Dear Friends,
It seems to me, a donkey that doesn’t protect the sheep isn’t much of a donkey. The reason donkeys are pastured with sheep and goats is for protection from predators. Otherwise the hay and forage a donkey eats would be a waste. This is an example of a symbiotic relationship. The farmer benefits due to having his sheep and goats protected, the sheep and goats are protected, and the donkey gets an easy gig. This is a classic win-win. If the donkey didn’t protect the goats but kept grazing, it would be a liability, not an asset. Profitable farmers get rid of such worthless donkeys. If the donkey turned on the sheep and goats, attacking them and letting coyotes in the pasture, now that donkey would get shot. That’s because it perverted its role and did the opposite.
The leaders of a nation have a first task, that obligation is to protect that nation. Their role is that of a donkey in a pasture. They keep the coyotes at bay so the sheep and goats can fatten up on the plentiful forage. That donkey who allows coyotes into the pasture, then vilifies the sheep who complain they are losing lambs to the coyotes, isn’t doing its job. It isn’t protecting the livestock but instead feeding them to the predators. In such a pasture the replacement rate won’t meet the death rate and the population in that pasture will decline. The truly evil donkey will then import more coyotes to replace the sheep and goats. The coyotes, however, don’t produce wool, nor do they clear brush, they just consume those that do. What do you think such donkeys deserve?
Some donkeys enjoy the chase so much that they chase their charges around the field. If the protector donkey doesn’t protect but instead pursues their charges around the pasture all day, the sheep won’t have a good wool crop in fall and the goats won’t clear the brush. This is what regulation does. It keeps the people running from regulation instead of fattening up on profits. Slowly, the economy becomes overgrown with useless firms that exist only to extract. Meanwhile, the sheep and goats can’t contribute to the profitability of the farm. The donkey still eats its share, even as the ability of the pasture to sustain the herd ebbs away. In this way a bad donkey can destroy not only a productive herd but a productive pasture as well.
In a pasture where the donkey is importing coyotes and is chasing the livestock around constantly, there will be strife. The sheep and goats will start using their horns. They have no other alternative. The system that was supposed to protect them, the donkey, has turned on them. They will reason that they are better off without the donkey than with the traitorous thing. So they might even put the horns to their own donkey. Of course, such action isn’t in the nature of sheep and goats. You really have to torture a ram or ewe before it becomes violent. Starve it in a poor pasture, run it around all day, and feed its lambs to the coyotes… and even the most docile of sheep will butt and bite. Not because there’s anything wrong with the sheep or land… but with the donkey.
This is the reason one must always have a good donkey in a pasture with sheep and goats. A bad donkey is not just worthless, it is a danger. It endangers the livestock, the peace, and the pastureland itself. That’s why when one finds he or she has a bad donkey in their pasture, it’s of paramount importance to replace it immediately before it can do more harm. Remember, the longer a donkey has been in a pasture the harder it is to get it out. Donkeys are after all, the epitome of stubborn. Moreover, I have to send my prayers and support to all those who have a bad donkey in their pastures. May God help you in dislodging them, evicting the coyotes, and getting your land back into production. Otherwise your pastures will become unproductive, overgrown, and crime-ridden.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
