An Insightful Bug Story for 2008
(This has been circulating via eMail. The Ant and the Grasshopper: 2 Scenarios.)
*OLD VERSION*
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The lazy 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: Work Hard and Be Responsible For Yourself!
(Continue to see the Modern Version)
*MODERN VERSION*
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The lazy 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 warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC, all show up to provide TV coverage 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." Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton stage a large, noisy demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake, while Al Sharpton is talking a collection from all bystanders for the demonstrator's sake.
Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton 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.
With help from the ACLU, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is heavily 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, forcing the ant to be "homeless".
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The last chapter of this story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's 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 and previously safe neighborhood.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC all decide that it would not be politically correct to report the last chapter of the story.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be Careful How You Vote In 2008.
I don't know who originated this, but they have summed it up beautifully. I would suggest that you pass the link for this around to everyone you can think of.
this is an interesting view of the inside of your head -- thanks.
in the real world, poor Americans die because they don't have healthcare. it happens every day. no press conferences. no irony. just pointless suffering in a bad system.
You can blame them, or not blame them. Call them "grasshoppers" if you like -- that's the kind of stinging remark that really gets under the skin of the 8 million US children who do not have health care. go tell them they're lazy.
Posted by: travis | November 23, 2007 at 10:26 PM
That is the same liberal fantasy that the bug story shines the spotlight on. Non-exclusive-non-fancy-pants hospitals (like all three in my community) are required to provide life sustaining services without regard to the patient's ability to pay. Those without healthcare are not turned away to die, and in fact, are ready, willing, and able to provide critical services in exchange for whatever government reimbursement they can obtain. They are expert at milking the system and will provide assistance so the patient may access all that is available.
The real problem with the state of medical care in the United States has more to do with the Health Insurance nightmare that exists because of the Health Insurance industry. A government run Health Insurance mandate, such as one created by Hillary or any fill-in-the-blank liberal will simply take a bad situation into hyperspace.
My experience with Health Insurance is that I pay thousands of dollars in premiums every year, and still end up with large medical bills to pay, putting even more pressure on tight budgets.
Health Insurance or the lack thereof does not save lives. It only creates black holes into which money is sucked at the speed of light from my pocket and everyone else’s. Except of course, from those who are not "privileged" to have it. They in fact, are provided excellent high-tech care regardless, and for those who need it, I am happy they receive the care they need.
Posted by: Phil | March 16, 2008 at 07:32 PM