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Editor's note (JHD): About 50 years ago, when our own children were still very small, we bought a well illustrated version of the story of "The Ant and The Grasshopper" for our young children to read and enjoy. They loved the story, and it taught some valuable moral lessons as well! It was a most interesting story which went into some detail about how the ant worked very hard, almost working himself to death during the spring, summer and fall months. It showed how he struggled to build a safe and comfortable home for himself and family, and to stock it with food and provisions for the hard winter months he knew were coming. Meanwhile, while the ant was working so hard every day, the grasshopper taunted him, and made all manner of fun of his hard work, and of the ant not taking time to play, and dance, and sing, and loaf the time away as did the grasshopper most all of the time. Not only that, but the grasshopper was constantly singing his own version of that popular grasshopper hit song, "O The World Owes Me A Living," and fiddling as he danced and sang "tra la la la la la la." A while back, a friend, Darren Blanton, sent me a short modern version, but the best modern version I have seen recently was brought to me in hard copy printout from the web by my son, Jimmy, who brought it down from Alaska. The version above and below is my own "revised version" of that highly moral and very
worthwhile story from long ago, and from modern days, both combined together. We need a
lot more of these types of stories which teach a sensible moral lesson, in school and out,
for today. ENJOY! SUMMARY OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE STORY The ant works very hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Comes winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold. THE NEW LIBERAL VERSION OF THE SAME STORY It starts out the same but when winter comes 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, and ABC show up and show pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to some film of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be, in a country of such wealth that this
poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Then a representative of the N.A.A.G.B. (The National Association of Green Bugs) shows up on Night Line and charges the ant with "Green Bias" and makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years of greenism. Kermit the frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when he sings "It's Not Easy Being Green."
Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS evening news and tell
a concerned Dan Rather that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has
been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefitted unfairly during the summer,
or as Bill refers to it, the "Temperatures Of The 80's".
Finally the E.E.O.C. drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act" RETRO- ACTIVE 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 Retro-Active Taxes, his home is confiscated
by the government.
The modern version of the story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last little
bits of the ant's food while the government house he's living in .... which just happens
to be the ant's old house .... crumbles around him since he doesn't know or seem to care
how to maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the big screen TV, which the grasshopper bought
by selling most of the ant's food, Bill Clinton is standing before a wildly applauding group
of Liberals announcing that a new era of "Fairness" has dawned in America! (The Bible has a lot to say about compassion, love, and caring for the helpless, and
I'm all for that, and believe and practice it! HOWEVER, the same Bible has a lot to say
about laziness, slothfulness, lack of care and proper preparation for the future, and I
also believe that part as well! Read Proverbs, and read the writings of Paul for lots of
good instruction on these matters). THIS MODERN ANT STORY MAKES YOU THINK, DOESN'T IT? |
