There’s a story told in my Old Country family, a type of ‘the old man and the sea…’ tale… about learning how to say No instead of continuing to make soulful responses to those who conduct themselves soullessly.
In the case of the most recent ‘wish’ by a Connecticut lawmaker for the state’s government to bail out a newspaper… being able to form the word no, and mean it, may serve so much… like the already over burdened taxpayers for instance…
The short version of the story “The Fisherman’s Wife… Being A Tale of Inability to Say No in the Face of Turgid Greed…Wherein The Hero Learns the Difference Between Serving the Soul, Versus Serving the Soulless”:
An impoverished old fisherman who lives in a hovel with his wife, one day catches a fish that begs to be let go, promising to grant the old man a wish.
The man is kindly, saying, ‘No, I’ll let you go anyway; you need grant me no wish.’
The old fisherman tells the tale of the talking fish to his wife, who says, ‘You fool, go back out there, find that fish and tell him I want to be King.’
The old man is incredulous, but cowed. He pulls the oars and calls to the fish which rises on the waves.‘Go home,’ says the fish, ‘the wish is already granted.’
And when the old man arrives home, there is no hovel left, only a castle with his wife wearing a five foot high crown and commanding an army.
As the story unrolls in five more episodes, the wife exploits the fish who can grant wishes, demanding she be made more and more powerful, given more and more riches, indulged more and more … and the old man continues to try to talk her out of her calumny, but in the end rows out into the night to ask the fish for one more wish… and the fish complies until…
the old woman says she wants the fish to grant her wish to be God.
The old man pleads, protests, but the old woman berates him until he pushes his small boat out beyond the riptides at night.
A huge storm comes up as the old man cries out over the thunder and lightning for the fish to appear…
and when it does, the old man cries out his wife’s wish…
to be God…
The fish surfaces perched on its tail atop a dark wave whilst other ships all around fire their cannons in distress and are tilting sandward in the dark storm…
In response to the old man’s plea, the fish booms out “NO! No! Finally, she has asked too much.’
And the fish sinks beneath the waves, leaving behind a trail of bright red blood.
The old man slowly rows home… and there once again is the hovel, and there is the wife, and all is as it once was before wishes were taken up by a famished demon wearing the guise of a human being.
———–
We Americans too have been pushed into just such a storm, and too much wish-fulfillment is being demanded by hugely bloated and indulgent corporations, and we are firing the cannons in distress now, for heaven’s sake. Too much is being asked now. Way too much. This has to stop. And there is a bright string of blood in the water, many bright red strings of blood in the water.
Bailout of a newspaper the week after NYT stock tanks? Which newspaper will approach the government trough next? Is this what we need… an un-free press that has already tipped much of its hand to making instead of reporting the news?
Do we as a people who cherish what freedoms we have left, really desire a press dependent on government subsidy… like farmers who, in order to get the G-man bucks, have to agree to plant this but not that, suppress this but not that. Buy this, but not that. Bailout/subsidy means the fine art of journalism will be vaporized right before our eyes. Freedom of the press? Pouf! The way to destroy a culture? First, kill all the storytellers.
I wish it could be otherwise for the sake of writers who give their hearts and souls to their journalism daily, while those at the very top who run the newspapers have driven the engines right into the ground and did not tell anyone until the last ring and valve would no longer function. Bail out? Shame-out is what ought happen instead. Treating the parnassah, the livelihood of hardworking journos, with so little respect for their craft, their blood, their story bones , their families. Shame, shame, shame.
The answer– to any newspaper free press, to any other corporate critters who have mismanaged their nuts, and want to siphon off the taxpayers’ caches via the government dole– ought be No. Because desperate well-indulged characters who have NOT been taking care of business, are now seeing ‘free food for the asking’ laid out for insurance, car manufacturers, banks and others… hoards are now scrabbling to get their share of government stash while the getting is good….
The answer is still No. Bright white line. We’ve given and given and given. We are currently indebted up to the seventh generation forward now. No. No more rowing out to sea, no more exhausting the soul in everything in order to feed the outrageous and unreasoned wishes of the few who squandered all… in order to have their foolish luxe and lustre.
CODA
You can read here about Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro, who represents Connecticut’s 79th assembly district, asking the state government to do something to salvage The Bristol Press, “a paper that may fold within days, along with The Herald. The papers’ publisher, Journal Register, is in danger of being crushed under millions of dollars in debt, and can’t afford to keep them open.”