"Pork!" they say. "This bill is filled with pork!" cries a GOP senator. "Nothing but pork!" cries another oh-so righteous Republican. And so it goes, and goes...
When did the pig become the scapegoat, or rather the scapeswine? Pork is the other white meat. You never hear, "This legislation is nothing but chicken!" Or mutton. We have heard, "Where's the beef?" Yet our lowly porcine friends always seem to be the butt of political sarcasm.
Swine! I like to use that term. The other day my grandson used it too and looked back at me to see my reaction. Clever boy, that one. He knows how to please his grandpa.
During my college days, I spent an evening at a pig farm in central Ohio. I was taking a summer field-study course at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, working on my masters degree. When I pulled into the driveway of the farm in my 55 Ford, the smell overwhelmed me. Pigs! Do they naturally smell or is it the confinement and the lack of indoor plumbing? Whatever. The mister was cutting alfalfa at the time and told me to go inside and 'set' a spell. His wife offered me a piece of pie, which looked wonderful, but the pervasive swine odor forced me to refuse, thank you.
Several hours later I pulled into the dormatory, well not exactly that but a bunkhouse with 12 beds, no walls. Within minutes of my arrival, I was tossed out with demands that I strip down and take a shower. Porcine aroma. "Burn those clothes!" someone shouted.
So goes the fate of the pig. And the Republicans.
