The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp

Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions -- especially his traps -- and drove south.

Several weeks later he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. It was a Saturday morning -- a lazy day -- when he walked into the general store.

Sitting around the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town's local citizens. The traveler spoke.

"In the Okefenokee Swamp are thousands of wild hogs." one old man explained. "A man who goes into the swamp by himself asks to die!" He lifted up his leg. "I lost half my leg here, to the pigs of the swamp."

Another old fellow said, "Look at the cuts on me; look at my arm bit off! Those pigs have been free since the Revolution, eating snakes and rooting out roots and fending for themselves for over a hundred years. They're wild and they're dangerous. You can't trap them. No man dare go into the swamp by himself."

The old trapper said, "Thank you so much for the warning. Now could you direct me to the swamp?"

They said, "Well, yeah, it's due south -- straight down the road." But they begged the stranger not to go, because they knew he'd meet a terrible fate.

And they did. Then the old trapper bid them farewell and drove on down the road. The townsfolk thought they'd never see him again. Two weeks later the man came back. He pulled up to the general store, got down off the wagon, walked in and bought ten more sacks of corn. After loading it up he went back down the road toward the swamp. Two weeks later he returned and again bought ten sacks of corn.

This went on for a month. And then two months, and three. Every week or two the old trapper would come into town on a Saturday morning, load up ten sacks of corn, and drive off south into the swamp. The stranger soon became a legend in the little village and the subject of much speculation. People wondered what kind of devil had possessed this man, that he could go into the Okefenokee by himself and not be consumed by the wild and free hogs.

One morning the man came into town as usual. Everyone thought he wanted more corn. He got off the wagon and went into the store where the usual group of men were gathered around the stove. He took off his gloves.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I need to hire about ten or fifteen wagons. I need twenty or thirty men. I have six thousand hogs out in the swamp, penned up, and they're all hungry. I've got to get them to market right away."

"I have six thousand hogs penned up. They haven't eaten for two or three days, and they'll starve if I don't get back there to feed and take care of them."

One of the oldtimers said, "You mean you've captured the wild hogs of the Okefenokee?"

The trapper said, "Well, the first week I went in there they were wild all right. They hid in the undergrowth and wouldn't come out. I dared not get off the wagon. So I spread corn along behind the wagon. Every day I'd spread a sack of corn. The old pigs would have nothing to do with it." "But the younger pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn than it was to root out roots and catch snakes. So the very young began to eat the corn first.

I did this every day. Pretty soon, even the old pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn. After all, they were all free; they were not penned up. They could run off in any direction they wanted at any time."

"The next thing was to get them used to eating in the same place all the time. So I selected a clearing, and I started putting the corn in the clearing.

At first they wouldn't come to the clearing. It was too far. It was too open. It was a nuisance to them." "But the very young decided that it was easier to take the corn in the clearing than it was to root out roots and catch their own snakes. And not long thereafter, the older pigs also decided that it was easier to come to the clearing every day." "And so the pigs learned to come to the clearing every day to get their free corn. They could still subsidize their diet with roots and snakes and whatever else they wanted. After all, they were all free. They could run in any direction at any time. There were no bounds upon them."

"The next step was to get them used to fence posts. So I put fence posts all the way around the clearing. I put them in the underbrush so that they wouldn't get suspicious or upset. After all, they were just sticks sticking up out of the ground, like the trees and the brush. The corn was there every day. It was easy to walk in between the posts, get the corn, and walk back out."

"This went on for a week or two. Shortly they became very used to walking into the clearing, getting the free corn, and walking back out through the fence posts."

"The next step was to put one rail down at the bottom. I also left a few openings, so that the older, fatter pigs could walk through the openings and the younger pigs could easily jump over just one rail. After all, it was no real threat to their freedom or independence. They could always jump over the rail and flee in any direction at any time."

"Now I decided that I wouldn't feed them every day. I began to feed them every other day. On the days I didn't feed them the pigs still gathered in the clearing. They squealed, and they grunted, and they begged and pleaded with me to feed them. But I only fed them every other day. And I put a second rail around the posts." "Now the pigs became more and more desperate for food. Because now they were no longer used to going out and digging their own roots and finding their own food. They now needed me. They needed my corn every other day. So I trained them that I would feed them every day if they came in through a gate. And I put up a third rail around the fence. But it was still no great threat to their freedom, because there were several gates and they could run in and out at will."

"Finally I put up the fourth rail. Then I closed all the gates but one, and I fed them very, very well. Yesterday I closed the last gate. And today I need you to help me take these pigs to market."

The allegory of the pigs has a serious moral lesson. This story is about federal money being used to bait, trap and enslave a once free and independent people.

Federal welfare, in its myriad forms, has reduced not only individuals to a state of dependency. State and local governments are also on the fast track to elimination, due to their functions being subverted by the command and control structures of federal "revenue sharing" programs.

The Feds convert free thinking, self sufficient hogs into obedient sheep who would starve unless told where their next meal is located.

Sheep are very easy to control. They rapidly become the ideal voters, willing to turn all independence and their individual rights over to the Feds just for a free meal and the promise of protection.

An email I recently received says it better than I could.
THE US GOVERNMENT DID NOT FAIL ITS MISSION IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE KATRINA

Analysis by G. Edward Griffin

September 16, 2005

There has been widespread criticism of the response of US officials
to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. The tone of these
complaints is that the authorities failed to do their job quickly
enough. Some commentators have said this is a racial issue, claiming
that the government would have acted more promptly if the majority of
victims had been white instead of black. Others have said it was an
issue of the rich against the poor, the oil companies against the
consumers, the land developers and contractors seeking to force
people out of the city so they can rebuild without interference at
taxpayers' expense. Democrats have said the problem is that
Republicans were in control, and Republicans are indifferent to the
plight of the common man.

In news coverage of this tragedy, the most significant events often
were buried beneath a blanket of heart-wrenching stories of personal
survival, scenes of awesome destruction, reports of looting, and
interviews with experts. However, the key to understanding can be
found in the following list of news headlines, most of which did not
make it into mainstream coverage. These reports make it clear that
the government did not fail to respond in a timely fashion. The
problem was that it did respond - but in such a way as to actually
hinder rescue operations. There were too many instances for this to
be merely a mistake or a bureaucratic snafu. There is a clear pattern
here that cannot be denied. Why this should be so will be discussed
in a moment, but first, here is the amazing record.

FEMA tells first responders not to respond until told to do so.
FEMA News 2005 Aug 29

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations.
FEMA News 2005 Aug 29

Offer of helicopters for rescue work is rejected.
Narcosphere 2005 Sept 1

FEMA blocks 500 Florida airboat pilots from rescue work.
Sun Sentinel 2005 Sept 2

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck.
Chicago Tribune 2005 Sept 2

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans.
Tri Valley Central 2005 Sept 2

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid.
Daily Kos 2005 Sept 3

Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.
Post Gazette 2005 Sept 3

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital onboard.
Chicago Tribune 2005 Sept 4

Meet the Press 2005 Sept 4

FEMA cuts local emergency communications phone lines. Meet the Press 2005 Sept 4

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters.
Daily Kos 2005 Sept 5

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks.
NY Times 2005 Sept 5

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel.
NY Times 2005 Sept 5

Navy pilots who rescued victims are reprimanded.
NY Times 2005 Sept 7

US government turns back German plane with 15 tons of aid.
Star Tribune 2005 Sept 10

FEMA declines volunteer firemen for rescue operations. Uses them to
distribute public relations pamphlets.
Salt Lake Tribune 2005 Sept 12

Click below to read the articles (Use Internet Explorer)
http://tinyurl.com/97nvg

So what is going on here? Were agents of the federal government
trying to kill American citizens? Were they trying to obtain the
maximum death toll and the highest level of human suffering? It would
seem that way at first, but I would like to suggest that this
incredible behavior stems from something else - something equally unsettling.

The primary job of the military, FEMA, and Homeland Security is not
to protect the American people in times of emergency but to protect
the government in times of emergency and keep it functioning. Their
primary assignment is, not to rescue people, but to control them.
Their directive is to relocate families and businesses, confiscate
property, commandeer goods, direct labor and services, and establish martial law.
The reason FEMA and Homeland security failed to carry
out an effective rescue operation is that this was not their primary
mission, and the reason they blocked others from doing so is that any
operations not controlled by the central authority are contrary to
their directives. Their objective was to bring the entire area under
the control of the federal government - and this they succeeded in
doing very well. They did not fail in New Orleans. They were a huge
success. Once this simple fact is understood, everything that
happened in the wake of Katrina becomes understandable and logical.

If there are new terrorist attacks against the United States or Great
Britain (or any other country), what we witnessed in New Orleans may
have been a glimpse into the future of what was once a civilized world.

This list is actually much longer. The one that slammed me was hearing that they refused the Red Cross access to the SuperDome on the 1st day.

FEMA tells first responders not to respond until told to do so.
FEMA News 2005 Aug 29

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations.
FEMA News 2005 Aug 29

Offer of helicopters for rescue work is rejected.
Narcosphere 2005 Sept 1

FEMA blocks 500 Florida airboat pilots from rescue work.
Sun Sentinel 2005 Sept 2

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck.
Chicago Tribune 2005 Sept 2

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans.
Tri Valley Central 2005 Sept 2

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid.
Daily Kos 2005 Sept 3

Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.
Post Gazette 2005 Sept 3

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital onboard.
Chicago Tribune 2005 Sept 4

FEMA cuts local emergency communications phone lines.
Meet the Press 2005 Sept 4

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters.
Daily Kos 2005 Sept 5

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks.
NY Times 2005 Sept 5

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel.
NY Times 2005 Sept 5

Navy pilots who rescued victims are reprimanded.
NY Times 2005 Sept 7

US government turns back German plane with 15 tons of aid.
Star Tribune 2005 Sept 10

FEMA declines volunteer firemen for rescue operations. Uses them to
distribute public relations pamphlets.
Salt Lake Tribune 2005 Sept 12

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