Governor Reynolds called me out on my Breaker Boys post. Well, that may not be accurate. I doubt she read it. In an open letter to Iowans she said, “What to most Iowans looks like a sensible option for kids is being treated as a sinister plot to force children back into the sweatshops, mines, and factories of the late 1800s.” If I’m charged with that, I plead guilty. Reynolds said, and I agree, let’s “take a deep breath, draw on some common-sense, and look at the facts.” Okay, I will.

I entered the workplace in the seventh grade at age 14 to deliver newspapers for the Des Moines Register in Davenport. From talking to peers, I understood we could earn money as a paper boy, maybe a couple of dollars a week. Mother called around and the Register had a route near home available. The preferred route was with the Times-Democrat but those were all filled. The Register didn’t have many Davenport subscribers in 1965 so I rode my bicycle between houses to speed up the delivery process. I didn’t think of much except the inherent freedom of work delivering newspapers in my home town and what I would do with each week’s dollar or two. There was no mention of the government.

The same held true when someone moved on to high school and a Times-Democrat route became available. I took it. Once I started high school, I, too, had to give up my paper route. At age 16, I began work in a department store where after our shift, we often went out for food at a nearby fast food restaurant. We never worried about how late we were out and honestly, no one cared. I suppose there were government rules about all this, but I did not know of them at the time. I did realize on my first paycheck that part of my wages went to Social Security and other taxes. I was shocked, even after my employer explained it to me. Social Security seemed like a good deal at the time. I ended up drawing my pension when I reached retirement age, so the promise held over the years.

We can’t miss the finer point here. While my 1960s experiences as a child in the labor force may no longer be possible, we do not need the government to develop “sensible options” for child labor. What the governor wants is much worse than child labor that resulted in federal law to protect children in the workplace. She wants government to tell us how to live. That is the point of Republican governance in 2024. What freedom-loving person needs another government program or government telling us how we should live?

The incident with the North Liberty restaurant fined by the Labor Department after following the governor’s new rules was preventable. As the Cedar Rapids Gazette pointed out, “it’s past time for state and federal officials to meet and work out a potential solution to the impasse. Set aside election year politics. Keep kids safe and keep hardworking restaurants in business.” The restaurant owner was quoted in the article as follows:

“This is not a train wreck that we started,” owner Chad Simmons said. “We are innocent bystanders in a fight someone else created.”

He blames state leaders and the Iowa Restaurant Association for adopting “a policy to purposely antagonize the federal government and the Department of Labor.”

I would say it this way: Governor Reynolds should adopt something other than an in your face approach to meeting Iowa’s labor needs. All of us, including our children, would be better off with less government intrusion in our lives.