“Maybe we just don’t have the heart and smarts Californians do.”
Things we found in the fire
A searing impression of rescue depending on financial worth
Editor, The Times:
The fires in Southern California have been a tremendous disaster for our nation. More than 500,000 people evacuated, thousands of homes lost, tons of government funds have already been spent on relief [”California fires nearly contained,” Times, News, Oct. 29].
However, the only reason the government is taking any action in Southern California is because the government feels an obligation to help people who have money.
Caravans of firetrucks were brought down Interstate 5 from thousands of miles to save vacation homes and wealthy Southern California townhouse communities.
Compare this response to Hurricane Katrina: FEMA denied that the levees had broken, provided an unorganized response, and left thousands of evacuees waiting for caravans of buses that never came.
If there’s an earthquake in Seattle, I hope those of us in the Central District get the same aid as the Issaquah Plateau.
- Jonathan Ursin, SeattleRare wooden artifacts
As I watched the devastating events unfold in California, I fear no lesson is being learned by our “Think Green” majority mentality, here in the Northwest.
All the old-time, clear-thinking farmers, ranchers and forestry managers know that this fire-suppression, no-clear-cuts, cut-no-trees ideals are eventually going to bring us more unstoppable firestorms. We can’t log any forests in Washington, but we can sure burn them to the ground.
Properly managed logging, including clear-cuts, stops forest fires. Unfortunately, the current administration wants votes, not safety for our citizens and our forests.
- Louann Duffy, AuburnOur favorite cudgel
I recall at a group camp site 12 years ago I was loudly chastised by an environmentalist when I was gathering up firewood off the forest floor. The woman yelled, “The forest is for the forest - not for you! If you want to enjoy its beauty, keep your hands off it!”
Later, one of the campers told me that dry wood building up on the forest floors creates hotbeds during forest fires that kill off microbes needed to regenerate the forest, so I shouldn’t feel guilty about using the dry wood.
Cruel ironies keep multiplying in modern times because every good cause has an ideological base, meaning a base bent not on doing the right thing, but on the domination of others.
- Gil Costello, SeattleA hurricane barometer
I have been reading about the cataclysmic fire situation in Southern California and the outstanding response of the state and local agencies in rendering aid.
What a difference between this response and the response of state and local officials in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, where they buried their heads in the sand and depended on the federal government to take the responsibility for rendering assistance.
- George Kyer, CarnationFour feet of ashes
Have you noticed, Southern Californians are doing everything right for their pets and wildlife in the firestorms. Every evacuation announcement says, “Take your animals with you.”
Evacuation shelters welcome pets and have food and supplies ready for them. Residents with big chunks of protected acreage instantly turned them into staffed, supplied, safe havens for animals, where owners can stay or safely pick them up later.
Police and firefighters are finding time and resources to rescue terrified wildlife.
What we’re seeing is remarkable planning and preparation being played out. The recently passed federal PETS law says we have to have a plan for our animals to qualify for FEMA assistance. It needs to come from the governor, down to the locals on the ground. So what’s our plan? Do we even have one?
Whatever the disaster, the animals didn’t cause it. Will we abandon them to suffer most from it?
Maybe we just don’t have the heart and smarts Californians do.
- Diane Broughton, BellinghamOur replica of the flag
FEMA’s “let’s pretend” news conference on the Southern California wildfires [”FEMA leader apologizes for staged briefing,” News, Oct. 27, about how “FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions”], perfectly exemplifies the tag that will forever be associated with this administration: fraud.
- William Valenti, SeattleMummy may I…
… have my baby youth?
In response to “Sammamish mom urges holiday from sugar on Halloween” [Local News, Oct. 21 ]:
Halloween is kind of a throwaway holiday, without any real, meaningful story behind it. But what it does have behind it is an army of children just waiting to break the rules for one night and get sugar-high while pretending to be something other than just kids. They want to be monsters, superheroes, princesses, whatever - anything but kids with homework, chores and bedtimes.
I’m as eco-friendly and health-conscious as the next Seattleite, but I wasn’t when I was five, or 10 or even 15. And my parents didn’t expect me to be. They understood that counting grams of sugar could be postponed for a day. They didn’t expect me to trade a day of candy for anything as ordinary as stickers, bubbles or carrot sticks, things I could have almost any day, things that certainly couldn’t be considered true “treats.”
While I applaud the parents behind Green Halloween for making the decision to watch what they and their children eat and instill good habits in them about shopping wisely and recycling, I wonder just how many of their children actually view this revolution as a treat, rather than just a nasty trick. Doesn’t their childhood innocence matter?
- Nicola Derbyshire, Renton… pick out the green ones?
Green: The New Mean.
Why is it that children are always the first in line to suffer for a parent’s displaced guilt? Really, how green is life in the Issaquah Highlands?
Parents who feel bad: How about five houses instead of 20 on Halloween night? And why not ration the booty over a few weeks of parent-supervised consumption? Be a leader - set reasonable limits instead of taking all the fun away.
And don’t give kids new ways to label their neighbors, as in: “These people care about the planet (see the sign?); those people don’t.”
Green: The New Wall that Separates Us.
- David Lilienthal, Seattle