90130_ Report This Comment Date: February 08, 2009 11:46PM
Some years ago, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his
Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions 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
Okefenokee Swamp?" Some of the old-timers looked at him like he was crazy.
"You must be a stranger in these parts," they said. "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 roots and fending for themselves for over a
hundred years. They"re wild and they're dangerous. You can't trap them. No
man dares 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 knew he'd meet a terrible
fate.
He said, "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. Two weeks later
the man came back. He pulled up to the general store, 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. This went
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 stranger soon 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 as usual. 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. "I have 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
old-timers 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. 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. The trapper 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 eat free 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. After all, 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 to get 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 was easier 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." "And so 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 walking
into the clearing, getting the free corn, and walking back out through the fence
posts." "The next 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. After all,
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." "Now I 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." "Now the 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." "Finally I 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."
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"..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.."--Samuel Adams
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"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is
striking at the root." -- Henry David Thoreau
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When the people fear their Government, there is tyranny. When the Government
fears it's people, there is liberty.." -- Thomas Paine
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Lib Scooter Report This Comment Date: February 09, 2009 05:15AM
Conservatives constantly call Obama "The Messiah' and then try to convince
everyone that it was Liberals who called him that. The only Liberals who are
worshipping the president are the ones who don't exist.