A coalition of Indiana farmers, labor and faith leaders are protesting a NAFTA-style agreement with Peru that the U.S. senate will debate next weekThey say NAFTA and similar free trade agreements have been responsible for the loss of thousands of American jobs.

I agree jobs have been lost, but jobs have also been gained. What the opponents of free trade don’t understand is that we as Americans are a bit contradictory when it comes to labor and prices. On the one hand we want people to have “good-paying jobs” but on the other hand we want items on the cheap.

The only way you can achieve this is to either charge so much that you can afford to pay the high wages or you move so much product that what you lose in price you make up in volume. I frankly don’t care where certain items come from as long as they are of equal value and they’re cheaper.

Welcome to capitalism and the 21st Century. For every job allegedly lost by free trade, there are more opportunities created. But to take advantage of those opportunities you have to be creative and offer a personal service that the bigger guys can’t provide. It has been done before and it will be done again. So give it a try.

I’ve got some other work to do today but there are a few things that are on my radar screen.

Expect more annoucements for Congress in the next couple weeks.

There will be a prayer vigil on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the home of terminally ill Congresswoman Julia Crason.

The Service Employees Union is looking at unionizing security guards in downtown Indianapolis.

Things are heating up in Perry Township and it’s only going to get uglier next week.

Those are just a few things to keep an eye on.

My fellow blogger Gary Welsh at Advance Indiana is throwing some pretty heavy criticism at the Julia Carson campaign for playing coy with her health and not being up front with the voters about her health.

Welsh cites an RTV 6 interview with Jonathan Baily, Carson’s minister…

The Rev. Jonathan Baily said he was with Carson when doctors told her she had cancer about a year ago. He said the doctor finally told her that she had just days to live recently. “She asked the doctor, ‘How long have I got?’” Baily said. He said, ‘It’s not our thing to tell you how long, just make you comfortable.’”

However, as Welsh points out, a statement put out by her campaign office Carson says leads readers to believe that the cancer discovery was more recent…

In the late summer of 2007, Congress granted me a leave of absence because of my leg infection. My wonderful doctor cured the leg, and I went into rehabilitation, planning to be back in Washington shortly. Then the second shoe fell — heavily. My doctor discovered lung cancer. It had gone into remission years before, but it was back with a terminal vengeance.

It’s pretty apparent that Carson has been more ill than anyone knew and she’s known this for a long time. The question is should she have disclosed this information to the public and would it have mattered in the last election? My personal rule has been that elected officials private health matters are just that, private.

However, when their health affects their job performance or when there are noticeable differences in their physical appearance, I do think they owe their constituents an explanation. They have to make the ultimate decision as to whether they are fit to serve, but at the very least they need to be honest.

Although no one will admit this publicly there are a number of elected and appointed officials lining up to run for the 7th Congressional District. Incumbent Julia Carson is battling terminal lung cancer and has declared that she will not run for another term. Unfortunately, because she is in hospice care Carson may not complete this term as the point of hospice care is usually to make individuals comfortable at the end of their lives.

I’ve been going down my list of potential mainstream contenders who will probably run if and/or when the seat becomes vacant.

Democrats

Marion County Treasurer Mike Rodman, State Representatives Greg Porter, Vanessa Summers, David Orentlicher, outgoing Mayor Bart Peterson, Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer, City-County Council member Andre Carson and outgoing City-County Council Member Sherron Franklin.

There was some Internet speculation that Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson might run for the seat, but Anderson lives in Geist which is in Dan Burton’s District.

Republicans

State Representative Jon Elrod (who has already declared), former candidate Eric Dickerson.

Feel free to add someone to the list. And no, I do not feel ghoulish writing about this because you know as well as I do that these conversations are taking place behind closed doors.

I’m hearing this morning that 7th District Congresswoman Julia Carson may resign her seat by the end of the week. Carson revealed publicly this weekend that she has terminal lung cancer is now in hospice care. If she does step down a special election would have to be called for her replacement. Stay tuned.