The bill I would sponsor if I was a Congressman would be the Child Work Bill. This idea of mine is work and mentorship together with a pay check as a reward. My Mom died when I was 13 and the way my Dad kept me out of trouble was putting me to work at an early age. In high school my friends were doing drugs and drinking. I was not perfect and heading down that path. Football at East Grand Rapids High School kept me straight but what really shaped my life and future was working with my Dad. He was my mentor and I worked harder than anyone at his place so I would not be labeled the spoiled kid. My idea for kids that are heading down the wrong path is this: kids get in gangs at 11 and 12 years old and it is hard to get them out once they are in. If a counselor at a school saw a kid that was giving up and heading down the wrong path he would assign this kid to a business. There are a lot of great mentors that own or run businesses like Home Depot or Meijer. This kid would get paid $4 an hour or so, social security and Medicare would be taken out. The business would get a tax deduction for this because of what they are doing to save a kid. Yes businesses do have hearts. The kid would work about 10 to 12 hours a week and the job he would do would not take anyone else's job. The mentor would have him do homework at the job on his break. When the kid got his or her first check it will be addicting like the drug pushers would like but it would be the legal addiction called free enterprise and if the pupil wanted to keep his job he would have to keep his grades up. We are short of mentors for our kids. This would solve that and could you see it in Los Angeles: the gangs wondering where their recruits are? This is my idea. Agriculture has an age limit waved and golf caddies can also work 11 or 12, why not let troubled kids work with a business mentor? Let free enterprise save them. It will work.
Tommy Brann
