My Point Exactly

That's why I brought up those silly carp, because I knew that issue was not high on you list of priorities, just like the colored folks are not high on my list. It's only natural that you should care more about the colored folks than I do because you live among them and see them every day. If I was to care about a racial issue, it would be the Indians, but they haven't been on the war path lately, so they aren't a big concern of mine anymore either. Truth be known, I don't care that much about the carp myself, but I was looking for something to illustrate my point, and I think I did. I was a little surprised, though, that you seem to know as much about those carp as I do, probably because you follow the news more than I do.

I tend to agree with you that it's probably too late to stop them from entering the Great Lakes, and that closing off the Chicago River would be too drastic a measure regardless. The Great Lakes have been over run with invasive species for a long time anyway. It started when they opened the Welland Ship Canal around Niagara Falls, and intensified when they created the St. Lawrence Seaway. Some of those invasives were even brought in on purpose, like those goofy salmon that eat up all the other fish and then die. It has occurred to me that the salmon might be able to keep a lid on those carp, since they have already eaten up most of the alewives, smelt, and perch. I wonder if anybody else has thought of that.

I don't feel guilty about the Asian carp problem either, because I didn't cause it and I can't fix it. That's another point I was trying to make, it makes no sense to feel guilty about something that somebody else did. You can be interested, you can be concerned, you can even try to help, but there is no way you should feel guilty about it. In your Shelbyville scenario, there certainly was some wrong doing, but not by me. The fact that I benefitted from that wrong doing is not my fault because I had no part in it, and wasn't even aware of it until it was over.