The Law Of Contradictions!?

[HARDCORE]

Only a damned fool or Don Quixote could ever believe that the law (in reality) applies to all men equally!? Many a recent celebrity and/or affluence-related trial, proves out this analogy to my satisfaction! And although the ?Powers That Be?, more often than not, decry this sad fact of life, it is far too often a fact none the less!! For when power and money do not come into play, the law of contradictions all too often does!! (opinion)

?A minor case in point took place today!? Here we are, just two months or so over the mighty Cedar, Otay Mesa, and the Paradise Fires of San Diego County. Fires that consumed some 800,000 acres, 3400 homes, and about 20 human lives, and already the memory of the event, along with the temporary lessons learned, have faded from the consciousness of far too many!

Not too far from where I sit, and not too distant from the path of this mighty tempest of flames, a long time local was burning trash a few weks back, when those flames nearly got out of control! Had it not been for the swift action of the local fire department, a replay of "October Last" could have swept away what was not burned out a few months back!

Hell, it wasn?t all that long ago (as time goes), that the mountain military base of an elite unit of fighting men was set ablaze by a stray shell that hit a rock, sparked and then set a 1500 acre blaze that could have proved fatal, had the winds not been favorable to mankind!

Getting back to today?s events, while walking around the property (5 acres) that my family resides upon, I spotted a column of smoke rising just to the north-west! I immediately called the fire department who advised me that any permit fires had to have been extinguished by 10:00 AM.

"As it was then after 3:30 P.M., we grew alarmingly concerned, even though the ground was still damp from a recent storm!"

When an engine did arrive, some 15 or so minutes later, they drove by the smoke, did a u-turn, and then stopped to inform us that (what they termed as a warming fire) was legal in semi-cleared areas?

Now as I recall, the giant Cedar Fire was also caused by a warming/signal fire set by a camper! The people who initiated this fire, not far way, and in the middle of an extremely volatile and vegetated area, were (according to what I was told), city folk who leased the land as a weekend retreat? (I don't know this for sure?)

Well, regardless of the reasoning, I was advised by the California Department of Forestry that- ?It is still perfectly legal to start what was termed as a ?Warming Fire?, even considering the fact of the recent catastrophic blazes that swept through our area a short time back!?? The same kind of fire, I might add, that had the gent responsible for the recent firestorms, facing felony charges!? (Amazing!!)

If this is true, then I must assume that anyone, even illegals, traveling through the area on his (or her) way to find work on the ranches or farms to the north and east, who sets a warming fire, are also not guilty of one damned thing, unless of course, that fire gets out of hand and consumes, forest, homes and lives!? (opinion)

Only then, I assume (?), will the Powers That Be again step in to shut the old barn door, millions of dollars later, and many lives snuffed out perhaps?!

And for the record, lives are still being lost, two months after the ?Firestorms Of 2003?, as a result of killer mud slides that are ravishing burned out areas!

The Powers That Be say, if I heard them correctly (?), that it is perfectly OK to ?Warm yourself by the old fire, under certain conditions, and hope to Hell that your momentary comfort does not result in the deaths, property loss and tears that we here in San Diego County experienced but two short months ago!?? And if we have learned so little from the experience that we still allow these so-called warming fires in areas other than those marked and controlled within safely-cleared camping sites, then this is indeed, and accident waiting to happen again!! (RIP)



VERITAS