by Teri Ong
Once upon a time there was a little hen who wanted some bread. She knew she had some wheat in a corner of the chicken coop, but she needed to prepare a place to plant it.
She asked all of her barnyard friends, “Who will help me prepare a garden to plant some wheat so we can bake some bread to share?”
“Not I,” said Turkey-Lurkey, “I am in college finishing my degree in turkey studies.”
“Not I,” said Piggy-Wiggy, “I have 20 weeks of my 99 weeks of unemployment insurance left.”
“Not I,” said Daisy Cow, “I was in a milking machine accident and I’m disabled. If I help you, I might lose my benefits.”
Rovere the dog just looked at her blankly. “No speakay pah la chicken.”
“I don’t think he has his green card anyway,” added Piggy-Wiggy.
So the little hen got her tools, turned over the field, and raked it smooth to receive the wheat.
“The field is ready now. Who will help me plant the seed?” she asked.
“Not I,” said Turkey-Lurkey. “It’s finals week. You wouldn’t want me to flunk out in turkey studies, would you?”
“Not I,” said Piggy-Wiggy. “I have 19 weeks of unemployment insurance left.”
“Not I,” said Daisy Cow. “You wouldn’t want me to lose my benefits, would you?”
Rovere went and hid under the porch.
So the little hen went and planted the wheat in her field.
“The wheat is up. Now we need to hoe and weed and water so we will have a good crop for making bread. Who will help me now?”
“Not I,” said Turkey-Lurkey. Pretty soon I’ll have a degree in turkey studies. You wouldn’t want me to waste my education on such menial jobs as those, would you?”
“Not I,” said Piggy-Wiggy. “I still have 17 weeks of unemployment insurance left.”
“Not I,” said Daisy Cow. “But I’ll have my personal injury lawyer look into any loopholes I might have so I could possibly help you a little. I might work for you if you would just pay me in cash.”
Rovere was sleeping under the porch.
So all summer the little hen tended her field by herself.
When the wheat was ready to harvest, the little hen realized the job was enormous. She needed a lot of help to make the best use of the bounty of the crop. She hated to think of the beautiful wheat that would go to waste in the field if she wasn’t able to get it harvested.
“Who will help me now? A good, full bread basket is within our reach if we all get to work,” she said.
“Not I,” said Turkey-Lurkey. “I need a job that pays top dollar so I can pay off the interest on my student loans. Somebody ought to be willing to give me a high-paying desk job with excellent benefits since I have my degree in turkey studies.”
“Not I,” said Piggy-Wiggy. “I still have two more weeks of unemployment insurance.”
“Not I,” said Daisy Cow. “My lawyer said it wouldn’t be worth it.”
“Hey! Where’s Rovere?” the hen asked.
“He went to work on the neighbor’s farm. He has free housing there,” said Piggy-Wiggy. “Besides, our farmer found out he was a stray and didn’t belong here.”
So the little hen gathered as much of the wheat as she could and threshed out the grain. She ground the wheat and made as much bread dough as she could. She worked all day and all night for weeks. Every morning the glorious aroma of fresh baked bread filled the air.
“Aren’t you going to offer me some of the bread?” asked Turkey-Lurkey. “I haven’t found a job yet, and I’m under a lot of pressure to start paying my student loans. I could really use some bread.”
“I offered you a job, but you weren’t interested,” said the hen.
“Did you really expect me to take a blue collar job when I have a degree in turkey studies?”
“Hey, I’ve only got one more week of unemployment insurance left. Aren’t you going to
offer me some of the bread? I’m the deserving poor. I’ve been looking for a job a few hours a week for ninety-eight weeks. Now I’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome from filling out so many forms and applications, but my disability pay hasn’t come through yet,” said Piggy-Wiggy.
“I offered you a job several times, but you never took me up on the offer. In fact, we could all have had even more bread if you had helped me.”
“You didn’t really expect me to take a hard, hot job laboring in the fields or in food service that you had offered to Rovere, did you?”
“Are you going to give me some of the bread?” asked Daisy Cow. “You already know my story. You owe it to me to give me your bread out of compassion for me.”
“You’re right. I have more than I need. I have given 10% to my church to distribute to those truly disabled and desperate. And I also sold some of my surplus below my actual cost to the local food bank for distribution to the poor. But it would be good to use the bread before it gets stale. Here, I’ll give you each a loaf. If you want more, I will have it for sale at the market. I do need the money to replenish my seed before next year or we’ll have no bread at all.”
Just then, a man from the IRS showed up at the farm. He had been alerted to the commercial activity by the smell of the bread.
“Ma’am, just how many loaves did you produce?”
“I think about a hundred loaves.”
“I’ll just be taking fifty of them, please. That’ll be 35 for the government and 15 for social security. And by the way, I’d better take a few more for your health care plan.”
“That doesn’t leave me with very many, does it?” she said sadly.
“Oh, you’ll be fine. We’ll give a few back to you when you need health services and if you make it to retirement, we’ll give a few more back to you. Well, probably we’ll give you some– that is, if someone else has done any baking at that time. We’ll give you a few of the loaves we take from him.”
The rest of the animals gathered around to see what was going on. When they saw that the hen had about 20 loaves left, they began to cry out to the man from the government, who seemed to have plenty.
“What are you going to do with all those loaves you took? Are you going to give them to us? She’s greedy! She wouldn’t give them to us, but we need them. We deserve them!”
“We’ll see what we can do for you,” said the man from the government.
“Oh, goody!” the animals said. “Look! She still has twenty loaves left. She doesn’t need that many. She’s rich! All she needs for herself is one or two. Why don’t you take more and give them to us? They’ll just go to waste if she keeps them.”
“No, I’m sorry. I’ve already taken what I’m allowed to take. But I’ll go back to Washington and see what I can do for you,” said the man from the government.
Turkey-Lurkey, Piggy-Wiggy and Daisy Cow got together to discuss their situation.
“You know very well that if we had done all of the work, she would have kept all of the loaves anyway just because she’s greedy. If she wasn’t greedy, she would have given us the bread right away, without us even asking. It just goes to show you what a little wealth will do to a chicken!”
They decided to put more pressure on the little hen. They made placards and walked back and forth in front of her chicken coop.
“Down with Greedy Poultry!”
“We are the 80%” (They were counting Rovere, even though he had moved on.)
“Give us free everything!”
To make their point, they banged on pots and pails at all hours of the day. At night, they even slept in the muck they had made outside the door of her coop. They kept it up for weeks, even though the farmer tried to clear them out from time to time.
The little hen didn’t go out much after that. She kept to herself most of the time, and when her bread was gone, she vowed she would go back to eating the scattered grain and insects in the barnyard. The bread project just wasn’t worth it.
–The Beginning of the End–
This story was inspired by an editorial in the Sunday, December 4th Greeley Tribune by a local student, Julia Derk, who is attending Brandeis Univeristy (“Some of us just want positive change” page A6). She has been involved with the Occupy Boston group on the weekends. She described the “camp” as “the most organized, love-filled, radical and reasonable protest I had ever experienced in my lifetime, and I felt empowered to be a part of it.” I will quote some of her words directly.
“I go to Occupy because I am concerned. I’m concerned our government does not adequately provide for us, but rather systematically takes advantage of America in favor of corporate greed. I’m concerned the tuition bubble could pop, causing some of America’s brightest and hardest working individuals to suffer economic hardship because they chose to rack up student loans in order to get an education and leave with no jobs… I’m concerned because a shantytown of tents is more equipped to shelter homeless than our government has chosen to be…”
I will not get into the ethics of a small group abrogating the rights of others to use public spaces by taking them over for indefinite periods of time, filling them with filth and refuse, and making them well-documented havens of criminal activity. I will not get into the irony of Occupiers using the free market enterprise system they are denouncing to make money by selling “Occupy”-branded merchandise. I would like to address directly some of Derk’s propositions.
1) I am concerned that Derk and several generations of college-educated young people believe that it is the role of government to “adequately provide for us.” The God-given role of government is to reward those who do well and punish those who do evil (Romans 13:1-7). It is the role of adults to provide for themselves by the labor of their hands (Ephesians 4:28), and it is the role of heads of homes to provide for the other members of their households (I Timothy 5:8). When all else fails, it is the role of churches to help those who are not provided for by other means (Acts 6:1-3).
Let’s stop blaming “governmental corruption” and “corporate greed” for societal degradation when the accusatory finger needs to point to individual selfishness that has created an environment where it is the norm for individuals and families to neglect the needs of those closest to them. The finger also needs to be pointed at churches who are spending more on their building programs and entertainments than they are on meeting the needs of those in their local neighborhoods. It should be our good works that cause others to glorify our Father in heaven, not our superior recreational edifices (Matthew 5:16).
2) I am concerned that Derk has not been taught that there is no such thing as “the government.” “The government” is people– people who are no different than any others in our country. If we have a “corrupt government” it is because we have elected corrupt individuals to be in office. There is no more corruption at the big “government” level than there is at the local, individual level. The zeitgeist of our age is selfishness, and that spirit permeates all levels of society. What is the difference in “corporate greed” that gives its top players huge financial bonuses at the expense of others and individual greed that demands “free everything” at the expense of others? What is the Christian thing – the right thing – to do in this type of cultural environment? “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” Ephesians 4:28
3) I am concerned that Derk does not make the rational connection between the “choice” students made to take out massive loans and their moral responsibility to pay back those loans, whether they have guaranteed jobs or not. No one forced them to make those choices, and there are cost-effective alternatives. I teach in a Christian college where no student has graduated with a debt load. We are able to educate students without “government” aid, loans, or grants in such a cost-effective way that students easily manage their tuition out of their own pockets semester by semester.
What we need is more openness and more creativity in education, rather than more bureaucracy, governmental regulation and red tape. We need to get rid of the “good-ole-boy” accreditation system and let students get what they need in a true free-market of educational ideas. Full disclosure of consumer information and unlimited competition help keep collusion and corruption down.
4) I am concerned that Derk did not learn from her Occupy experience that, yes, indeed, shantytowns are better able to help the homeless and needy because shantytowns are local individuals banding together and making the best use of local resources to meet local needs. A big federal government can never do that, and the more it tries, the worse off the citizens will be. A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is a government that is big enough to take everything you have.
The “positive change” we need in America is for every student to take a course called “Kennedy 101.” “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country(men).” The best thing we can do to change America for the better is to see where we are being selfish in our outlook and actions, and see where we can better meet the needs of those closest to us in our families and neighborhoods. Communal good must work out from the family to families helping other families. The only top-down change that will truly work must come from God changing the hearts of each individual, turning the hearts of parents to their children, and children to their parents.
I urge you, Christians, to lead the way. Stop throwing money away on mega-church mortgages and Hollywood-style church entertainments, and get back to neighbor-to-neighbor ministry. Perhaps when it comes to seeing true societal change, we “have not” because we have been asking for prosperity to “heap on our own lusts.” James 4:1-3
Derk closed her opinion piece by quoting John Adams. “The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations…” Derk then says it is time for “round two” in terms of revolution. But if I read John Adams right, what we really needs is Reformation Two.
