Others pray for rain, too
24/08/15 05:34
I haven’t gotten into Facebook as much as some of my friends. I have joined and I accept friend requests from people that I know and I will occasionally read the posts on my timeline, but I rarely post anything and other than happy birthday wishes don’t comment on much of what I read. I have the Facebook application on my phone and it sends me alerts when friends post on their timelines and I’ll check out those posts from time to time. It is nice to see pictures of folks and there are some friends that Facebook is our only avenue of communication.
We’re very busy at the church and, interestingly, that means that I have looked a bit more at Facebook in the last couple of days than usual. What happens is that when I go from meeting to meeting and occasion to occasion as I did yesterday, there are these small amounts of time when I am away from the office and away from home and I have a five or ten minute wait for the next event, which isn’t enough time to go home or do any work, so I take out my phone and check up on my e-mail and when that is done I’ll read a Facebook post or two.
As I result, I read a post from someone who might be a friend of a friend, or perhaps just someone whose post struck a chord with someone I know. The writer of the post is not someone I know, but obviously is someone who lives very close to the fires burning in Washington state. It is a very angry paragraph, lashing out at environmentalists and blaming people who romanticize the west but live in cities for the fires. As is true of many angry outbursts, it is difficult to follow the logic of the statement. Apparently the writer feels that the fires are the result of the collapse of the timber industry in the region and that the collapse of the timber industry was caused by environmentalists who sought to protect endangered species.
It is related to an argument that we often heard when we lived in Idaho. Although timber is a renewable resource and there are ways to manage forests in sustainable patterns, not all of those who sought to profit from extracting resources from public land have been interested in long term sustainability. When paper mills closed because they had become antiquated with ill-maintained equipment and no longer produced a profit, those who took the money and ran often would blame the environmental protection movement for their demise. The charges, largely unfounded, seemed to stick and people remain convinced that the loss of jobs was caused by environmental and safety regulations. It simply isn’t true, but it is hard to convince people who have been hurt that their anger is heading in the wrong direction.
Anger simply lashes out and when there is deep loss it is natural to seek someone to blame. We are blessed to live in a place that is experiencing a lovely year with adequate moisture, but we know how fragile our beautiful weather is. We know that there have been years when fires have threatened our forests and our neighborhoods. We know that such years will come again. This year the fires have been mostly to the north and west of us. We’ve had the smoke stinging our eyes and we can only imagine the hardships faced by those who live in the path of the flames and those brave firefighters who put their lives on the line to try to protect lives and property.
The Okanogan complex has exceeded 375 square miles and is only about 10 percent contained. In Washington State more than 920 square miles have burned. More than 200 homes have been destroyed. At one point last week I read an article that said that as many as 12,000 homes are threatened.
The fires have so taxed the resources that help has had to come from all over. We know one firefighter on the line in Washington and we’ve heard that firefighters from Australia and New Zealand are coming to help with the efforts. Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane is being set up as a staging area for the big water tankers and fire engines that are arriving daily from all across the west.
It is not difficult to see how people are being threatened by the fires. It is not difficult to understand that they are hurt and angry.
Fortunately, however, as misplaced as some of the blame has been, it is also true that some of the rumors about the effects of the fires is also based in mistaken assumptions. The angry Facebook post speaks of “sterilized” soil where every living organism has been killed by the intense heat. I remember when similar words were used to describe some of the hillsides near West Yellowstone after the 1988 fires. The good news is that the land wasn’t actually sterilized. The recovery was much quicker and much more dramatic than we could have believed when we toured the region in the aftermath of the fires. This planet is more resilient than we might believe.
I’m saddened that the anger has turned to vitriol and attacks at some of the people who actually do care about the land and the people who live on it. I’m saddened that people who might be allies are being separated by the anger. But I do understand the anger. And I hope that those who disagree with the writer will pause, take a deep breath, and cut the writer some slack. The fires are terrifying. The loss is real. The anger is understandable if not justified.
Today is not a day for answering anger with anger. It is a time to pray for rain, to pray for the safety of the firefighters and to offer what support we are able to the victims and to those who are daily breathing the smoke.
After the winter snows come and the earth begins its process of healing there will be time to talk about policy, to make changes, and to work on healing the relationships strained by the tensions of the moment. Then we can demonstrate that not everyone who lives in cities is evil and not all of the people who seek to protect the diversity of the ecosystem are out to drive people off of the land.
We’re very busy at the church and, interestingly, that means that I have looked a bit more at Facebook in the last couple of days than usual. What happens is that when I go from meeting to meeting and occasion to occasion as I did yesterday, there are these small amounts of time when I am away from the office and away from home and I have a five or ten minute wait for the next event, which isn’t enough time to go home or do any work, so I take out my phone and check up on my e-mail and when that is done I’ll read a Facebook post or two.
As I result, I read a post from someone who might be a friend of a friend, or perhaps just someone whose post struck a chord with someone I know. The writer of the post is not someone I know, but obviously is someone who lives very close to the fires burning in Washington state. It is a very angry paragraph, lashing out at environmentalists and blaming people who romanticize the west but live in cities for the fires. As is true of many angry outbursts, it is difficult to follow the logic of the statement. Apparently the writer feels that the fires are the result of the collapse of the timber industry in the region and that the collapse of the timber industry was caused by environmentalists who sought to protect endangered species.
It is related to an argument that we often heard when we lived in Idaho. Although timber is a renewable resource and there are ways to manage forests in sustainable patterns, not all of those who sought to profit from extracting resources from public land have been interested in long term sustainability. When paper mills closed because they had become antiquated with ill-maintained equipment and no longer produced a profit, those who took the money and ran often would blame the environmental protection movement for their demise. The charges, largely unfounded, seemed to stick and people remain convinced that the loss of jobs was caused by environmental and safety regulations. It simply isn’t true, but it is hard to convince people who have been hurt that their anger is heading in the wrong direction.
Anger simply lashes out and when there is deep loss it is natural to seek someone to blame. We are blessed to live in a place that is experiencing a lovely year with adequate moisture, but we know how fragile our beautiful weather is. We know that there have been years when fires have threatened our forests and our neighborhoods. We know that such years will come again. This year the fires have been mostly to the north and west of us. We’ve had the smoke stinging our eyes and we can only imagine the hardships faced by those who live in the path of the flames and those brave firefighters who put their lives on the line to try to protect lives and property.
The Okanogan complex has exceeded 375 square miles and is only about 10 percent contained. In Washington State more than 920 square miles have burned. More than 200 homes have been destroyed. At one point last week I read an article that said that as many as 12,000 homes are threatened.
The fires have so taxed the resources that help has had to come from all over. We know one firefighter on the line in Washington and we’ve heard that firefighters from Australia and New Zealand are coming to help with the efforts. Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane is being set up as a staging area for the big water tankers and fire engines that are arriving daily from all across the west.
It is not difficult to see how people are being threatened by the fires. It is not difficult to understand that they are hurt and angry.
Fortunately, however, as misplaced as some of the blame has been, it is also true that some of the rumors about the effects of the fires is also based in mistaken assumptions. The angry Facebook post speaks of “sterilized” soil where every living organism has been killed by the intense heat. I remember when similar words were used to describe some of the hillsides near West Yellowstone after the 1988 fires. The good news is that the land wasn’t actually sterilized. The recovery was much quicker and much more dramatic than we could have believed when we toured the region in the aftermath of the fires. This planet is more resilient than we might believe.
I’m saddened that the anger has turned to vitriol and attacks at some of the people who actually do care about the land and the people who live on it. I’m saddened that people who might be allies are being separated by the anger. But I do understand the anger. And I hope that those who disagree with the writer will pause, take a deep breath, and cut the writer some slack. The fires are terrifying. The loss is real. The anger is understandable if not justified.
Today is not a day for answering anger with anger. It is a time to pray for rain, to pray for the safety of the firefighters and to offer what support we are able to the victims and to those who are daily breathing the smoke.
After the winter snows come and the earth begins its process of healing there will be time to talk about policy, to make changes, and to work on healing the relationships strained by the tensions of the moment. Then we can demonstrate that not everyone who lives in cities is evil and not all of the people who seek to protect the diversity of the ecosystem are out to drive people off of the land.