My bud...Randy Emery

This is a shout out to my buddy Randy Emery. Randy is a little disillusioned with politics lately and says it is all "quid pro quo. Everybody is beholden to somebody". He's good comic relief at the office here. And he also recently decided to start his own blog! You can find it here. Here's a good story he passed to me recently:

Once upon a time, on a farm...

...in Arkansas, there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat.
She called all of her neighbors together and said, "If we plant this wheat,
we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?"
"Not I," said the cow.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Not I," said the pig.
"Not I," said the goose.
"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen.
And so she did; The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain. "Who
will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Out of my classification," said the pig.
"I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.
"I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.
"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake the bread?"
asked the little red hen.
"That would be overtime for me," said the cow.
"I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.
"I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.
"If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose.
"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They
wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.
But the little red hen said, "No, I shall eat all five loaves."
" Excess profits!" cried the cow.
"Capitalist leech!" screamed the duck.
"I demand equal rights!" yelled the goose.
The pig just grunted in disdain.
And they all painted "Unfair!" picket signs and marched around and around
the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then a government agent came, he said to the little red hen, "You must not
be so greedy."
"But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.
"Exactly," said the agent. "That is what makes our free enterprise system so
wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under
our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the
fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle."
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who
smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, for now I truly understand."
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked
bread because she joined the "party" and got her bread free.
And all the Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established. Individual
initiative had died but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared, as long as
there was free bread.