Friday, May 23, 2008


When I was a kid I raised three pigs. They became very large hogs. I was also in on the killing and butchering. When they were small and cute I was opposed to ever killing the sweet little animals. When they became large with obnoxious and gluttonous personalities I was glad to see then converted into bacon and ham.

Feeding the animals was one of my chores. As the hogs grew they became more aggressive and would even charged at me and attempted to bite at the bucket of slop. I would slam the bucket into the head of the largest one, who I called greedy gut. Nothing would stop them as they consumed every morsel of the food and scraps. I’m sure they would have eaten a small child or anything that couldn’t defend themselves.

Today, when I saw the sign at the service station announcing $4.00 a gallon for gasoline I pictured the oil executives and rich Arabs, who are rolling in profit, as the hogs I once knew. The hogs I refer to are described in George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm.” People like these hogs are the CEOs, oil company executives, Arab oil producers, dictators, communist leaders, Presidents both Republican and Democrat and others in the trade.

Everything follows the price of gasoline, so welcome to big time inflation. The only things going down are the stock market and the value of your home. I read this week that some farmers are beginning to use mules again for plowing. The mules are much cheaper to feed that the cost of gasoline for the tractors. I guess we are heading back to the horse and buggy days. My lessons in raising and slaughtering hogs may come in handy. I can also have fun pretending they are some of our gluttonous dictators or CEOs when we do the slaughtering.

My partner and I sat on our open front porch this evening until after dark. We watched some of the first fireflies of the year blinking their way around our yard. We reflected on the older times when everyone used mules for the farm work, people stayed at home and visited with their neighbors and you could fill the gas tank of the car for three or four dollars. Those times were not so bad and the food was great.

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