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Re: Dealing with the real fish? problem


Debate?  Hard feelings?  Why Herb, whatever are you talking about?  :-)

LM




On Mon, 29 Jun 1998, Herb Harris wrote:

> Well, there we go!
> 
> 	Guess it was a matter of time before someone realized that ALL the
> "exotics" can't be eliminated once in the ecosystem of an area or
> region, without near destruction of the ecosystem! But some of them can
> be "removed" to serve a purpose elsewhere. That purpose may be
> educational in nature directly, or serve in an indirect way to fund
> programs to help people understand the problems of releasing captive
> fish into the wild, intentional or not. Of course other educational
> goals may also be accomplished as well, of many and various sort too
> numerous to detail here.
> 	My opinion is that not all the releases have been bad in every way
> imaginable, but some have been very harmful to the native fish and other
> wildlife of some areas, regardless of who did the release or for what
> purpose. Thus my support of education as a key to change in the
> situation, since we are in fact dealing with human nature, not just
> nature in general.
> 	Balanced discussion is a form of education, regardless of the original
> focal point of the discussion. BALANCED is an important word here, as
> things can go too far not only in discussion of topics unrelated to the
> original intent, but in the way the topic is guided back to where the
> majority of participants are assumed to be engaged, that is a free
> exchange of pertinent information and opinions.
> 	Now of course we will not all agree all the time. That is the nature of
> the nature of all of us that have free speech as a right. It is also one
> of those rights that stop where the other's rights begin. Everyone that
> has participated in this thread's various topics acknowledge this, as
> far as I can tell.
> 	Even still, for the good order of this list, various other means are
> available for any and all of the participants. I for one want to see the
> thread and participants have a forum for any and all discussions that
> they may want to pursue. To that end a simple forwarding list can be
> setup, or the discussions can go to any number of news groups, or even a
> new news group can be setup for the purpose of unmoderated discussions
> of these and related topics.
> 	Trouble with that is, as any that have been there before can attest to,
> either the "debates" will lead to hard feelings and factional
> polarization of the participants, or the discussion will lose its
> spotlight as the toy of the hour, or even the flavor of the month, so
> all the effort to get a good thing going for free speech discussions
> will fail if the participants refuse to cooperate at some level.
> 
> Just something to think about.
> 
> Herb
> 
> -- 
> The statements and opinions made by Herb Harris in the
> foregoing message do not represent anyone else.
>