Lemonade and idiots
08 Aug 2010 2 Comments
in Random things, Reason Tags: Lemonade, Save-on foods
Do you become a municipal by-law officer because you are a narrow minded idiot, or do they just lobotomize you before you start work?
The rest of the story is here
The two boys, whose lemonade stand in Port Coquitlam was shut down by by-law officers because they didn’t have a business license
It is embarrassing to know that local governments would hire individuals that are so limited and thick that they have forgotten their own childhoods, and the customs of summer that most of us remember.
Thanks to Jennifer Mayer and Save-On foods for bringing some sanity to the situation. Go help the boys out and grab a cold drink.
Aug 13, 2010 @ 13:49:57
I remember seeing the kid at the dog park and I actually mentioned to my wife, “wow, how great, a young entrepreneur who is working toward something instead of sitting inside playing video games or loitering at the mall”. I should also mention that on a number of occasions I witnessed the young man pick up garbage around the park and fill the dog bowls with water – further demonstrating his civic pride over and above his personal capitalist ambitions.
After seeing him on a few occasions I actually thought there would be hope that the entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well and that there were still people that had dreams and were driven enough to work hard instead of asking for a hand out or simply being a cog in the system at some government agency or worse, in real-estate. After all, this kid was doing what Jim Pattison, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet did before him – he was working hard, harming no one, and following a vision, and I might add with little or no help from the system around him.
Of course, I was wrong to think that this beacon of hard-work and determination could last!
But despite my personal feelings I will say that I find it hard to believe that “ambitious” employees of the city of port coquitlam, and/or “highly skilled” RCMP officers used paid time to locate, process the necessary paperwork, and then proceed to shut-down a child’s lemonade stand. The complete shock of this makes me wonder if there is anything sacred. Surely there must be better uses of government employee time – like checking facebook accounts, converging on a local eatery for lunch, or attending a “team-building” seminar.
What I find most shocking is that civil servants managed to find time to shut down the lemonade stand while working inside of a grueling 37.5 hour work week. I pray no civil servants were injured or exhausted with the added work that young Mackenzie caused them.
I end this rant with words for Mackenzie by Henry Ford : ” There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems.”- you just survived your first little problem, keep going!!!
Aug 13, 2010 @ 18:04:22
Henry,
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks so much for the great rant. Your observations are spot on, and a pleasure to read. Come back and rant any time.
Nice to meet you.
Vince