Immigrants always a good gamble

If gambling in Utah is illegal, how come farmers are still in business? They gamble on the weather, gamble on having a workforce, and still have to meet the bank loan payment.

Talk about betting the farm; they do it every year. And this year they have been hit with a tsunami, floods that have ruined the crops they planted with the money they borrowed, and not knowing whether they can count on having farm workers to harvest the crops that survive. On top of that they are subject to being raided, not by the local police, but by Homeland Security.

Our hearts go out to the real entrepreneurs — our farmers, growers, and dairy farmers who struggle to keep America's family farms producing our food supply; and who do it with the love they have for the land and the American tradition. You don't see them getting the "entrepreneur of the year" award; yet they represent the true American spirit, the willingness to risk, to work and to hope. They deserve our thanks and support, especially during the tough economic times our nation is undergoing.

It's one thing for farmers to be willing to gamble that Mother Nature will look kindly upon them, and another to have to fight employment policies, made by politicians, that work against them. Hounded by the Labor Department, one small business owner with MS who tried to keep the family business going after her husband died said it well. Appearing before a U.S. Senate committee hearing, she said, "Why do we have to fight our own government?"

The American spirit has been one of risking, pursuing one's dreams, yearning to forge new trails, and believing that with hard work and faith we could hope for a better tomorrow. While our entrepreneurs have learned to accept the cards Mother Nature deals them, they should not have to put up with policies humans make without caring about the general welfare of our nation and our people.