Burned by politics

I know one of the firefighters serving in the Omak area. He says one of the hardest parts of his job working for the U.S. Forest Service is knowing much of the wildfire destruction could be prevented. But prevention costs money the federal and state governments do not have. So we wind up spending vast sums of money fighting fires that might have been prevented because our system tilts toward being reactive rather than being proactive.

Unfortunately, this follows a pattern. Our society has become reactive to problems when they hit crisis mode rather than investing in our land and people in a proactive way. Much of this occurs because “government” and “taxes” have become dirty words to many people. That’s foolish, and hurts everyone in the long run. The firefighters we call heroes are the government and are funded by taxes. Knee-jerk resistance to government hurts them.

Some representatives are working even now to fund preventive measures in the forest. Will we support them with the money to do the job? Like the commercial said, “Pay me now or pay me later.” Let’s take care of our state and our firefighters by supporting adequate investment in both.

Larry Winters

Cheney