Fire Season in California

Dry season rages in full swing for California and the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency. The rest of the nation wonders why New Orleans gets rebuilt, but a better question is why residents of the wildfire region keep on returning to their homes only to be evacuated again. Every year of recent memory brings back images of school closings, homes burning, highways blocked, and other images that could be mistaken as wartime photos. Yet residents always return, bringing the kids and family dog right back into the fire pit. It is a mistake.

Deciding to live in such a forsaken land is not only foolish, it's also stubborn. Buildings lost and rebuilt yearly inflate the cost of living for the rest of the nation. The wildfires that could be left to burn wildly instead require over a thousand firemen, drawn from all across the nation, to battle the flames that threaten multi-million dollar homes. Foolish. Tax dollars from all Ameican citizens get thrown into fighting these fires that should burn to reinvigorate nature and life in the forests.

When a quarter million people from San Diego County have to be evacuated for fear of their lives, why do they move back when the flames are finally quenched? Basic instinct of any organism is to survive and produce sucessful offspring. For other species that walk this planet, if a habitat becomes dangerous and threatens reproductive success, a new home must be found. It would seem that the stubbornness of the residents that could change their fates and don't is actually a backwards step in evolution. The time has come for the residents of these fire prone areas to cut their loses and settle down somewhere more hospitable.

The Real Blame for File Sharing

This morning on my way out the front doors of Bailey Hall (St. Paul Campus) I picked up a copy of the Minesota Daily. Like always, the Daily contained many enlightening and and well put together columns. However, on the Editorials and Opinions page a University Student wrote in a Letter to the Editor that I could not ignore. In the letter the student claimed that the consumers are not to blame when it comes to file sharing. Instead, he inserts that the record companies should instead 'try to keep up with the changing technologies.' The argument made was so grossly undercooked that I had to laugh.

The author says that digital file sharing compares to the cassette tapes and VHS tapes a decade ago. In a way, he is correct. The actual software of file sharing programs was not intended to be a way to pirate music and movies, but just like with cassettes, the technology is abused and raped. Because you have the ability to download anything for free does not mean that the artist or creator has lost the artistic rights to that unique piece of intellectual property.

Instead of merely putting the blame on record companies because people love stuff for free, the population needs to realize that file sharing is theft. People need to pull their fingers out of their ears and stop screaming and face the music: the blame does not rest on corporations or policing agencies, it rests on us.