THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
Two Different Versions ......... Two Different Morals
OLD VERSION
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!
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MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain 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 he is 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." Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
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 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 and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
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 ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be very careful who you support and how you vote in 2010.
3.05.2010
The ant and the grasshopper
This was sent to me by my friend Blinko, who is, by the way, a youngish California Obama voter:
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3 comments:
This was one of my favorite stories as a child from Aesop’s Fables. There really are two morals. Grasshoppers should be mindful that there will always be a winter. Ants have to remember that there will always be a summer to be enjoyed. I loved that book –it was one of the few material possessions that I had.
Jeff
This would be hilarious if it weren't so true.
I found myself unemployed at age 41 with a pregnant wife, our second child. It is a long story but I did have 10 yrs with City of LA employment at the time. We had to move in with my mother, horrible but a roof over our heads. 5 mo later I did get another job with City of LA. I now have 36 yrs svc. I bought back my 6 yrs USMC time from my 20s years. I will retire soon with very good benefits for me and my wife, but not the kids. They are adults and must work 40 yrs like I did. Moral of the story: move in with relatives if you are on the streets. Don't ask the govt (We the People) for handouts. A Hand UP ok.
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