A Cautionary Tale

Remember Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal? It was a satirical look at the societal problems facing Ireland and England. Of course it was never meant seriously.

As you read the daily reports coming from the economic collapse of the various governmental levels of that blue state stronghold, New York, you must consider this story from several angles:

Not Native, Welcomed to Sanctuary, Feed For Free, Now a Mess

Why would Canada Geese flock to the metro centers of New York? Well, it is so much easier than fending for themselves in the wild. You simply show up and the well-meaning denizens give you all you need to live and it costs you nothing. Someone else is going to pay for it. Those that have a lot of grain will give it to you for free. The children will be taught to share their cookies with you.

The geese are alien immigrants, of course, but the fine liberal New Yorkers are glad to offer them sanctuary. They won't be profiled as a prolific source of goose shit. They will be viewed as a welcome diversification of the loons, mallards, crows and robins that reside in the parks and lagoons.

But then populations grow, inevitably. When you don't have to labor for your lifestyle you stay at home and procreate. You begin to crowd out the other residents. You view the territory as your right and defend your turf aggressively, while tending to defecate excessively in your very own neighborhoods.

Life is so easy that you call out to your relatives from the old country and invite them to join you. The New Yorkers know that hunting of large meaty birds like the Canada Goose is evil and should be made exessively expensive with lots of restrictions. Guns are used in the enterprise after all and we all know how bad those are.

So, not only does the local goose population grow, there is lessened management of the entire resource of geese. More geese show up and with them the slippery detritus of goose grain processing.

Now, these fine people decide that what needs to be done is not relocation, but genocide. A veritable pogrom aginst geese!

But unlike Swift's English dealing with roast Irish children, the New Yorkers are going to kill 250,000 geese and then bury about 5 million pounds of delectable and nutritious protein rather than make reasonable use of it.

That, however is only one satirical slice of the item. What about geese as a metaphor for people in a society unable to fund its own welfare state any longer? What about geese as old people? Gas them and bury them to solve the problem

The whole concept is frightening.