who needs a scapegoat?

I think it's despicable that there always has to be someone to blame. It always has to be someone's fault, people are unable to accept things as they are. They want someone whom they can lash out at, sue, slander, hate. Just so they don't have to get on with their lives and face facts.

There's still a lot of danger from the fire but the wind has died down and some people have been allowed back in affected areas. So now we've got the finger-pointers, the people who want justice served. So some guy was lost in the wilds and lit a signal fire, supposedly. So he's been arrested. Now, sure it's a dumb thing to light a fire when surrounded by dry, scrubby brush. But here's the thing:

dry scrubby brush wants to be set fire to. It's that time, and nature wants to clear things out a bit. So there's been no rain, and along comes a Santa Ana with enough dry strong winds to fan any, I repeat any sparks there might be. It doesn't take much. These are all natural environmental fires. Also, there are fires raging all over southern California. You can't tell me and expect me to believe that a hunter in Eastern SD lit a fire that burned down Ventura county. Bullshit. I know that they suspect arson in some of the fires up in LA. But this isn't arson, this is just a dumb fuck who got scared and did something stupid. I hope that people are calm and sane enough to understand that he cannot be held responsible for all of the damage that's been done. This is a combination of factors that would have happened even if human hands weren't involved. A bit of broken glass in a bush, the sun reflects off of it, and boom, that bush is on fire. It's easy enough to create scenarios where someone doesn't actually LIGHT the fire to see that this was going to happen.

Also, people are blaming Governor Davis. Now that's just plain ridiculous. I am sick of this state that so obviously thinks that all of its problems are caused by one man. I saw on the news one guy say "Aren't you glad you voted for Arnold?" You sir, I know you will never read this, but you sir, make me sick. You make me want to vomit all over your stupid head. So he and some other nitwits think that Davis withheld some government airplanes that could have helped. So Davis gets on and says that basically he's doing what he can but those planes are under federal jurisdiction and he can't just send them off where he wants. And then the fire chief gets on and says, with or without those planes there's not much we could have done. It's so out of control, with the wind, that some things are out of human hands. I don't understand why people can't just accept this. We live on an unpredictable planet, but we've gotten complacent. We want to know that we'll never die, we'll never be inconvenienced, and if we are, well then it's somebody's fault that they didn't stop it. I think that's a lazy way of thinking and I think it's cowardly. Suck it up. Fire is unpredictable, it's dangerous, and in this environment, it's uncontrollable.

I think it's terrible that people have lost homes and memories, cars, even lives. This is definitely a catastrophe. But (except for lives) these things can be replaced or rebuilt, if you have the courage to understand that you have yourself, you have your family, and that's what counts. Please don't place blame, unless it's perfectly obvious that someone fucked up and it caused your personal loss. Do not, for the love of Buddha, go blaming the firefighters like that dipshit in Crest, who lost like six properties (ok, that does suck, but what are you doing with six properties?). He's got it in his head that his homes could have been saved but the firefighters weren't competent, or something. Let's look at the bigger pictures, shall we? There are fires EVERYWHERE. Not just at your house. They are stretched thin as they'll go, and part of the reason they were unprepared is that some of our resources were sent north to help with fires in LA and Orange County.

This is no one person's fault. This is the result of a combination of factors that couldn't be prevented and we have to accept that, and understand that nature is bigger than us and it will kill you. So deal with it, or get the fuck out of the way. Take a little time to be thankful for what you have, not what's been taken from you.