California Forest Fires

For UK j-land friends here's a few observations about the enormity of the currently raging forest fires in Southern California. At this very moment CNN is reporting 'EXTREME FIRE DANGER,' with winds reaching 75 MPH.  We are not threatened, even though the fires are within 30 miles or so, because we live three blocks from a fire station - with a fire engine and a fire truck - and because we live next to Glendale Memorial Park where there has been constant, for a century or more, vigilance against any possibility of fire.

In Malibu, damn near levelled, there's a college called Pepperdine. Know nothing about it. But wouldn't it be logical for that college to have a Forestry Professor, or even a Botanist?!? someone who'd have known enough to speak up about the tinder box that Southern California had become?! 300,000 people have been forced by the fires to evacuate.  In America there is, believe it or not, extreme pressure to conform, be like everyone else, don't make waves, and perpetually go into agreement with the majority. So, I deduce, at Pepperdine, a zero on the academic barometer, there is not now, and never has been, one single professor who spoke up on any subject all my him/her self. It's a Country Club. Today at breakfast they are serving cinders, ashes, and burnt meat, while all fluids served in baby bottles with nipples to suit.

Lake Arrowhead has lost hundreds of homes. They were ugly anyway, so that'll lead to improvement.

Pets. Can you imagine the number of dead pets!? The news covered giant turtles that were rescued, but not much else.  Those people must have had brain dead dogs; regular non-spayed dogs would have known far in advance that fire was coming, and set up a terrific racket.

There have been days, several days, of sympathetic clucking shown on TV; After a while all that 'sympathy' turns to rock hard sugar candy; so I leaven the meal with a touch of reality. Paint me Scrouge.

Barry

http://journals.aol.com/bbartle3/Vengeance/

Later, Tuesday Oct. 23  '07: Finally an academic is quoted on CNN as noting that new plant life in Southern California has contributed to the unprecedented fires all over the lower half of CA.  Over 500,000 people have now been virtually ordered to leave their homes.

Perchance did you happen to catch the up close and personal documentary about climbers to the Everest Summit?  That too aired today; I've been glued to the tube for far too long.  The moral dilemas that crop up on the climbs make for drama somewhat akin to abandoning one's home in a forest fire: It probable won't make the news, but for sure some will rather perish in their homes than live with having to be fully responsible for losing their home.  By staying in the building one theoretically endangers others. Similarly, if a climber meets someone still alive on their retreat, is one compelled to give up one's climb in an effort to save the life of a defeated climber who has no chance of living, helped, or not helped on their way down? I suspect for a Christian the instruction is to help no matter what.

Barry

 http://journals.aol.com/bbartle3/Vengeance/