Long, long ago, In a small town, lived a man and his family. The man owned a donkey. The donkey was important to the man, and so the man kept his donkey clean and able to travel. He cared for his donkey and fed it when it was hungry. He rested his donkey when the donkey needed rest. He watered his donkey when his donkey was thirsty. In return for being well cared for the donkey allowed his owner to tie supplies and packages to it’s back. The donkey walked happily alongside his owner helping to deliver the man’s goods and to bring back those items needed to keep his family secure in their needs of food, water and supplies. The man decided to share with his neighbors his own service and his donkey. And so when the people in the town also had needs, the man and his donkey obliged to help his neighbors in securing their goods and services too, in trading between other neighborhoods and other towns.

One day the Governor saw that the people were benefiting from one another instead of from the Governor. This made the Governor angry and feel less important. So the Governor made a rule and told the man and his donkey where he could go and where he could not go. He told the man and his donkey what he could carry and what he could not carry. He told the man and his donkey when he could travel and when he could not travel.

The man and his donkey agreed to observe and abide by the Governor’s rules. But the Governor wouldn’t change his rules that he said were for the peoples’ good health. While the health experts agreed there was little concern of continued illness, the Governor would not listen and kept his edicts in place and tightening his rules even longer. The people became poorer and poorer and unable to go to jobs or to work. They were forced to stay home. The were forced to resign to the Governor’s demands. Soon the people lacked the supplies and goods that they too needed to survive. The people wished the man and his donkey well. The people knew what the Governor said and what the Governor did to the man and his donkey. One day the Governor told the man and his donkey he could not travel to other towns or neighborhoods. The Governor went out to search for all of the men who owned donkeys. He made an edict or rule that said no man with a donkey can travel unless he wears a mark of the Governor’s ownership.

The men with their donkey’s came together and decided to say no to the Governor. They decided to gather together as one group and to stand strong for their freedom to travel to other towns to benefit all the people’s need for goods, packages and trading. They went to the city of the Governor and waited for the Governor to come out and speak and come to a peaceful resolution to the problems at hand. The group wanted to come to an agreement and compromise, but the Governor was too proud and grandiose, so he refused to come out and speak. Instead he sent his soldiers to keep them from speaking about the problem and the unfair rulings he had placed upon them. Instead of speaking of compromise, the Governor spoke in terms of power, greed and false pride.

In thankfulness for all the men and the donkeys had done, towns people also gathered together from far and wide and began to give the men and their donkeys good wishes, gifts in appreciation and prayers for their courage to stand up for their rights of freedom to live and work without harsh rules that took away their freedom to walk about with their donkeys.

This enraged the Governor who became angry and embittered against the men and their donkeys. The Governor in his haste, pride, and arrogance attacked the men and their donkeys, took away their ability to live free, support their families and own their donkeys. The Governor commanded his armies to arrest the men, steal their donkeys forever. The Governor professed lies against the men who owned donkeys. The Governor twisted the truth of the gathering of neighbors. The Governor threatened the townspeople who gave gifts. The Governor kept lists of the men and their donkeys and kept lists of all the townspeople who gave gifts, wishes and prayers for the men and their donkeys. The Governor then issued an edict to arrest any man who had a donkey and place them in jails and strip them of their means to take care of their families. The Governor made an edict that any person who wished the men with the donkey’s well with gifts would lose their own money. The Governor would steal their money too. He would keep all their names on a list.

Word spread of what the Governor had been doing to the men who had donkeys and the people who wished them well. The whole world saw what the Governor in his greed and arrogance had done to the man and his donkey.

And so we remember with awe and gratitude how another man went to the Governor's house riding on a donkey.