IT'S A FOOL'S FOLLY

There is an often quoted proverb which states that you can please some of the people, some of the time, but you can't please all of the people, all of the time.

This insight is by no means a new one. Over 2500 years ago, the famous Greek slave Aesop illustrated this point in his fable "The Miller, the Son, and the Donkey."

The story is about a miller and his son who were driving their donkey to market. They had not gone far when some girls saw them and broke out laughing. "Look!" they cried. "Look at those fools! How silly they are to be trudging along on foot when the donkey might be carrying one of them on his back."

This seemed to make sense, so the father lifted his son onto the donkey and walked along contentedly by his side. They trod on for a while until they met an old man who spoke to the son scornfully. "You should be ashamed of yourself, you lazy rascal. What do you mean by riding when your poor old father has to walk? It shows that no one respects age anymore. The least you can do is get down and let your father rest his old bones." Red faced with shame, the son got down and made his father get onto the donkey's back.

They had gone only a little further when they met a group of young fellows who mocked them. "What a cruel old man!" jeered one of the fellows. "There he sits, selfish and comfortable, while the poor boy has to stumble along the dusty road to keep up with him."

So the father lifted his son up, and the two of them rode along. However, before they reached the market, a townsman stopped them. "Have you no feeling for dumb creatures?" he shouted. "The way you load that little animal is a crime. You two men are better able to carry the poor little beast than he you!"

Wanting to do the right thing, the miller and his son got off the donkey, tied his legs together, slung him on a pole, and carried him on their shoulders. When people saw this spectacle, they laughed so loudly that the donkey was frightened. The animal kicked through the cords that bound him, fell off the pole into the river and drowned.

The moral of this story is, "He who tries to please everybody pleases nobody."

* This proverb is for all times,especially the caustic environment in which we live.

We live in a time, or maybe it has always been so, when anyone seeking gain, whether political office or other, will resort to the proverbial bending of the truth in order to please others when in fact the truth will provide more gain than the lie.

YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE

In a drama my family and I perform the opening words of a young lady, as she rings a bell are, " The Convention is over." The question is then asked, "what have you given us a republic or a monarchy?" To which I, as Benjamin Franklin, reply, "A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it" (critics will challenge the authenticity of the previous statement, but the principle is valid). The convention to which she is referring is the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

As I read the Ashe Mountain Times of April 14, 2011 I was treated to a summary of another convention. That jewel was the "Ashe County Democratic Party Convention." Now it needs to be understood that, as Americans, we have the right to assemble. But what comes out for public consumption is fair game.

According to the Times the keynote speaker Rev. John Duvall "...goes on the attack..." and the tea parties were his target of choice. Fair enough. Yea First Amendment. However, Rev. Duvall is a little lean on the facts. He accused the, "GOP-TEA Parties," as being, ....."hell bent on wrecking this nation." He continued, "Trust me, I am in my eighth decade and I have never seen or heard of anything like we have going on in North Carolina, in Ashe County and in every state."

There you have it folks. The GOP-TEA Parties are the Bogey-Man and our country had better beware.

As Rev. Duvall stated, he is either an octogenarian or working on it and as such he should certainly know about FDR, who tried to pack the Supreme Court, LBJ who ushered in a boondoggle "Great Society," Jimmy "Trust Me" (where have I heard that?) Carter who grew great peanuts, Bill Clinton, who didn't know the meaning of "IS", and Obama, well he can sure read a teleprompter.

Rev. Duvall has "...never seen or heard..." well, I have. It happened in the mid to latter half of the eighteenth century and was an uprising against a tyrannical King and Parliament. And now it's time again.

And, by the way, the next time Duvall wants "50 black folks" to attend his convention, let me know, the tea party has 100s of thousands and I'm sure 50 would pop in for a chat as long as they aren't required to stay.