T’was a dangerous cliff as they freely confessed, though to walk near its edge was quite pleasant, Till over the side slipped a duke and a prince and it had fooled many a peasant.
The people all said something had to be done, though their projects did not at all tally. Some said put a fence ’round the edge of the cliff, other an ambulance down in the valley.
A collection was made to accumulate aid and dwellers in highway and alley gave dollars and cents, not to furnish a fence, but an ambulance down in the valley.
The lament of the crowd was profound and so loud as their hearts overflowed with great pit, but the ambulance carried the cry of the day as it spread to the neighboring cities
“For the cliff is all right if you’re careful”, they said, “and if folks really trip and are falling, it’s not the slipping and sliding that hurts, so much as the shock when they’re stopping.”
And so on for years as these mishaps occurred quick forth would the rescuers sally to pick up the victims who fell from the cliff with the ambulance down in the valley.
Said one in his plea, “It’s a marvel to me that you’d give so much greater attention to repairing results than to curing the cause. Why you’d much better aim at prevention.
The mischief, of course, should be stopped at this source. Come friends and good neighbors, let’s rally. It makes far better sense to rely on a fence, than an ambulance down in the valley.”
“He’s wrong in his head,” the majority said, “He would end all our earnest endeavors. He’s the kind of a jerk that would halt our good work, but we will support it for ever.”
“Don’t we pick up them all, just as quick as they fall and treat them with care quite liberally? A superfluous fence is of no consequence if the ambulance works in the valley.”
Well the story is clear as I’ve given it here, though things oft’ occur which are stranger. More humane we assert to repair all the hurt, than the plan of removing the danger.
Before it all ends it’s time to begin to attend to these things rationally. Yes, build up the fence and let us dispense with the ambulance down in the valley.