In the Reader's Digest, October 1950 edition, the Fable of the Gullible Gull
is shared as a warning against dependency. The story is told of great
flocks of sea gulls starving despite the good fishing waters nearby.
Why were they starving? They were starving, because although there were
plenty of fish to eat, the gulls did not know how to fish.
For
generations the gulls depended upon a fleet of shrimping boats which
would toss out the scraps to the gulls, but then the fleet moved.
"The
shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the sea gulls. The big birds
never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never
taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to
the shrimp nets. Now the Sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost
symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to
the 'something for nothing' lure! They sacrificed their independence
for a handout."
The fable concluded with this, "Let's not be
gullible gulls. We must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our
genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our
true love of independence."
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