“THE PARABLE OF THE BIRD-FEEDER” – By Des Kelly

A most interesting “parable”, it could not have been said better. This comes to us directly from the analogy of none other than Helen Zille, the Premier of the Western Cape Province of South Africa, via her facebook site.

Most of us have had birds, of one sort or another, as pets. There was a time, not so long ago, I had two or three fairly large aviaries in my backyard, filled with budgies, canaries, love-birds, parrots, and even a cockatoo or three.

Birdseed was purchased in10 kilo bags, fresh water had to be provided for all, at least thrice a week, it was a lot of work, yet a pleasure to have them, and show them off to my friends.

All this was very good. All my feathered friends were quite happy,,they had plenty of room to flit around, twitter, have babies, and one of my favourite cockys could even talk to me, sometimes. His favourite question/ statement was,

“want a bit of a scratch”, which he would repeat often, until I fed him a peanut. “Want a bit of a scratch”?, he knew what he wanted, and folks, EVEN BEING A BIRD, HE COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT ANY BETTER.(here is the parable, I am talking about.,This is Helen Zille’s story..Please read it, think about it, and learn a lesson from it

“I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed.

What a beauty of a bird feeder it was, as I filled it lovingly with seed.

Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.

But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue.

Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tiles, the chairs, the table, everywhere!

Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.

After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone.

I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be .. quiet, serene.. and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.

Now let’s see. Our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care and free education, and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.

Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room

doctor; your child’s second grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn’t speak English. Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to ‘press one’ to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than our flag are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

Just my opinion, but maybe it’s time for the government to take down the bird feeder.

If you agree, pass it on; if not, continue cleaning up the poop.”

Desmond Kelly