WHY?

My posting record this year has been spotty. At best. A lot of reasons. Some good. Some what the hell. I'll go into that later.

A couple of days ago a blithering idiot of a teenage did something incredibly, frankly unforgivably stupid. The and his friends were hiking in the Eagle Creek Gorge area along the Columbia River. A very wet, cool spring has been followed by a hot, dry summer. Another hiker was watching when this kid tossed what looked like a smoke bomb into the gorge. She went a little further, looked back an saw smoke coming through the trees. She shouted at everyone she could see ans headed back warning everyone she saw to turn back. 

The fire grew to about thirty five hundred acres. Over Monday night the fire exploded to forty eight hundred and authorities closed the freeway, I84, between Troutdale and Hood River. By today the Eagle Creek fire and joined the Indian Creek fire and we're looking at twenty thousand acres and growing.  

The gorge has several waterfalls, one of the most beautiful is Multnomah Falls.

Not the greatest picture. And there is a lodge, built in the twenties and quite beautiful. But this was the scene last night.

They did save the lodge. It might be a good idea to replace the roof with tiles. Not quite the twenties style of construction, but fire resistant. 

What is going on here? One witness reported that the kids were giggling. That they apparently didn't realize or care what the results were. Is it video games? If the game isn't going right you can just hit just start over. Life doesn't come with a do over. Is it that too many of us live in cities and aren't exposed to anything that isn't covered in asphalt? That there aren't consequences? CEO's run a corporation into the ground and still get a bonus? A candidate can be file for bankruptcy four times. Start businesses not pay attention and have them fail? Sexually abuse and boast about it. Tell the world that you could shoot someone and your followers won't care. And so on? 

Fire is a part of the natural world. Some trees and landscapes need fire to grow. And you grieve but you know it will regrow. But, to have a fool cause the destruction of something won't grow back for centuries? That brings you close to despair.