I live in California. That used to be something that was envied; now it is something to pity.
Each year we see some of the same things happen, which devastate both the local residents, and the California economy. Right now, it is the season of wildfires. It has been this way for as long as I can remember. Almost as soon as the relentless summer heat gives up, and the wind direction changes from east to west, we get uncontrollable fires.
I say uncontrollable only because they are not controlled, not because they cannot be. As with many other things, it could be accomplished, but it is not a priority. For some reason, the people who run this state have decided that it is more cost effective to destroy huge amounts of acreage, millions, if not billions of dollars in personal and real property, and inject huge amounts of smoke, noxious compounds, and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
It is one of the sad facts of life that each year, some idiot on the television news makes a statement that fire possibilities are up due to decreased humidity, and the very next day, some firebug accommodates. (You don’t think that 1 day of decreased humidity somehow is to blame do you?) Why we don’t, as a state, take action is beyond my ken.
With all the hubbub about conservation of water, reduction of air pollution, global warming, and now, the broken economy, it would stand to reason that some measures would be taken to permanently erase this from the collective consciousness. Still, we have fire departments that wait for fires to start before thinking about clearing brush, home owners that are content to have an insurance company pay them for their collected lives, and a government that can’t see it’s way clear to pass some effective legislation to mandate safety.
Wildfire season is what passes for autumn in California, as the trees go from green to charred, or non-existent. The end of fall, and the beginning of winter is when the rains start to wash away houses, animals, and people, as the ground has been laid bare by autumn.
Someone once said that the definition of lunacy is doing the same thing time after time, and expecting a different result with each iteration. Perhaps California should think about a name change.
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Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.William Durant |