Ken's mention of Joes Bait Shop reminds me of an old Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day. Teach a man how to fish and he will be a regular customer at your bait and tackle shop for the rest of his life."
See, if you give a man a fish, it's like throwing money at a problem. Tomorrow, when he is hungry again, he will expect you to give him another fish. Giving fish away might make you feel good when you have caught more fish than you care to clean that day, but not so good when you have only caught enough fish that day to feed your own family. Then one day you come home with no fish at all (it happens to the best of us) and the guy still expects you to give him a fish. When you tell him that you have no fish to give, he accuses you of being a racist and throws a brick through your window. Will this make you want to give him any more fish? So then you offer to teach the guy how to fish for himself. He has no money, so you buy him a cheap rod and reel to get him started. Then you take him out to your favorite fishing spot and show him how it's done. The next time you go fishing at your favorite spot, you find that this guy and about 20 of his friends have gotten there ahead of you and you can't get near the water yourself. When they finally leave, there are no fish left to catch because those guys have cleaned out the hole.
Okay, let's bring in the government. One way they could help is by stocking more fish in the river so there are enough for everybody. Another way they could help is to establish more public fishing sites on the river so there's room for everybody. Both of these options cost money, which is okay, that's why we pay taxes, but that's not what they do. What they do is conduct a study, which uses up all the money in the fishing budget for the year. They might come back next year and do another study, or they might decide to fence the river off so that nobody can fish. Then your protégé and his pals file a lawsuit claiming discrimination, and the court rules that they have the right to fish there and you don't. So then you and your buddies get together and file another lawsuit, and so it goes. That's what I mean by throwing money at the problem.
Although this is a hypothetical example, it's not totally fictitious, it's actually a composite of a several real scenarios that have happened in Cheboygan County over the years.
We are going to my grand daughter's for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, so I probably won't post anything. Back on Friday.
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