Ring of Fire

The West is burning in more ways than one Stationed in eastern Oregon, we are circled by wildfires to the point that the few access roads teeter on the edge of closure, smoke haze hangs low in the sky and floating ash stings eyes and hampers breath. Despite the poetic license above, geographically speaking, the description isn't overblown. Hundreds of fires are blazing in California, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, where this little valley is hemmed in by smoke from roaring conflagrations that moved so fast dozens of homes and thousands of cattle stand helpless before wind-driven flames. But this is just the physical metaphor of how Western society is burning and America, under the present administration, is leading the way. (There was a real temptation here to add "to hell," but I got a grip on myself.)