[Rhodes22-list] THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

[Rik Sandberg]

Paul,

Bet our forefathers would turn over in their graves if they knew just how
close to our present reality that story really comes.

Starting to feel a lot like the villain (ant) in that story myself. Sad,
ain't it???
Rik

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Grandholm" <paul@mi.chtechnology.com>
To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 8:41 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER


> CLASSIC 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 he's 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.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>  MODERN 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 he's 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 less
> fortunate are cold and starving.
>
> CBS, NBC 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."
>
> Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the
> ant's house, where the news stations film the group
> singing "We Shall Overcome."
>
> Al Gore exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings
> that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the
> grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on
> the ant to make him pay his "fair share".
>
> Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and
> 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.
>
> Hillary Clinton 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 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.
>
>
>
> ========================
> Paul Grandholm
> C&H Technology
> GrandPower Components Div.
> ========================
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