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Yesterday came a trenchant note from a very good friend, Susan M. Power who, with her mother, Susan K. Power, are among our oldest friends. They're Standing Rock Sioux. "Little" Susan is a writer and "Big" Susan, about ten years older than I am, is an enduring Native rights activist. "Little" Susan writes -- and then I have a few comments: I was so very sad to hear this tragic news yesterday evening and am now upset with various members of the mainstream media who seem to be pointing a finger at firefighters, saying that their systems haven't "evolved." What? No talk about climate change and how the fires are far more catastrophic than they used to be given more extreme weather conditions of drought, etc... Thank you for your always eloquent comments! Much love to you and the family -- Susan I, too, am very tired of armchair pundits who obviously don't know one damn thing about the woods, brush country, open ranges -- or fire and fire control. Human ethnocentrism notwithstanding, forest and brush and range fires are inevitable. But those of the last generation have often become massive and far "wilder" than most of their predecessors. Obviously, global warming/climate change -- with extreme and prolonged heat and drought and increasingly high, consistent, and wildly fluky winds -- is playing a major role in this string of hideous disasters which include far more, of course, than just fires. When I started my fire control career at age 16, I saw and worked on big fires for those times. In succeeding fire seasons, seen as a fully experienced guy (even when I was 17), I also, in addition to direct fire control, did fire lookout and radio work as well -- on 'way up high mountains and in 'way up high towers. There was some wind up there -- but certainly not the often co nsistent super strong and erratic winds of today. Yesterday evening, a newsperson finally asked a veteran Arizona forester about climate change. "I don't think you'll find anyone around here scoffing at that," was the response. I said and wrote the same thing a year ago about the feelings in Idaho. If the pundits want to fix blame, they'd better muster up some courage on the global warming situation. Some are, I concede, but they're still a minority. To blame firefighters and term contemporary fire control methodology as "archaic" or "non-evolved" as some armchairs have, is pure ungrounded bull-shooting. Experienced firefighters are tough, committed, courageous -- and they'll always be needed as good ground troops always are -- anywhere. Planes dropping chemical fire retardants, moderately helpful as that can sometimes be, are not the first line of defense by any stretch. In some parts of the Mountain West, human lookouts have been replaced by laser arrangements. That's true around here but, serious and growing questions about laser capability, have led to much on going aircraft surveillance by USFS (U.S. Forest Service) and BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management). They're frequently flying over us right here. Time to replace the laser stuff and go back to trained human lookouts. And time to restore the significant fire fighting budget cuts now incurred by the Forest and Park services and BLM. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson Movement of 1962-63 -- external life and internal dynamics. And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm ("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years: Remembering Medgar Evers") http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876 See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Many photos.) Our very large page on Community Organizing: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
