In a recent article on cnn’s website, “Guitar enthusiasts are angry because not only is production of the famed guitars now in question, but under the Lacey Act, anyone owning or selling one of Gibson’s guitars could also be arrested for obstruction of justice.”
Anyone who believes that they are safe because they are an individual, or small-time dealer, or collector is living in dreamland. Anyone who thinks that because they own a guitar, mandolin or any item made of wood or animal or even space debris is safe, is dreaming. In the US, most of our items come from China. China does not observe the LACEY Act nor any other US EPA/USDA/USFW regulation placed on US citizens and business. If you buy anything made, in part, of wood from China it is most likely produced from a source or using a practice that our tradesmen in the US cannot legally acquire or process.
Contact your congressmen now and let them know that foreign laws are foreign laws and we should be focused on enforcing our own laws; even ridding ourselves of a lot of laws currently on the books. The LACEY act needs to be postponed until it can be rewritten by representatives with more knowledge on the issues.
This is not a battle over ‘GREEN’ practices. This is a battle over whether you want your wooden items fabricated in the USA by Americans or in Asia and India. How many jobs need to be shipped overseas before we wake up? If we do not use resources to produce goods here, another country will.
There are a few predictions in this post. One prediction is: China will not come to your rescue when we (the US) are so regulated that we can no longer use the sun for light.
Stay tuned. In my next post I personally take possession of the sun, all of its power and decide who gets how much!
(Substitute the word ‘my’ with “the government’s” and ‘I personally’ with ‘they’).
