What did Jerry Brown say about Calif. fires yesterday?

[Sapphocrat]

I was told about a sound bite in which Oakland mayor and ex-guv Jerry Brown stated yesterday that, while he felt concern for the victims of the Southern California fires, the hard truth is that when you decide to live in the wildnerness, fire is one of the dangers you have to accept... and that before humans began encroaching on nature, we would not have been so desperate to fight such fires -- that the real reason we're fighting these fires is to save people's homes, and not because fires are a threat to nature. And, on the contrary, fires are necessary; i.e., nature's way of cleaning things up.

Did anybody see/hear this sound bite? I'm looking for a published link, but nothing comes up. (And I really want to know his exact words -- I'm blogging as I write this, damning the Bush admin's screw-you attitude toward Gray Davis' request for funding.)

P.S. As coldhearted as it may sound, I agree with Jerry. If a fire starts on its own (i.e., not by arson), it's natural -- it's nature. I was heartbroken to watch large chunks of Yellowstone (and God knows how much wildlife) go up in flames some years ago, but the truth is, if we did not expend so much effort trying to prevent natural forest fires for the primary sake of protecting human habitat, the build-up of dead, dry materials would not accumulate to the point that when a fire does break out, it breaks out with such vengeance.

Remember the tagline for that old TV commercial: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."

[bluestateguy]

1. I don't know

Just remember even if it's just well to do people who lose their homes these forrest fires only hurt working class people--like firefighters who risk their lives, or the workers who are hurt when the economy is damaged by the fires, or the working class people who lose homes and property and generally have less of an insurance safety net.

[Sapphocrat]

3. Couldn't agree more...

Economic concerns are, of course, secondary to human suffering -- but I must admit that I dread the thought of all Californians getting hit by the inevitable insurance-premium increase. And I expect to see a proposal for another quarter- to half-cent increase in state sales tax (for one, two, five years?) to help cover costs.

Of course, I'm more sensitive to this because of my fixed-income, elderly mother (who would have to leave her home if Proposition 13 were repealed -- talk about mixed emotions on my part!).

Anyway... I'd also be curious to know how many "wilderness residents" were low- to middle-income. My gut tells me there aren't a lot of po' folks living in these fire areas; Scripps Ranch is a community of well-to-to yuppies, Lake Arrowhead is a favored locale for rich folks' vacation homes, Big Bear is a ski resort... et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And yet, the longterm effects are going to be felt most by those who can't afford to bear the brunt of one more disaster in this state.

I can't stand to think about the horror of dead firefighters for the sake of somebody's lakefront property. Talk about dying in vain.


On edit: Hit the bloody Post button too fast!

[David Zephyr]

6. San Bernadino, A Low Income Community, Was Ravaged By the Fire

What on earth are you saying? "Anyway... I'd also be curious to know how many "wilderness residents" were low- to middle-income. My gut tells me there aren't a lot of po' folks living in these fire areas..."

Check out the thousands and thousands of now-homeless in San Bernadino tonight and their "income".

Please.

[roguevalley]

2. The horror I feel about everything involved in this disaster -the sorrow

of the people who have lost homes and loved ones, the animal, plant and bird life- all of it, I have to agree. If you live in the mountains and don't clear the brush, you have to learn to bear the possibility of fire. Its like living on a boat. Part of the possibilities might be sinking.

God bless California and her people anyway. I can hardly stand watching the news, its so awful.

[Sapphocrat]

4. Same here...

I lived a couple of years in Nevada, in the midst of a valley that was all sagebrush and precious few trees, where the only time the fire danger was low was during blizzards. If you didn't get out there and clear a wide circle of sage around your house (and the way it grew, we had to do it frequently, by hand, with mattocks and shovels -- it was back-breaking work), the neighbors would raise hell. (We didn't have city services; we had a volunteer fire department, with a 40-year-old engine. If you needed them, you phoned the fire chief at home.**)

It was just one of those things we accepted when we moved in: If we wanted to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of living amidst all this nature, we had to accept the fact that nature was in control.

Which is as it should be.

** Long, long digression here (I hope nobody minds):

We never had a fire as long as I lived there. The only time I saw the firefighters in action was when the temperature dropped to -16F, and the woman down the road couldn't un-freeze the troughs to water more than 40 horses she boarded. So the fire chief, on his own, managed to get the truck through, and provide water for the horses.

Things like that happened all the time out there. One winter morning, I woke up to find a neighbor I didn't even know had plowed our driveway... just because there was snow, and he had a plow.

We knew the mailman by name; he delivered the mail in his own car, and we never complained when he couldn't deliver because he couldn't get his old station wagon through the snow. When we were short of postage, we'd leave money in the mailbox along with our outgoing mail, and he would stick stamps on the envelopes himself. At Xmas every year, we'd leave a bottle of wine in the mailbox for him.

I once left my truck's headlights on after getting home. A man I never saw before knocked at the door to tell me they were on. He looked puzzled, though; he said, "I would have just reached in, turned them off, and left, but your truck was locked."

Nobody locked their doors. When we told another neighbor (the nearest one, half a mile away) about how our phone had died mysteriously, she asked why we didn't come over and use hers. It didn't matter if she was home or not, she said -- we should have just walked in and used it.

It was like living in a time warp. People just watched out for each other. It was how people are supposed to treat one another.

I miss it. A lot. And I would gladly live with the constant threat of fire, just to experience that kind of simple human caring again.

P.S. And nobody cared that we were lesbians, as long as we were good neighbors. I think we were. We sure tried extra-hard to be.

[David Zephyr]

5. The Fire That Ravaged My Town, Claremont, Was Arson.

Arson.

It is arson that destroyed homes in San Bernadino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, and many, many more.

What part of the United States is not an "encroachment" on nature? The arrival of the "white man" to the Western Hemisphere was an encroachment on nature.

Frankly, I think that this sort of argument gives comfort to people who prefer to judge than to have compassion.

By the way, my neighbors, who encroached on nature like everyone else in America has, set out pumpkins and such on the remains of their charred home to let their children know that they would rebuild their home.

[foreigncorrespondent]

10. Easy, David.

Sappho's basically looking for a proper link to a news article for what the Mayor of Oakland said yesterday.

She also has a lot of compassion for the people who has lost their homes and or loved ones to these fires. She also said that she agrees with the Mayor, but that agreement comes to a point. The cut off point is when the fire is arson and not mother nature.

[David Zephyr]

12. I'm Just Way Too Close to This Right Now.

I hear you.

I chose to live in the "wilderness" by choice to be near wildlife and nature as opposed to living immediatley in the Los Angeles environment(see my longtime profile here).

I have the means to have chosen this habitat, but there are hundreds of thousands who also live at the edge of the wilderness who struggle with low-incomes and rent. San Bernadino is a classic example of this.

[foreigncorrespondent]

14. And believe me David...

... I understand what you are saying. I also understand why you are so tight right now. It isn't any fun being near fires at all.

I understand only to well the devastation bush fires can cause. Being in Australia I have been witness to a great many large fires. One of the fires that hold a lot of bad memories for me is the Ash Wednesday bush fires back in '82 here. Where we had parts of NSW, Vic, and SA burning at the same time.

And believe me David, Sappho understand how a lot of people are truly stuggling right now in the USA. She hasn't worked since December of 2000, and is now kicking herself hard for it because she knows I am facing having to live in a shelter next year, unless some luck comes our way fast.

And I don't blame you for choosing the wilderness to live in. Sappho and I realy would like to settle in a little town here in Victoria called Euroa one day. So we can be amongst the roo's and koala's, wild emu's, cockatoo's, you name it.

Hang in there, my friend.

FC

[slackmaster]

7. I have an inside source in Mayor Brown's office

He said the mayor said:

"Holy shit!"

[camero]

8. The wildlife have enough sense to get out of the way

I doubt that we lost very much wildlife because of a natural fire.

[David Zephyr]

9. The Charred Remains of Deer and Other Wildlife Near My Home.

One only needs walk 300 feet from my front door to witness this heartbreaking sight.

[camero]

11. It is

The point was you have these threats wherever you live. I live in FL, so I have to watch for hurricanes more.
In Cali, you have more fires. It's part of the price you pay for living there.

To add: and I love Cali. I would live there if it wasn't so expensive.

[David Zephyr]

13. My Apologies to Sapphocrat

and gratitude to Foreigncorrespondent for the nicest scolding I've received.

Sapphocrat, sorry for the undeserved swipe. I am wearing this fire 24/7. I can't drive to or from my home without seeing the devastation. I can't look out from my back or front of my home without seeing it. It's horrific, but I shouldn't have come down on you. Forgive me.

[Sapphocrat]

15. No need, David...

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, I feel your pain -- and your frustration. I know Claremont (and Piru, for that matter -- used to camp and fish there frequently), and I'm sorry -- I didn't mean to imply that I was shrugging off anything.

The reason I was asking about Jerry Brown's statement was that I was blogging about the * admin screwing California out of badly-needed funding to clear dead trees before it was too late. And the reason I was blogging it in the first place was your post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=626064

I'm as sickened and angry about it as you are, David. But please don't feel bad for blowing a fuse -- if you can't blow a fuse on DU, where can you do it? :)

My apologies for not making myself clear enough. If I weren't such a peacenik, I'd be tempted to draw and quarter the arsonists myself. By hand. Slowly. On television.

P.S. After giving up on finding a link to Jerry's remarks, I got my blog entry up late last night, if you'd like to read it:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002551/2003/11/01.html#a485

(If the link doesn't go directly to the entry, scroll down to "Partisan BushCo Lets California Burn, Uses Fires As Excuse to Gut U.S. Forests")

I just hope it helps, in some small way.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

16. I heard this interview on the radio

He did point out that it was a tragedy that people lost their lives and homes, but also that it was somewhat inevitable. He talked about how he used to live in Laurel Canyon and wondered how the hell he would get out of there in a fire.

I'm from Santa Barbara and I remember some scary fires there. It's always on your mind in the summer when you see how dry the hills get. It's a risk to live in that type of environment, for sure. Just like people who live on the side of a cliff, or in a flood zone.