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How to catch a wild hog...

(from a reader – source not confirmed)

I can best explain my concern about the new congress's agenda, by using

this analogy given to me by a former student of mine. Several years ago I was supervising a beginning teacher in a city school system.

One day during our end-of-the-day feedback conference, the young man

gave a facial grimace and began to rub his back. I asked him if he had strained his back in the school lab.

After a long period of silence, he sat down at his desk and explained

that he had immigrated to the United States because of political problems in his native country. The discomfort in his back was caused by a bullet wound he had received while fighting the Communists who were trying to take over his country's government. He was then a member of the underground nationalist force.

Then he asked me a surprising question: "Dr. Hedges, do you know how to

catch a wild hog?"

The question was completely out of context regarding the day's classroom

and lab teaching.

 I replied, "I'm not sure what you are talking about. Tell me?"

"First," he said, "you find out where the wild hogs are roaming and feeding

and then you put some corn out in the field. Soon they will come to eat the

corn. You keep putting out the free corn. More wild hogs keep coming to eat

the corn."

"So what?" I said. "That's normal for any animal." "Be patient. I will tell

you what comes next," he said.

"After the hogs get used to your free corn, you put up a length of fence

along one side of the feeding area. The hogs get used to it. You keep giving

them the corn. Then you put up another section of fence at right angles to

the first. You keep giving them the corn. The hogs get used to the second

fence. Then you put up another length of fence at right angles to the second

section. You now have a U-shaped fenced area. The hogs get used to that

section of the fence.

You keep giving them free corn. Then you put another section of fence

with a gate in it, making a closed area except for the gate. You keep giving

them corn. Now, the hogs no longer are out in the fields, working to find

their own food. They keep coming into the area to eat the free corn.

They get used to the fenced area with the open gate. Then, one day you slam shut the gate when the hogs are inside the fenced area.

The wild hogs are caught - they are your prisoners." I understood then

that the wild hogs were really the people of his native country and that the free corn was the enticements that the Communists were giving to the people.

"That's correct," the young man said. "Now, the hogs will not get anything to

eat unless you give them food. You are in control. They depend on you to

feed them, or they will starve.

They can't get out into the fields and forests anymore to find their own food. They have probably forgotten how, as it is.

They are your servants, your prisoners. They must obey you. Or else they

starve. "The hogs," he said, "were so accustomed to having the free corn,

that they ignored the building of the fences that would eventually trap them.

When the gate slammed shut, it was too late for them to realize what they had been blind to The free corn was enticing, so effortless to obtain, but eventually the cause of their loss of freedom.

The fence had been built; the gate had been shut."

At this point in our conversation, the young teacher, in a voice shaking

With emotion and with fists hitting the desktop, loudly exclaimed, "This is

what I see happening in America today! People are being offered free corn by the government. People are being blind to the fences being built around them by the liberals - the socialists - and that is what frightens me!  Just like it was happening in my homeland.

The American people do not learn from history. And history shows that

socialism/communism does not work. Take note of Russia. Has socialism

been the best thing that ever happened to that country? Absolutely not ! But

socialism is what the America an people are being fed, and they don't

realize it. All they can focus on is the 'free corn.' They want more and more of the free corn. And this free corn is being fed to us little by little, and soon

the gate will slam shut.

I am very frightened, and also amazed, that the American people don't see

what is being fed us, and for what purpose." With that said, the young man

sat down at his desk and continued to rub his painful back.

And I was silent in my chair. And afraid. For I could visualize the

supposedly "free corn" being fed to our nation's people and our growing

addiction to the "free corn". And I could see the gate being slammed shut.

We, the people of the United States of America, because of our ignorance of

history, because of our addiction to the supposedly "free corn," could soon

be prisoners of liberal socialism.

Along with this fighter for freedom from socialism/communism, I too, wanted to slam my fists on the desktop and cry out in a loud voice for all to hear, "Wake up, America! The fences are being built! Don't you see what is

happening to us?"

In the agenda of the new Congress there is much "free corn" being promised

the American people. In our greed for this "free corn," will we ignore the

incremental building of the fences and the inevitable shutting of the gate?

As I ponder the building of the fences now underway by the new Congress, I

remember the old adage, there is always free cheese in a mousetrap."

It seems the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from

history.

Lowell E. Hedges is a retired associate professor of teacher education and a

former superintendent of Elgin Local Schools

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