We may be asking the right questions but about the wrong aliens.  Let us distinguish between humans and other life forms.  Humans, not born in the U.S. but coming from other lands want to be here because they think they will have better lives here than there.  The other life-forms that are alien to, say, South Florida, may find it a perfect place to flourish and multiply.  It looks like we can do something about those non-humans although we cannot find answers to the nationals of other countries who have not properly applied for permission to live here.

I hope you are thinking about the non-human life form that is headlined in the papers this morning.  It seems that the "State wants to start python hunt".  This is probably a good idea - for a "pet" python got loose and strangled a baby in its crib. The pythons and all OTHER "pets" not natural to America have been brought here and when "freed" have overcome natural flora and fauna. This happens slowly and just now, we notice it.

I am thinking of the starlings, the kudzu and maybe even the armadillos.  I believe they were brought here and released or, crossed the borders themselves.  The mistaken American pet lovers who grew tired of their imported exotic creatures just let them loose. No one seemed to understand that kudzu could cover up whole neighborhoods or a small reptile could grow into a 20 or more foot long snake that is powerful and easily reproduces.

It is probably not really comparable but, the right to own exotic pets could be likened to gun ownership.  Not everyone would want guns but the gun owners insist on their right to do so.  They bring up the problem of "others" who own guns and use them to commit crimes.  It is, indeed, a puzzlement.

It is interesting to note that some of these foreign creatures could not naturally live here decades or a century ago.  We did not have the exotic "pet" craze then and our climate at that time would be inhospitable to them.  Our global warming has had a role in making it possible for "jungle" creatures to live and prosper when they are let loose or find some way to free themselves in semi-tropical Florida. And then, there are the stories of "pet" alligators brought to New York and flushed down the drain and that now live in the sewer system.  That is most likely just a story.

These aliens are not from another planet but they just as well might be.  They do not belong here nor do they fit in.  Those who are to blame are the irresponsible individuals who fancy they need monkeys or pythons in order to feed some need within them.  When they get tired of their possessions and let them go free, they have the mistaken idea that this is a harmless act and there are no consequences.

Actions have consequences. We could compare throwing trash out of the window of a moving car to let someone else clean up the mess to the irresponsible person letting a python loose in urban Florida. If they have no sense they turn their responsibility over to the rest of us. It is interesting to see how much effort and ideas are invested by Lawmakers in Florida on - pythons.  That topic certainly got their attention.  Now, immigration is ...