'KEYSTONE COPS'
In what has become known as one of the biggest goofs that a government agency has made, thousands of acres of land and forest, along with several hundred homes, were decimated, when a forest fire, burned out of control for several weeks, after it was deliberately set by the forestry service, as a 'controlled burn.'

It seems that they picked one of the worst days to do it, in that forecasters had said that it was going to be a very windy day.

Well, despite the warnings, they did it any way, and it quickly got out of control.

Controlled burns, are used as a means to create a 'fire break' to prevent a forest fire, from going beyond a certain point. It is unclear to me, whether there was already a fire advancing through the area, or whether they were just burning away some dead brush, as a preventative measure.

Anyway, they started the fire, in one of our national parks, to protect it, and ended up destroying a good part of it.

But, if that wasn't bad enough, the fire destroyed privately owned land and houses, forcing families to flee their homes, to save their lives.

Also, in the area, is a nuclear facility, that, even though, was in no great danger of being damaged, still faced the fact of having to be evacuated, and put on alert.

This controlled burn, cost us, that's right, us, hundreds of millions of dollars, if not over 1 billion, in lost and damaged property, man-hours in fighting the fire, and lost revenue.

The forestry service, among other things, polices all of the government owned and protected property, and 'fines' people who, are doing things in a careless manner, that might cause a forest fire. Remember 'Smoky Bear's' motto?? 'Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires!!'

They police us, who is going to police them???

If one of us, had started that fire, can you imagine what would happen to us??? We would be lucky to see daylight for the rest of our lives. And money?? Lawsuits would make sure that our great, great, great grandchildren would still be paying the bill.

But, since this is a government agency, headed up by a Clinton appointee, they may just fire the person that directed the burning, make a few apologies, and a few other mediocre patch ups, and call it, done.

This is another example of what happens, when government gets involved with things. It becomes one, big, mess!!!

Yet, that is what many of you want. More government controls on your lives and the lives of others.

Social security, welfare, school's, big business, TV, radio, health care, and others, are being regulated to the hilt, now, and you want more. Well, one day, there just may be something that was meant to stay under control, getting out of control, and wreaking havoc on all of us, and it will be the government's fault, and what are you going to do then??? Will you accept an apology, only?? That will be about all you will get, from them.
************************************************************************

JUNE, 2000


HOME PAGE

TRACT LIST

NEWSLETTERS

TAPE LIST