Postville's Problem is Our Problem

This week's raid on the Agriprocessors plant in Postville is a tragedy in more ways than one.

It illustrates the problem with government which looks the other way until -- BAM -- it's convenient. Then it lowers the boom.

It illustrates the problem with American labor. Nobody wants to work on the line at a meat processing plant. The jobs are dangerous, tedious and low paying.

It illustrates the problem with immigration. Illegal workers without a conscious can easily enter this country and they can easily find jobs if they look in the right places.

It illustrates the problem of running a profitable business. To be successful you've often got to find the cheapest labor possible even if it means bending the law.

It illustrates the problems a community faces when a primary faction of its work force is suddenly put out of work, especially when economic conditions are already tough.

But, more than anything else, it illustrates how all of these problems can come together to turn human lives upside down, especially the lives of innocent children.

The children are hurt because people who should know better -- their parents, business owners, co-workers and government officials (through lack of proper ongoing enforcement) -- push the envelope without considering the consequences.

I don't have a solution. Maybe you do.

I just know that in a perfect world, people wouldn't act this way. It makes me sad.