I received this e-mail at work today. My rebuttal is below the actual e-mail.
There was a chemistry professor in a large college
that had some exchange students in the class. One day
while the class was in the lab, the Prof noticed one
young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his
back and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter.
The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his
back. He had been shot while fighting communists in
his native country who were trying to overthrow his
country's government and install a new communist
regime.
In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor
and asked a strange question. He asked:
"Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the
punch line. The young man said that it was no joke.
"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in
the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs
find it and begin to come every day to eat the free
corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put
a fence down one side of the place where they are used
to coming.
When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the
corn again and you put up another side of the fence.
They get used to that and start to eat again You
continue until you have all four sides of the fence up
with a gate in the last side.
The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to
come through the gate to eat that free corn again.
You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole
herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom.
They run around and around inside the fence, but they
are caught.
Soon they go back to eating the free corn . They are
so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage
in the woods for themselves, so they accept their
captivity."
The young man then told the professor that is exactly
what he sees happening in America . The government
keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps
spreading the free corn out in the form of programs
such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned
income, tax cuts, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies,
dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP),
welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually
lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.
One should always remember two truths:
1) There is no such thing as a free lunch
2) and you can never hire someone to provide a service
for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
If you see that all of this wonderful government
'help' is a problem confronting the future of
democracy in America , you might want to send this on
to your friends.
If you think the free ride is essential to your way of
life, then you are part of the problem and you will probably delete this email.
But God help you when the gate slams shut!
AMERICA The home of the Free Because of the Brave.
Like I said before I received this e-mail at work today, and it made me think about our country in general. I absolutely do not understand how people can just cast other people out of "their" country. Who gave you the power to kick people out? Were you here first? Without even a shadow of a doubt, I can say that there was only one people that can call this land truly "theirs", and they are the actual Native Americans. If you believe in our country at all, you should want to bring people into it. To help them. To get away from their home country so that they can build a better life for themselves and their families, just as you and I do everyday. The Statue of Liberty, which is THE symbol of our country, states this:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883
Again I say, if you truly love your country, do not wish people out of it. Wish for them to come here to have a better life for themselves and their families.
I love that the e-mail refers to the people that are "invading" our country as pigs, because I found a verse in the Bible that correlates very closely with this e-mail. Here is what the New International Version: Book of Matthew, Chapter 25, Verses 31 - 46 states in this matter:
The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
I do not claim to be a Christian, but just because I am not one, doesn't mean that I can't follow along in the "good book" and try to live my life as a good person. Although I am not a "Christian", I do try to be loving and caring, just as Jesus would want of anyone else that does claim to be a Christian. And wanting to stop someone from trying to prosper for the good of their family is just like condemning them and their families to death just for wanting to better themselves for their family.
If there is a Heaven, I hope that I am able to go there. I don't believe that it would be only a place for one religion. I think it would be a place that God would want everyone that was ever good to someone else, and tried their hardest to not be a dick to everyone around them. That is the Heaven that I see. I don't claim to know for sure, but I hope that is what it is like. Something where no matter what religion or sexual preference you happen to be, as long as you treated everyone nicely, you get in.
I hope that no one passes these kinds of e-mails along. And if you do, before you do hit that forward button to everyone on your e-mail contacts, think about who you might be hurting in turn. I personally take offense to this e-mail because I am only a couple generations out of my family coming here on a boat from Italy and Austria. Are you trying to kick my family out of this country? If not, why aren't you? What makes my family any different than the people (or pigs) in this e-mail? My ancestors came over in the early 1900's before the First World War. Does that give them enough time here to be left off of the "kick list"? Does my family get the okay because you know them personally, or are we still on the "kick list"? I would love to hear some thoughts about this. I would like to have an actual discussion with someone that believes the same way that this e-mail states. That "God help you when the gate closes" mentality kind of person. I want to know why they don't want people here. Maybe you are "the wild pig that needs to be caught".....
