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[Note: This has been around thenet it seems like forever, but it is timeless. The analogy of course is dependence upon the government with the price being your freedom. Is a "Tax Cut" for you gonna catch your kids? Someone will have to pay the piper, and if you think Government will stop spending, remember we are in a War, right now.]
The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp
Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions -- especially his traps -- and drove south.
Several weeks later he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
It was a Saturday morning-- a lazy day -- when he walked into the general store. Sitting around
the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town's local citizens.
The traveler spoke. "Gentlemen, could you direct me to the OkefenokeeSwamp?"
Some of the oldtimers looked at him like he was crazy. "You must be a stranger in these parts," they said.
"I am. I'm from North Dakota," said the stranger.
"In the Okefenokee Swamp are thousands of wild hogs." one old man explained. "A man who goes into the swamp by himself asks to die!" He
lifted up his leg. "I lost half my leg here, to the pigs of the swamp."
Another old fellow said, "Look at the cuts on me; look at my arm bit off! Those pigs have been free since the Revolution,eating snakes and rooting out roots and fending for themselves for over
a hundred years. They're wild and they're dangerous. You can't trap
them. No man dare go into the swamp by himself. "Every man nodded his
head in agreement.
The old trapper said, "Thank you so much for the warning. Now could you direct me to the swamp?"
They said, "Well, yeah, it's due south -- straight down the road."
But they begged the stranger not to go, because they knewhe'd meet a terrible fate.
Hesaid, "Sell me ten sacks of corn, and help me load it in the wagon."
And they did. Then the old trapper bid them farewell and drove on down
the road. The townsfolk thought they'd never see him again.
Twoweeks later the man came back. He pulled up to the general store, got
down off the wagon, walked in and bought ten more sacks of corn. After
loading it up he went back down the road toward the swamp.
Two weeks later he returned and again bought ten sacks of corn.
Thiswent on for a month. And then two months, and three. Every week or two
the old trapper would come into town on a Saturday morning, load up ten
sacks of corn, and drive off south into the swamp.
The strangersoon became a legend in the little village and the subject of much
speculation. People wondered what kind of devil had possessed this man,
that he could go into the Okefenokee by himself and not be consumed by
the wild and free hogs.
One morning the man came into town asusual. Everyone thought he wanted more corn. He got off the wagon and
went into the store where the usual group of men were gathered around
the stove. He took off his gloves.
"Gentlemen,"he said, "I need to hire about ten or fifteen wagons. I need twenty or
thirty men. I have six thousand hogs out in the swamp, penned up, and
they're all hungry. I've got to get them to market right away."
"You've WHAT in the swamp?" asked the storekeeper, incredulously.
"Ihave six thousand hogs penned up. They haven't eaten for two or three
days, and they'll starve if I don't get back there to feed and take
care of them."
One of the oldtimers said, "You mean you've captured the wild hogs of the Okefenokee?"
"That's right."
"How did you do that? What did you do?" the men urged, breathlessly.
One of them exclaimed, "But I lost my arm!"
"I lost my brother!" cried another.
"I lost my leg to those wild boars!"chimed a third.
Thetrapper said, "Well, the first week I went in there they were wild all
right. They hid in the undergrowth and wouldn't come out. I dared not
get off the wagon. So I spread corn along behind the wagon. Every day
I'd spread a sack of corn. The old pigs would have nothing to do with
it."
"But the younger pigs decided that it was easier to eatfree corn than it was to root out roots and catch snakes. So the very
young began to eat the corn first. I did this every day. Pretty soon,
even the old pigs decided
that it was easier to eat free corn. Afterall, they were all free; they were not penned up. They could run off in
any direction they wanted at any time."
"The next thing was toget them used to eating in the same place all the time. So I selected a
clearing, and I started putting the corn in the clearing. At first they
wouldn't come to the clearing. It was too far. It was too open. It was
a nuisance to them."
"But the very young decided that it waseasier to take the corn in the clearing than it was to root out roots
and catch their own snakes. And not long thereafter, the older pigs
also decided that it was easier to come to the clearing every day."
"Andso the pigs learned to come to the clearing every day to get their free
corn. They could still subsidize their diet with roots and snakes and
whatever else they wanted. After all, they were all free. They could
run in any direction at any time. There were no bounds upon them."
"The next step was to get them used to fence posts.So I put fence posts all the way around the clearing. I put them in the
underbrush so that they wouldn't get suspicious or upset. After all,
they were just sticks sticking
up out of the ground, like the trees and the brush.
The corn was there every day. It was easy to walk in between the posts, get the corn, and walk back out."
"This went on for a week or two. Shortly they became very used to walkinginto the clearing, getting the free corn, and walking back out through the fence posts."
"Thenext step was to put one rail down at the bottom. I also left a few
openings, so that the older, fatter pigs could walk through the
openings and the younger pigs could easily jump over just one rail.
Afterall, it was no real threat to their freedom or independence. They could
always jump over the rail and flee in any direction at any time."
"NowI decided that I wouldn't feed them every day. I began to feed them
every other day. On the days I didn't feed them the pigs still gathered
in the clearing. They squealed, and they grunted, and they begged and
pleaded
with me to feed them. But I only fed them every other day. And I put a second rail around the posts."
"Nowthe pigs became more and more desperate for food. Because now they were
no longer used to going out and digging their own roots and finding
their own food. They now needed me. They needed my corn every other
day. So I trained them that I would feed them every day if they came in
through a gate. And I put up a third rail around the fence. But it was
still no great threat to their freedom, because there were several
gates and they could run
in and out at will."
"FinallyI put up the fourth rail. Then I closed all the gates but one, and I
fed them very, very well. Yesterday I closed the last gate.
And today I need you to help me take these pigs to market."
-- end of story --
==========================================================="It seems to me that folks who favor heavy government regulation arefascists, and most of them don't even know it. Americans have been
brainwashed by Hollywood into thinking fascists wear military uniforms
and have funny mustaches. In fact, fascists can look exactly
like George Bush or Alan Greenspan."
--Charlie Reese
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