Lord, is this assertion really true?

Dear Father:

You know, the other day I was sitting in a gathering with a couple of friends discussing several issues which affect our day to day activities here as town criers in this village. At that meeting, we all raised several burning issues, but there was one friend in that gathering who spoke and his point strikes me because it sums up the problems , which solution we were seeking.

He began his comment with a proverb which asked a rhetorical question. He said do you know that the lions never use to eat ants-bag before but it was the ant-bag who show his secret to the lion?

We all paused but for a moment and marveled at his wisdom as we looked at him with intense interest for his answer to the how. He said the ant-bag had gone to the lion in the cool of the day and whether it was out of excitement or not, revealed his secret to the lion saying, you know why you are unable to eat me is because if you grab me from the back, it will be very difficult. But if you want to eat me, you will have to turn me over at which time you will have access to the flesh on my stomach-This revelation by one of their own to the lion has since spelled the dooms of every ant-bag which were once never eaten by a lion.

It also reminds me when we got to Charlie land during our destructive era here. The people of Charlie land knowing that we had gone through difficult experiences to get there brought our people vegetables, and things they knew our people had identified to be delicacies here. It was one of our own who told the people of Charlie land that instead of giving them out free to our people, they should sell it to us and we will buy them because we love those kinds of food. And so, instead of giving it away freely, they began trading them for cash or ration to our people.

No hard feelings Father, but this is our biggest problem as people of this village, and for the very organizations and professions we find ourselves in, there is always one person who is ready to sell the rest to the power that be that want to manipulate that particular group of people. And this is what has and continue to destroy the town crier profession in this village leaving it in the hands of novices.

Father, you may not have known this but this is the hard fact. Our problems as town criers in this village were created and sealed by a greedy few who thought in their little minds that they had control over the rest of the town criers in this village. And corrupt politicians and the powers that be took advantage of this sell out.

Since they (corrupt officials and the power that be) wanted a central figure to control the rest, there were men already excited like Judas to sell out the practitioners of the profession for peanuts that would soon disappear off the table to haunt the characters of all town criers.

To a point, these so-called powerful town criers led corrupt big, big people in our village to believe that a peanut could bury any story and therefore town criers of this tiny highly forested village have all been classified as either a money gobbler, or a blackmailer and even to a point that the supreme leader of our village, the Old Lady at one point in time referred to town criers here as checkbook town criers-by implication meaning they were out for sale messengers.

But as you can see nowadays Father, things have fallen apart so badly between those who had professed to be in control of all the town criers in this village including the major ones and the very power that be. And so the center can no longer hold-the falcon can no longer listen to the falconer and we are all no longer at ease. So the search for the arrow of God is on but will it ever be found?

Father, as I have repeatedly written in my letters to you about the Pekin man parable-that is the story behind the dragon. It was told that a Chinese village had gathered all of its wealth in a pit and for fear that a member of the village would double cross the entire village, the villagers placed at the mouth of the pit a little dragon as the guard and fed it till it grew so large, that they could not even have access to the treasures-greed had imprisoned them all.

To tell you the truth Father, today there is no trust between a town crier on one hand, and the corrupt official and the power that be on the other because of a greedy and stupid decision that was reached between those who claimed to have control over their fellow town criers and the messenger representing the powers that be who thought it was the right move to play not only the rest of the town criers and make them look stupid and susceptible to peanuts but even those who provided funding for such arrangements are themselves licking their wounds today.

When one person out of personal greed thinks in his or her little head that they can deliver a certain group of people because they are a part of such grouping should think again. And if the power that be thinks it can choose not to work with town criers because of advice given to it by greedy individuals whose gods are their stomachs, know fully -well that it is your legacy and image that those self seeking individuals surrounding you are compromising. As soon as the clock is off, trust me, you will find them elsewhere gathering another storm for another innocent victim.

But the question remains to be answered: Will they find the arrow of God to lead them out of this mere anarchy which has been visited upon them?