The President, the man, the boy and the donkeys!
As Aesops’ story goes, a man and his boy had been walking to the market with their donkey. On the way, they encountered a man that told them how foolish of them to walk when they could, in fact, ride the donkey. After acquiescing to the man’s suggestion, the boy was chosen to ride the donkey.
But further along, a group of men by the wayside had their own idea of what the man should do, one of them even called the boy lazy for letting his father walk while he rode the donkey. The father then ordered the boy off and he himself began to ride.
They had not gotten far when two women saw the father on the donkey and voiced how shameful it was for him to ride while his poor little boy trudged on. Not knowing what to do, the father then decided to pull the boy up with him and they both began to ride.
As they got into town, a passerby began to point and jeer at him. The man asked why was he scoffing at them, and the passerby told him how appalling it was for the man and his hulking son to be riding the poor overloaded donkey.
Now comes the man’s truly unwise decision. Based on the fact that he was so deeply influenced by what everyone thought would be best for them or what would please others, the man made a rather poor decision. He tied the donkey’s feet to a pole and proceeded to carry the donkey with his son.
Suffice to say, the poor donkey had an unfortunate end when the pole slipped from the boy’s hands and the donkey fell in the water below and drowned. The man and the boy learned the invaluable lesson of trying to please everyone, and ended up pleasing no one at all.
I remembered reading this fable by Aesop as a child and found it to be relatively funny which made me laughed at the absurdity of the situation. To this day, I still chuckle at the story. It is, however, a sad day that this particular fable comes to mind as I look at the spectacle some of our countrymen have been making of themselves as they come up with the most nonsensical notions or ideas when it comes to the Obama presidency.
Some of these illogical people or perhaps they are the more spiteful Americans who have been trying to place our president in the same absurd position as in Aesop’s fable. There was one who blatantly wished our president would fail while others cried, hiccupped and complained about everything ranging from the public option in the healthcare reform to the decision to send more troupes to Afghanistan.
If our president is not mindful, he may lose who is in the process and cave to these unreasonable people. Either way, the president will never be right or do well enough for them. After all, he is expected to have ESP and should know when things are going to happen before they do. He should be able to stop our bleeding economy just as swiftly as superman stop a speeding bullet.
As one saying goes, ‘if you keep an open mind people will throw a lot of garbage in’. And although, I know that the president is a diligent and deliberate decision maker, sometimes he needs to do more in reprimanding the irrationalities and fears this particular sect of Americans are creating.
You see, we are living in the age with the most illogical, dissatisfied, and unreasonable people that I am offended to be considered myself an average American. I am reminded of the young woman who stood before Rep. Barney Frank and asked him how he could support Obama’s Nazi policy. In which Mr. Frank replied, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” I must say, if everyone handled the situation as well as how Rep. Frank did, this kind of foolishness, rather irrationality would not rear its ugly head on main stream television news, in town hall meetings or in the privacy of our own homes.
Posted By: M. Chelley Laurenz
Thursday, October 29th 2009 at 2:37PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
