This story about regulating the resale of goods aimed at children under 12 years old had me spitting tacks.

Where I understand there has to be some sort of regulation, the way this law is worded makes no sense at all. The items have already been regulated before they entered their original shops. Why then must they be regulated again when they enter resale shops? The mind boggles.

This is going to close many resale shops,  and make it next to impossible to purchase second hand children's goods at thrift shops and church run charity stores. It is going to put a monumental amount of perfectly good items in the land fills. And it is going to take food out of the mouths of families who can not afford to purchase new items. Are children's items at garage sales and rummage sales going to be a thing of the past, now?

The US government is pleading poverty. We are in an 'economic crisis', a 'credit crunch'. Reports of the 'worsening economic situation' are on every TV station and in every news paper. Yet we can afford to throw away perfectly good items because of some poorly worded law??

Can we not just put a disclaimer label on these goods that they have not been tested, much the same as the flammable warnings on some fabrics'?

Can we not just take responsibility for our own actions, and choose where we shop and what we buy? What ever happened to Caveat Emptor? Yes, we need some regulation, but when it comes to purchasing things from a retailer or a rummage sale, shouldn't we have some say in the matter? Or is that just asking too much? 

Beam me up, Mr. Scott...

When I first heard the news, then researched the article, I got mad, but then I remembered that anger without action does nothing. So here I am, after months of silence (and that was not deliberate; mundania took me away from the computer for a time...) taking action.

I urge everyone who thinks that this law is poorly written and hurting the lower class to do two things.

First, contact your congressperson and ask that they amend the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in a satisfactory fashion.

Second get involved in your local freecycle group. The main freecycle page is www.freecycle.org. This new law may prevent the resale of these goods, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let someone tell me I can't give them away!