Montgomery County, Maryland to six children trying to make a few bucks.

Actually, they were raising money for a charity (good!) amidst licensed food vendors who had obtained the necessary permits to operate near the U.S. Open, a very lucrative site. The parents of the kids are to blame for not doing the same. A good cause does not excuse violating the law.

The stand was intended for fun and refreshment, but that came to an end when a local cameraman from the local news spotted a country inspector that was issuing a five hundred dollar fine to the children.

Actually, the fine was to the parents. An inspector wouldn’t fine children. Also, here are a few questions: Was the fine immediately laid, or did the mom refuse to budge after the inspector informed her they were in violation of the law? What was the interaction between inspector and mom like?

Right. I’m sure that six children selling lemonade outside of the US Open was a severe threat to the safety of those around them. Sure, governmental agencies are forced to uphold these laws, and sure, the laws themselves do not discriminate between children and adults. They are in place to stop illegal vendors who set themselves up outside of sporting events.

Which is what this stand was: illegal. And according to the inspector’s report, large. They were in direct competition with legitimate businesses. And again, the stand was supervised by the mom, so the fine was laid upon the mom, not the kids. As for the safety - one way to ensure that is to observe proper health standards, which is what food vendor permits are meant to uphold.

The country inspector should have used better judgment, because all this ticket did was stir up a lot of bad press for them. By the end of the day, the fine had been dropped and the children were forced to move their stand down the street.

So, in other words, the fine had its intended effect: remove the stand from direct competition with legitimate vendors. The local news story provides an update reporting the resolution to this conflict. Also included, the inspector’s side of the story:

“This is not big bad bureaucracy coming down on little kids,” Hughes explained. She said the inspector was enforcing regulations designed to address concerns about traffic, safety and other non permitted vendors flooding into the area.

Hughes noted the kid’s lemonade operation was serving bottled drinks out of 4 large coolers under a 10X10 tent. “This is not what you would see when you picture a typical lemonade stand,” she said.

Three Little Girls

mooretoons — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:35:00 -0400

Three Little Girls:

Another story of three little kids trying to operate a lemonade stand against the winds of authority. I wonder how often the number three pops up in this meme? So far this story and the U.S. Open story feature three kids. I’ve already made a hash tag to keep track of this element.

Here’s the official reason for the bust:

That city law requires a business and food permits ($50 a day), even if the stand was at the home of one of the girls.

Health issues were also a concern, Morningstar said. “We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance,” he said.

Edited to add: BTW, the three “little” girls include a ten-year-old and a fourteen-year-old. I thought you stop being “little” when puberty strikes.

"There Is No American Dream"

mooretoons — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:29:39 -0400

"There Is No American Dream":

This is the first story that inspired this blog.

Three kids attempting to sell lemonade near the U.S. Open were shut down and fined $500 by a county inspector in Maryland. Although the county tends to overlook small stands, which are against the law, the inspector noted the unusually large size of the operation, as well as the lack of proper permits. Also, other vendors were warned and cited for similar reasons.

But cue the outrage:

But dozens of residents with homes near the US Open have been allowed to let visitors park their cars on their property because they paid the county $300.

Golf fans were being charged as much as $60 a day to park their cars with some neighbours reportedly raking in tens of thousands of dollars.

Mrs Marriott told WUSA9 she was having a hard time reconciling the two different perspectives on entrepreneurship at the US Open.

She said: ‘The message to kids is, there’s no American dream.’