Topic for discussion: The Little Red Hen...
Your comments:
It's always good to step back from the issues of today and relive our childhood favorites such as "The Little Red Hen, The 3 Little pigs, and such Little Engine that could. I find it interesting to overlay the problems of today and try and find meaning through the "fractured fables". The one I would have brought into the study would have been the "Henny Penny "story about "The sky is falling". Before I explain why... let me address the first three stories.
You have to consider the points and time in history where you are applying these stories. For example, from the 1960's through the most recent economic collapse there were significantly different corporate behaviors taking place. When my dad was working in the shop for Chevrolet society understood that if a man/women put in a day's work... and there were periods of time where that may have been up to a year without a day off... that they could live with the knowledge that the day would come that "the company" would fulfill a promise that they would be taken care of their workers for their labor. That reward would come in the form of a pension plan retirement benefit. Then... the United States Government would back that up with an additional bonus known as a social security benefit AND Medicare medical coverage.
Fast forward to 2011... those corporations are mismanaged, strapped with debt, chasing the holy grail of increased profit and ANY cost all in the name of playing up to the wall street greedy gang. Ford Motor Company survived the bailout brigade and proudly DID NOT dip into or ask for a government free pass like the other two domestic (if it can still be called...) auto makers. How did Wall Street react this week when it was announced that Ford Motor had made a huge billion dollar profit this past quarter? The street acted as if it were BAD NEWS and attempted to punish Ford because it was not as much profit as last year! Why did Starbucks close their nicely operating coffee house in my little town several months ago. We were told that the store was doing well.... But it was not "Starbucks" numbers... so they closed... and left a big hole in our nicely improving little town. WTF?
When I see these young people out protesting (and understand I am no longer considered a young people) I say in my gut... good for you... F... the Man... who ever that is! If GM , AIG, Country Wide, Lehman Brothers, and all those other corporate giants can throw money in a hole, allow their executives to mis manage AND then walk away with millions... literally raid the ship while it is sinking... then by God... what the hell is wrong with protesting about being stuck with a $50K or better government loan for an education that you were led to believe would lead to a solid future only to get off the ride just in time to... find nothing much available.
Jesus... just a year ago we watched men and women line up for an opportunity for a job interview. We watched thousands of Detroiters push their way into Cobo Center for some assistance... because... there was not much else they could do at that moment in time.
Here is my take on the fables... the Little Red Hen would have been butchered and turned into chicken nuggets OR better yet... PETA might have shown up to protest that the Hen was being treated unfairly and moved to a free range facility. The three little pigs... would have been slaughtered to feed homeless people OR perhaps they would have been caught up in a massive food recall because of a report of our old friend Sal... you know... Sal.. Manilla... turning up at their facility.
And.. The little engine that could... would have been derailed by metal scrappers who took up the rails to turn in for scrape value... and then the little engine itself would have been scrapped out.
These are strange times... these young people have little to hope for AND are pretty well convinced that the systems in place to care for their grandparents and parents will surely be bust by the time their day comes. So why do we expect them to keep their head down and go find a job?
Last thought... I may sound cynical... and mostly because I am. I've lived through the great depression of the early 2000's. I know it's not really over and that the world economy is still in turmoil. Every day we hear about Greece and their failed economy. Who will bail them out? Today it is the Germans and China. What happens if... this recent attempt to pull it back together... you know... the capitalism engine we have always depended on to pull us out... what happens if we can't chug it up the hill? Greece is just a pimple on my ... well you know... compared to what is at stake here in the US. Just saying...
COMMENTS to Nolan Finley Post...
Posted by Nolan Finley (The Detroit News) on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 9:58 AMAmerica should follow the Little Red Hen
This column first appeared in October of 2008. I thought it is relevant to the Occupy Wall Street protests.
If America really is structurally broken, as we've been warned with authority from the campaign trail, then it's
not because our fundamental principles have failed us, but because we've strayed so far from them.
I'm not talking about the values defined by Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and crew; though Lord knows we
could certainly use a good refresher course in those.
The principles I miss are the ones voiced so eloquently by the Little Red Hen, the Three Pigs and the Little
Engine That Could.
Generations of Americans were raised on these fables and in the process were taught lessons that would be
considered harsh on "Sesame Street." But they reinforced who we were.
From the feisty Little Red Hen we learned the rewards of hard work. We also learned to savor those rewards
guilt-free and to understand that what we create belongs to us.
The hen would have flailed the Rainbow Fish had he come sashaying around with his share your crayons
silliness.
She planted the wheat and ground the flour and baked the bread and felt no obligation to break off a piece for
the shiftless sheep or do-nothing donkey - unless she wanted to. She was my kind of chick.
But she doesn't fit into an America that increasingly questions the fairness of one person having more than
another, without weighing sweat or skill.
In the hen's world, if you produced, you ate; if you were able to and didn't, you went hungry.
Why is that too sinister a concept to teach tykes today?
This country will become a very dangerous place if the mindset takes hold that the fruit of individual
industriousness is a collective asset.
Those house-building pigs drove home the reality that bad choices carry bad consequences. Build your house out of sticks or straw, and your hams will be steaming on the Wicked Wolf's table.
Build it out of bricks, and you can safely rest them in a La-Z-Boy in front of your big screen TV.
Compare that lesson to the plea that we have no choice but to open our wallets to the Wall Street tycoons who
overplayed their hands or to the homeowners who borrowed too much without reading the fine print.
The Little Engine is my favorite. He huffed and puffed up that hill on his own steam, and kept stubbornly
going even when he wasn't sure he could make it to the top.
He didn't pull off the tracks to wait for Dora the Explorer to give him a push.
The Engine's breed of self-reliance and determination to overcome obstacles would serve us well as we enter
what promises to be the most challenging economic stretch in decades. Will we turn to the government to pull
us up the hill, or will we get up a good head of steam and go for it ourselves?
In a couple of weeks, a large number of voters, likely even a majority, will go to the polls to choose a political
Pied Piper to lead them to an America where everyone shares and hugs and plays patty cake in equal-size
houses.
I'd rather follow that cranky Red Hen.
