Urban Yellow Perch

Billions of billions of dollars are spent on war and yet I cannot purchase affordable perch fish. The paper this morning lauded the urban fish farm that a long time friend and his partners have created in an old factory in Milwaukee. They and other urban fish farms hope to create enough perch to be used in the Milwaukee Fish Fries which now, for lack of perch, have gone to other fish like cod. However, the paper points out the price of fish will probably not change; local fish will probably cost $14-$16 a pound the same as the cost now for good fish. Also this new fish farm can only sell fish not cleaned. I asked my friend and others where I can buy healthy but affordable fish. Despite these new urban fish farms there is still no way to purchase healthy and affordable fresh fish. I noticed that even at the organic food stores, where I can hardly afford to shop, the least costly fish is from Ecuador at about $10 a pound.

Back to those billions and billions of dollars, I was at a meeting before dinner with persons who are working on a way to make our local congressperson accountable for the billions and billions of dollars she votes for supplementary money, over and above the Defense budget, for war. The numbers we spend on guns, war and killing are staggering and their contributions to economy is non-sustainable, not building the economy but leading to more loss of lives, health and productive jobs.

At the end of this meeting this Friday I announced that I was going to the best Fish Fry in town at a local Catholic church. One of the persons who have plans for an urban fish farm himself was real interested in the location of this Friday night fish fry. Fish fries, an old Milwaukee tradition that remains very much alive, are one of the last ways to enjoy fish with all the complements, potatoes, salad, clam chowder, desert, drinks at a reasonable price. We were just talking about how to stop the billions on war spending and now were talking about how difficult it is to purchase healthy fish at an affordable fish fry.

What has our country come to when we spend billions and billions on war and killing and we cannot even purchase a perch meal for a reasonable price. Give men guns and they will kill; give men fish and they will eat.

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