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Wednesday, July 19, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
N
Robet C.
Koehler
Editorial…
Use common sense during high fire danger
According to news reports, “a group of
partygoers shooting at exploding targets on
private property Saturday are thought to be
responsible for starting the Ana Fire, which
has burned 6,200 acres in the Summer Lake
area.”
It’s hard to believe anybody could be so
stupid. It’s high summer in the Oregon out-
back. It’s dry; it’s hot; vegetation catches fire
easily. Yet some folks thought it was a good
idea to shoot exploding targets. What could
possibly go wrong?
That’s going to be an expensive misadven-
ture. The “partygoers” are on the hook for mil-
lions of dollars in fire-suppression costs and
restitution for property destroyed.
Sisters has seen more than its share of wild-
fire in the past 15 years; we don’t need any
more. Lightning fires are inevitable; human-
caused fires are not. Just a little common sense
goes a long way toward preventing fires that
could devastate our community — and leave
those responsible in financial and possibly
actual shackles for the rest of their lives.
There are some basic guidelines that
should be easy enough to abide by — even for
“partygoers”:
• Know fire risks and obey fire restric-
tions, such as campfire bans. And if you have
a campfire, leave it DEAD out. I can’t count
the number of still-smoldering campfires I’ve
come across and put out over the past two
decades in Sisters Country.
• Avoid parking or driving on dry grass, as
hot vehicles can start a wildfire.
• Carry a shovel and fire extinguisher or
at least a gallon of water when you take your
vehicle into the woods.
• Do not use candles, fireworks, tiki
torches, or exploding targets in the woods.
• Dispose of smoking material in deep,
sturdy ashtrays. Make sure butts and ashes are
extinguished with water and sand. Don’t grind
out butts on the ground or in vegetation.
It’s better to be excessively careful with fire
than to be responsible for a destructive blaze
that can ruin lives — including your own.
Jim Cornelius, News Editor
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
82/44
75/42
83/46
87/48
88/50
87/na
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The United States boy-
cotted the U.N. negotiations
to ban—everywhere across
Planet Earth—nuclear weap-
ons. So did eight other coun-
tries. Guess which ones?
The nine nations in
question, of course, are
the nuclear-armed ones:
the U.S., Russia, China,
Great Britain, France, India,
Pakistan, Israel and . . . what
was that other one? Oh yeah,
North Korea. Bizarrely, these
countries and their short-
sighted “interests” are all on
the same side, even though
each one’s possession of
nuclear weapons justifies the
others’ possession of nuclear
weapons.
None of these countries
took part in the discussion of
the Treaty on the Prohibition
of Nuclear Weapons, even
to oppose it, seeming to
indicate that a nuke-free
world isn’t anywhere in their
vision.
As Robert Dodge of
Physicians for Social
Responsibility wrote: “They
have remained oblivious
and hostage themselves to
this mythological deterrence
argument that has been the
principal driver of the arms
race since its inception,
including the current new
arms race initiated by the
United States with a proposal
to spend $1 trillion in the
next three decades to rebuild
our nuclear arsenals.”
The treaty reads, in part:
“. . .each State Party that
owns, possesses or controls
nuclear weapons or other
nuclear explosive devices
shall immediately remove
them from operational status
and destroy them, as soon as
possible . . .”
This is serious. I have no
doubt that something his-
toric has happened: A wish,
a hope, a determination the
size of humanity itself has
found international language.
But nonetheless, I feel a
sense of cynicism and hope-
lessness activated as well.
Does this treaty sow any real
seeds, that is to say, does it
put nuclear disarmament into
motion in the real world, or
are her words just another
pretty metaphor? And are
metaphors all we get?
Nikki Haley, the Trump
a d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s U . N .
ambassador, said last March,
according to CNN, as she
announced that the U.S.
would boycott the talks,
that as a mom and daugh-
ter, “There is nothing I want
more for my family than
a world with no nuclear
weapons.”
How nice.
“But,” she said, “we have
to be realistic.”
In years gone by, the dip-
lomat’s finger would then
have pointed to the Russians
(or the Soviets) or the
Chinese. But Haley said: “Is
there anyone that believes
that North Korea would
agree to a ban on nuclear
weapons?”
So this is the “realism”
that is presently justifying
America’s grip on its nearly
7,000 nuclear weapons,
along with its trillion-dollar
modernization program: tiny
North Korea, our enemy du
jour, which, as we all know,
just tested a ballistic mis-
sile and is portrayed in the
U.S. media as a wildly irra-
tional little nation with a
world-conquest agenda and
no legitimate concern about
its own security. So, sorry
Mom, sorry kids, we have no
choice.
The point being, any
enemy will do. The real-
ism Haley was summoning
was economic and political
in nature far more than it
had anything to do with real
national security. Mutually
Assured Destruction is
not realism; it’s a suicidal
standoff, with the certainty
that eventually something’s
going to give.
A change of mind or heart
is, presumably, the only way
global nuclear disarmament
will happen. I don’t believe
it can happen by force or
coercion.
I therefore pay homage to
South Africa, which played
a crucial role in the treaty’s
passage, as the Bulletin of
the Atomic Scientists reports,
and happens to be the only
country on Earth that once
possessed nuclear weapons
and no longer does.
“Working hand in hand
with civil society, (we) took
an extraordinary step (today)
to save humanity from the
frightful specter of nuclear
weapons,” said South
Africa’s U.N. ambassador,
Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko.
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Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.