Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

I was sent the following email and I thought it would be good for all the Leadership Blog readers.  I found a website that had the story and some compelling commentary in addition.  Here is the story and the commentary to laugh, think and learn from.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

 

“I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbeque. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table …… simply everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean: They would dive bomb me and try to peck even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And other birds were boisterous and loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore.

 

I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the backyard was like it used to be…. quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.

 

Now lets see….our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families: you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor: your child’s 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn’t speak English: Corn flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to press “one” to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than “Old Glory” are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

 

Maybe it’s time for the government to take down the bird feeder?”

 

We Let This Happen!

 

The story is funny at first but then the seriousness of its deeper meaning sets in. There is a lot of truth in it and one has to ponder what the roots of this reality are: The answer is simple:

 

We, the citizens of the United States of America are the roots of this reality! We let it happen! One can argue when it all started, who started it all and what the first element of this reality was.  The fact is that it has happened, not all at once, of course, but in small steps over many, many years. Some people will argue that it all started with Congress passing laws introducing ‘Individual Income Taxes’ in the early 20th century. Most will say it all started with the start of entitlement programs such as Social Security (in the 1930’s), Welfare and Medicare Programs in later years, primarily in the 1960’s and the amendments and enlargements of these and other programs (Food stamps, housing assistance, school lunches etc) in the years since then. It is easy to see that the government’s bird feeder simply got bigger and bigger over the years so that more and more “birdies” could get things for free.

 

While some programs, especially the Social Security system, were very noble and also needed and were built on contributions over the working life span of all individuals earning a paycheck or making a profit. When Social Security began, there were over thirty people supporting one recipient of such benefits, now there are only three people supporting one recipient. This is scary especially in light of the fact that the so called ‘baby-boomer’ generation will start soon to become recipients of monthly Social Security checks.

 

What is especially scary about this is the fact that the elected officials in Congress are not willing to seriously address this problem. They have been and continue to play politics with this issue wherein the Democrats will vehemently oppose anything Republicans and especially President Bush propose. On the other hand, the Republicans had control of Congress and did not make real attempts to fix this problem. They rely on estimated projections of when the Social Security trust fund will run out of money and since this date is over thirty years away from now, it is so much easier to leave it for future lawmakers to deal with. An even bigger problem is Medicare, where insolvency is estimated to occur within ten to twelve years from now.

 

All one can say is Shame on all of them in Congress….No Exceptions!!!  But then, as we stated earlier, it is essentially our fault, we, the people let it happen! The big question is: Will we, the people allow us to keep all the bird feeders we have right now or is it time to take some down and clean up some of the mess they have caused by simply being there.