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This was the result of my struggle for domination of my pleonast.

Hey guys, We're continuing our gospel meeting with Justin McCorkle through Wednesday at Centralia - 7:00 each night.

Take 94 west out of lufkin and turn right at the second caution light in Apple Springs (375). Go down a few miles and the building is on the left. Make it out if you can, it'd be a great encouragement. Plus Justin is doing a great job.

After reading through some of the responses already, and after having my own initial views about this poem, I thought that he was talking about how democracy couldn’t figure out every problem. As well, there is application to schools because we want to protect our children, but the problem is that we will never fully be able to protect them. I thought about these explanations but I believe there is a deeper meaning.

Democracy by it’s own definition is self rule - So if we follow the principles of this poem “We Bring Democracy To The Fish” then how does breaking them up and protecting them promote democracy? There is no “fish ruling themselves”, it is ruled by the unknown person or being in the story. There is no true democracy even spoken of in the poem - but what people think democracy provides as opposed to what it really is.

Look at this, we see a breaking up of groups, a giving to their physical desires, and preparing to where they can fulfill a purpose. All of these benefits given to the fish to hide the control of the unknown being. But we in our minds equate those with democracy, so as the poem speaks about - we must be providing the fish democracy since they are receiving all these great benefits.

The problem throughout all this comes down to the one ruling. He has the mask of freedom and prosperity. He is seen as the one “liberating” the fish into what he calls democracy. Which if you look at what he is liberating them into - it is full of cages and control of their lives. He uses these means under the definition of “protection”, and may in one sense protect them, but only by stripping their freedom.

How does this relate to schools? Imagine a school that breaks up it’s students or teachers into control groups. That way they can monitor closely what is going on, all under the name of “safety.” While under that safety they are protected and cared for. The problem comes in when teachers want to branch out of the system because there is something better. Those “fish” are put back into their place and are controlled by the unknown being.

The way freedom works is this - you have the ability to choose right and wrong, the ability to make a difference or fail trying, the ability to succeed or fail. In a “safe” regulated environment no one fails (is eaten), and everyone lives in a perceived “utopia.” The only problem is this - you might be “safe” but you are not free to live your life or make your own decisions. Even a fish in a “farm” is safe, but that doesn’t mean he will ever grow outside of that pond.

Here’s the application - Teachers should have freedom in what they teach and how they educate. There is a “safe” place - the teaching we have done before, the methods we used before, or what the textbooks say is correct. And what the “unknown being” would like more than anything else is your compliance with the standard, and he will provide for you and other fish under the pretense of “democracy.” He can call it this because he attempts to give you some of the benefits of democracy. The problem is that the fish aren’t free, and there will never be growth beyond the pond. It is communism in a pure form.
Well what about the last phrase? “At maturity the fish will discover their purposes.” This is the way the “unknown being” delays relevant and challenging thought. This whole time the fish have been told - wait, wait, wait, and then the fish are never given the true answer. The reason he can’t know the answer is because if fish are not free and fulfilling their God given role, they are nothing but rats in a lab. Born to grow and die inside a controlled environment, knowing nothing of the outside world and oblivious to what is truth. Just like the people in the cave from Plato.

My response to the “unknown being” - Take your so called democracy to someone else that you think you can control. Leave us in our environment of freedom, because I would rather have a chance at success with a chance at failure, than to ever live in a chained environment my entire life and never know what the real world is.

We Bring Democracy To The Fish

It is unacceptable that fish prey on each other.
For their comfort and safety, we will liberate them
into fish-farms with secure, durable boundaries
that exclude predators. Our care will provide
for their liberty, health, happiness, and nutrition.
Of course all creatures need to feel useful.
At maturity the fish will discover their purposes.


Poem: "We Bring Democracy To The Fish" by Donald Hall, from White Apples and the Taste of Stone. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. Reprinted with permission.


This was a Poem that was put down as an assignment for our class in SED 370. Tell me what you think