THE UNFORTUNATE ANT; BLOG # 195; AUG 7,2015

THE MESSAGE:

We are all different. Our perceptions, interpretations and behaviours are often influenced by others and as a result we form groups of like thinkers.  Some join street marches, others protest at 'sit-ins' while others 'tweet and blog'.  Many read and contemplate silently and nod in agreement or waggle in disapproval. In order to feel strong and invulnerable, we must ultimately be responsible for our own choices. What we choose is who we are.   

THE ORIGINAL 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 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:

Be responsible for yourself!

A MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. 

A few of the annoying and lazy ants eschew the hard work and go to live in a nearby human house. Some of the very lazy  ants take their dates on picnics and invade human picnics  thus giving all ants a bad reputation.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool. He  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 he is cold and starving.

CBC, CTV, Global and City TV 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. Canada 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 CBC News with Peter Mansbridge along with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

People Against Poverty stage a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, We Shall Overcome. Then Justin Trudeau has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake.  Kathleen Wynne condemns the ant and blames Prime Minister Harper, former Premier Mike Harris, Bill Davis, Joe Clarke, Harold Ballard, and Conrad Black for the grasshopper's plight.

Justin Trudeau explains in an interview with Wendy Mesley that the ant has gotten rich off the back of his father and the poor tragic, unfortunate 'hopper. He calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Tom Mulcair calls for a new government subsidy for pesticide companies to develop more powerful 'ant exterminators'. 

THE JUSTIN HOPPER

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 Ontario Government and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the house he is in crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow never to be seen again.

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 and ramshackle the once prosperous and peaceful neighbourhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in the next election.  Be wary of 'The Grasshopper Supporters of Canada'.

 THE QUESTION:

Why have the governments of Western Countries become so large and wasteful?

THE LEMON: 

To Brampton MPP and deputy Ontario NDP leader Jagmeet Singh for his ill-thought-out plea to end 'carding' in Toronto

THE QUOTE:

"You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself." 

Eleanor Roosevelt

THE CLIP:

Hey,  save some for later!