on the yes side: watching the bear give out candy and shake hands with three year-olds, i have to say, "for those little kids, the bear is real, like santa claus." and as with the northern visitor, i am convinced i will be protected and get everything for nothing. alas, it seems like all the adults with them believe the same. our belief in santa claus no longer seems to die.
unfortunately, when i watch an often reluctant firefighter climb into the bear suit and later out of it hot and sweaty, i have to admit to myself smoky is an illusion. i want him to be real, just as i want a powerful father figure to watch over and take care of me. i'm an american, after all, yearning for a powerful man or bear to save me.
i do like the fact smoky is brown and an animal. i'm tired of white gods (and men) i can no longer believe in, who pick my pocket as i worship them. and i agree illusions more real than reality. THE AGE OF DENIAL is upon us. even numbers don't seem to work any more. i can tell you california fires five times as big as in 1972, i can tell you a town up the road burned down, 27,000 homeless, 85 dead. many simply will not believe the pictures and maps, not even if they see it with their own eyes.
and smoky is part of the problem. SMOKY SEES ALL. HE WILL PROTECT THE FOREST. PUT OUT ALL THE FIRES BY HIMSELF WITH NO MONEY FOR SUPPLIES. alas, washington finds the forests a nuisance and wishes they would go away. it is more fun to buy bombers and aircraft carriers. they pump up the economy. the woods simply demand funds and care. the forests can be ignored.
unfortunately, the forest service has had to go along with it, having nobody but smoky to speak for them. in this sense, smoky isn't real. he can attract the bare minimum of funds for fighting fires. too bad he doesn't really have a divine shovel to fight off the lightning bolts. he's not the superman he's made out to be.
since i constantly promote the rebuilding of lookouts and a system with human eyes in the sky, i'll say what i see coming: BIGGER FIRES THAT CANNOT BE STOPPED, PERIOD. what i feel we need to do is SAVE LIVES. help escape routes to be found, put up a system of fire-sirens to warn everybody, to have both lookouts and cameras for early detection. give smoky more tools. stop believing in fantasies.
