Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:06:15 GMT
From: Jackie Strouble
Subject: Re: re: sad fish at the Chatham Library
Mr. Dova’s response tickled me. He accuses the original poster of having a skewed, citified perspective, and then goes on to describe a farm as “the natural world.” Mr. Dova, a farm is just a bigger, messier fish bowl. It has about as much resemblance to the natural world as does downtown Detroit. It’s a factory with mud and grass, where animals are exploited to sustain humans. And, yes, that’s where my food comes from too, and no, I’m not a vegetarian, and no I’m not disrespecting farmers. My favorite place in the whole world was my grandmother’s farm where I spent countless hours as a kid. I wanted to grow up and have a farm just like hers until I did grow up a little and I realized how much work and risk was involved.
But to answer your question, if I were a talking fish I would tell you this… I’d rather be free for a week than to languish in a bowl the size of a posy vase for two years. I’d rather be a deer than one of my grandmother’s cows. I’d rather range through the woods and fields for a year and die in mid leap than to spend 12 years in the employ of a farmer, spitting out babies and milk until I got too old or sick to be productive, at which point I would be unceremoniously shipped off to the slaughterhouse to be turned into dog food.
Humans are rather stupid creatures, always confusing quantity of years with quality of life.
Jackie
Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:52:56 -0500
From: ben dova
Subject: re: sad fish at the CHatham Library
Cindy
Are you serious? This is a suburban/city perspective on life where you get what you want shrink wrapped at the grocery store. Have you visited a farm and seen what the natural world actually is regardless of what you read in a book? I do not know what kind of fish are in those tanks, but I would venture to say that virtually anything in a fish tank is called—- bait. Walk in those fish fins(so to speak) for a minute. Do you think that fish would like to live for a couple years, in a well regulated temperature environmnet and fed on time or do you think that the fish would like to be in the natural world and eaten within the week? Whether its a week or a month, its pretty much guaranteed to be lunch for another fish? It’s a nice thought that the natural world can conform to the artificial constructs of us living in a house with central heating and grocery store food, but we are the exception fighting against nature, not the rule. That fish is doomed in the real world, the only question is the over or under in terms of how many days. If this has no impact on your, I would suggest living in a teepee for a year and hunting with a spear.
Ben