I certainly woudn’t want to be taken in by “fake news,” so I follow our president’s tweets to make sure I get the straight facts about what he says and thinks. Here is something he wrote:
“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”
My daughter is in graduate school in Santa Barbara, Calif., where I have visited her several times. Recently there have been several massive, deadly and costly wildfires near where she lives. It’s obvious that the cause was not “forest management.” It was the result of building homes and communities in places and ways which make them highly vulnerable to fires due to frequent intense dryness, heat and winds — which seem to be increasing in intensity.
It bothers me that our president believes and writes such nonsense. What to do about wildfires in the American West (including Alaska) is an important and complex issue that begs for serious discussion. This kind of tweet doesn’t advance that discussion.
I know a majority of Alaskans voted for President Trump and presumably support many of his policies. Now that he’s president, I hope you — and our congressional delegation — will encourage him to act with the dignity, responsibility and intelligence we should expect of a president.
— Gunnar Knapp
Anchorage
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