Think of the Reindeer

I am going to tell you a story. It’s a story about government and how we need as small of government as possible. This is an election year, so I think this applies.

Quite a number of years ago there was this little island off the coast of a tiny village called Togiak. On this island were reindeer. Lot’s and lot’s of reindeer. When I say lot’s of reindeer, I mean these guys were quite prolific and seemed to be fat and happy, causing them to mate and make lot’s more little baby reindeer. The numbers were growing quickly. But it seemed like a nice arrangement, since the people of Togiak would hop over to the island and hunt some of the reindeer. Not all of them, since there were so many. Just a few. It kept the reindeer population at a nice number and kept the people of Togiak supplied with some reindeer meat for the winter. It was working out for everybody.

But along came the government. They said this wasn’t working out at all. They declared that the reindeer were starving! They can’t have this! There were too many reindeer. No, this wasn’t a good arrangement! The reindeer needed to go!

The people complained. They said the reindeer weren’t starving. Starving reindeer don’t mate and have more baby reindeer. Their numbers shrink if they are starving, not get bigger.

No. The government said. These reindeer must leave the island. It’s not good for anybody. The people of Togiak asked what they planned to do with the reindeer. We’ve really been enjoying hunting for them, what do you plan to do with them?

Oh, we’re from the government. We’ve got some good plans to take care of the reindeer. We’re going to fly in helicopters. We’re going to drop nets on those reindeer. Then we’re going to herd them into the helicopters and fly them away. It should cost only about a little over a million dollars.

The people of Togiak thought that was a little high priced, since they were keeping the reindeer populations at a good number by hunting them and everyone seemed happy. A million dollars seemed like a lot of money just to catch reindeer. They brought up the fact, again, that starving animals don’t mate and create more animals. They die off and their numbers go down.

Nope, these animals are starving said the government. We need to get these guys off the island. And that’s what they did. The government spent more than a million dollars to fly helicopters and drop nets to capture the reindeer. After they caught all the reindeer, they gave the people of Togiak a parting gift of three pair of male/female reindeer. They put them in cages outside of the city of Togiak. Maybe like some kind of mascot. When I went to Togiak, I saw the three cages containing the pairs of reindeer. I asked about them and someone told me they had got them as gifts, from the government.

The best part of that story, is that I went back to Togiak some months later and the reindeer cages were empty. I asked someone about it and they just shrugged their shoulders and said they didn’t know, but the reindeer just disappeared one day. He said it with a twinkle in his eye. You let three pairs of reindeer out of cages to wander off in the big, vast tundra in Alaska? Yep. because when you have reindeer who become fat and happy, they mate and make more little baby reindeer.

Government is not good. Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying: “The most terrifying thing in the world is someone showing up at your door and saying, ‘Hi, I’m from the government, I’m here to help.’ ”

Israel wanted a king really bad to be like all the other people around them. God knew it was a bad idea. He even told them so. No you don’t want a king. They will control you and make your sons fight and die for the king. Israel insisted they have one, so God allowed it, with plenty of warnings. And what do you know, most of those kings were pretty bad, just like God said they would be.

The only time government will be good, is when God rules the world. I long for the day. A perfect King, a perfect kingdom. Common sense will rule the day. I can’t wait. But until then, we do live in America, which for now, has the best government around the world. It’s really not great, but it will have to do until we have our perfect King come rule.

I’m talking government because we have a president to vote for this fall. I won’t tell you who to vote for. But I want you to think little government. We have the ability to take care of ourselves without the government telling us what to do. Small government=freedom. When you look at the two people running for office, ask yourself, who wants to control you and who wants to think you can probably take care of yourself. Big government looks like lot’s of government sponsored programs. Think about the reindeer. The government wasted over a million dollars to do something they really didn’t need to do. That’s big government. Little government would have left those reindeer alone. Figure out who would have left the reindeer alone.