I received this e-Mail from a friend the other day and would like to share the stories with you in case you haven’t seen them. Any resemblance between version number two and the current government regime’s method of operation is purely intentional.
Two different versions — two different morals. When referring to the Left, I use the term “moral” advisedly.
Traditional - Version #1:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
Moral of the story: Be responsible for yourself!
Contemporary - Version #2:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti- Grasshopper Discrimination Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
Moral of the story: Be careful how you vote in 2010. The rights you save may be your own!
So it is written — so it shall be.
R.S.F.
Tomorrow (Friday 6/26/09) the Cap and Trade, more accurately called the Cap and Tax bill, comes up for House vote. It represents both the largest tax increase and greatest incursion into our lives by government in American history. It must be stopped in its tracks. Passage of this measure will siphon thousands of dollars per year from your family’s pockets.
“Ists” and “Isms”
I received a letter the other day which addressed me as a “Conservative Activist”. That night I saw a television show that made me realize some might consider me a “Survivalist”. Here, all the while, I thought I was a “Capitalist” speaking out against “Marxism” in America and supporting our troops fighting “Terrorism” abroad, so the rest of us can live to enjoy “Freedom” at home. Freedom. How’d that word get in there?
Lately, freedom seems to have gotten lost among the labels and, as it turns out, some of us don’t really understand what it is. Take, for example, a Liberal friend of mine [about whom I've spoken before] who agrees with the acting president that we have no right to “impose our way of life” on people in other countries. They both call it “meddling”, as does Mahmoud Ahmedinejad — who probably didn’t even know the word existed until our own B. Hussein Obama used it and gave him the opportunity to toss it back at us as propaganda. My friend has finally quantified the reason we can’t agree on any of the issues: we disagree on the fundamental principles.
What none of the three aforementioned understand is that freedom is the natural condition of human kind. Our founding fathers realized that reality and wrote about it often. Freedom comes from God, not from man. Since it can only be suppressed by man [governments and tyrants], helping to restore the natural order is neither imposing nor meddling. Millions of Iranians risking their lives in the streets of Tehran know that too and are waiting for words of encouragement from America — but our shining beacon at freedom’s door is dark. My friend says it’s none of our business because no one has asked for our help. I don’t know why anyone thinks so many signs in the crowd are printed in English but I’m guessing they’re the same people who think the revolt we are witnessing is still about the election.
Obama is an embarrassment. He has abdicated his responsibility as any kind of free world leader. Even France and Germany have spoken out but, for all the meaningless drivel he and his teleprompter have generated, his deafening silence is broken only by a few vague remarks about the government violence. This ideologue is coldly recasting the very essence of what America is about and will have the blood of thousands on his hands if Ahmedinejad once again slams freedom’s door on the fingers of the Iranian people.
Let me be as plain as the ears on ‘Bama’s head. When he apologizes for the brilliance of America, he does not speak for me. When he parades weakness in front of the world, he does not speak for me. When he insults our friends and friendlies up to our enemies, he does not speak for me. When he says America is broken and should be fixed with massive government programs, he does not speak for me. When he demonizes success and tramples our Constitution, he does not speak for me. When he disrespects the military or degrades their mission he does not speak for me. When oppressed people cry out against tyranny and are willing to die for freedom, he doesn’t speak at all.
So all other “ists” and “isms” notwithstanding, I say to my Liberal friend that I mostly consider myself a “real-ist”. Occasionally my government loses its way and as long as there is a First Amendment, I will speak for myself and try to influence a course correction. I have always been and shall always be proud of my country. If supporting those in other countries who are trying to restore freedom’s natural order is “meddling”, then I’m a “medd-ler”. There, we now have a “ler” label.
Above all else, I am an American and to the people of Iran, if our acting president won’t say it, I will — Press on! We hear your voices and you are not alone. God and the American people are with you!
R.S.F.