6
Wednesday, September 23, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Easing
fires not
as simple
as climate
change vs.
forest work
By Andrew Selsky & Adam Beam
Associated Press
SALEM (AP) 4 Deadly
West Coast wildfires are
dividing President Donald
Trump and the states9
Democratic leaders over
how to prevent blazes from
becoming more frequent and
destructive, but scientists and
others on the front lines say
it9s not as simple as blaming
either climate change or the
way land is managed.
The governors of
California, Oregon and
Washington have all said
global warming is priming
forests for wildfires as they
become hotter and drier. But
during a visit Monday to
California, Trump pointed
to how states manage forests
and said, <It will start getting
cooler, just you watch.=
Scientists say wildfires
are all but inevitable, and the
main drivers are plants and
trees drying out due to cli-
mate change and more peo-
ple living closer to areas that
burn. And while forest thin-
ning and controlled burns are
solutions, they have proven
challenging to implement on
the scale needed to combat
those threats.
As crews battled wildfires
that have killed at least 36
people, destroyed neighbor-
hoods and enveloped the
West Coast in smoke, Trump
contended that the states are
to blame for failing to rake
leaves and clear dead timber
from forest floors. However,
many of the California blazes
have roared through coastal
chaparral and grasslands, not
forest, and some of the larg-
est are burning on federal
land.
In Oregon, it was the for-
ests that burned at unprec-
edented levels this past
week. Almost the same
number of <megafires= 4
defined as having scorched
100,000 acres or more 4
were burning last week as
have occurred during the
entire last century, said Jim
Gersbach, spokesman for
the Oregon Department of
Forestry. Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown on Monday requested
a Presidential Disaster
Declaration, saying it would
bring much needed resources
to Oregon9s response and
recovery efforts.
Experts, environmental-
ists and loggers largely agree
that thinning trees and brush
See FIRES on page 11
Scottie
Wisdom&Faith
Jean Russell Nave
Scottie truth
One of the many won-
derful things about Scottie
dogs is their honesty. They
express truth. If they are
barking, there is something
out there. Even if I can9t see
it, I know there is something
or someone outside.
Just yesterday the
Scotties started barking. I
couldn9t see a thing any-
where in the backyard. But
sure enough, as I looked
through another window,
there was a person raking
pine needles off our neigh-
bor9s roof.
Truth. We are told time
and again in the Bible that
truth is an essential ideal.
There was a time when
truth was held so firmly in
our society that people did
business with a handshake.
Today you need a lawyer in
your back pocket if you go
into business. Every major
transaction with a client
now has to be put in writ-
ing. This in itself is a good
example of how <bound-
up= we9ve become because
we have treated truth so
cheaply.
Our children may be
told to tell the truth, but the
actions of our society con-
stantly shout otherwise. We
know that commercials mis-
lead. Politicians misinform
and sometimes outright lie.
Television programs use
lying as a punchline for
cheap laughs. Our children
watch all of this getting a
much clearer message from
our actions than from our
warnings.
What is truth?
Historically, philoso-
phers explored that ques-
tion back as far as the
ancient Egyptians. One9s
heart would be weighed at
death against the <Feather
of Truth.= If the heart was
too heavy with deceit, one
was headed for dark places.
Truth has been a rela-
tive thing. In the Middle
Ages truth was a flat earth,
even though the library in
Alexandria had held maps
showing a round earth cen-
turies earlier. The Church
decided the earth was flat
and that was that.
Today science tries to
prove what is true through
scientific investigation. Yet,
that investigation results
in many ideas that become
held like dogma, forbidding
newer research from chang-
ing the paradigm. One such
thing that I9ve followed
for years is the dating of
when humans came to the
Americas. As recent as the
early 20th century, scien-
tists would not believe there
were people in America
before five thousand years
ago. In 1929 when fluted
spear points were found in
mastodon bones dating to
Stop by our
showroom
in the heart of
more than 10,000 BC in
Clovis, New Mexico, the
head of the Smithsonian
Institution would not
believe they were real
because it challenged his
idea of truth.
This helps us understand
that truth in the material
world is open to subjective
interpretation. As followers
of Christ, the truth we want
to explore is spiritual truth.
Jesus said: <If you abide
in my word, you are truly
my disciples, and you will
know the truth, and the truth
will set you free.=
What did he mean then
and what does it mean to
us today? Jesus shared
His understanding of His
Father9s house with His fol-
lowers. He wanted people
to understand that God our
Father is love and we are
His children. Meaning that
we 4 all humans, regard-
less of race, creed, color or
sexual orientation 4 are
divine spirit. When we live
with love, compassionate,
non-judgmental and filled
with forgiveness, we are
living in truth. That is how
we live in God9s real world.
The real world is not this
mixed-up mess we call life
in this dimension, which is
filled with anger and hate.
We can spiritually rise
above all that and live free
of the hate when we turn
to truth 4 God9s love. By
living with love we are free
and we free others. When
we hate, we chain ourselves
to that hate and the other
person or people we focus
the hate upon. Living with
love in our hearts means we
live with God9s truth, and
we are free.
Mother Teresa is an
excellent example of this
put into practice. She lived
among people enduring a
great deal of death and suf-
fering, but her heart was
filled with God9s love,
which allowed her to ease
others9 suffering while she
thrived and stayed healthy
into her later years. The
love she was filled with
kept her free. She was
free of hate and fear, the
major causes of misery and
death.
It isn9t where you live
that makes you free, it9s
how you live that makes
you free.
My rescued Scottie,
Chewy, was beaten and
starved by people in the
past. Yet, his heart is so full
of love that he greets every-
one with a wagging tale,
hoping they will bend down
and pet him. Chewy9s truth
is love. Make your truth
love and watch how you are
greeted with smiles too.
Then you will know the
truth, and the truth will set
you free. John 8:32
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