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Re: [at-l] Northern NY, VT, NH, ME

Beau Bushor writes:

>                 If you have never given back to the trails now is your
> chance.  Your excuses need to end.  Payment is due.  Join the ATC, a
> local club and support them.  Send some cash to the clubs in the above
> affected areas. 

Good idea. I, for one, shall throw my machete, sven-saw and
backboard into the ring. Any excuse to kill some trees.

[...]

>                    What has fired me up is the lack of help people were
> willing to give.  I've never heard so many lame excuses.  Two nights in a
> row I was in NY running emergency communications in sub zero temps.  My
> Walrus Swift, non free standing, was much better to sleep in than the Ford
> Explorer.  Most of the messages send were for more help.  With few
> replies.  Just like the trails.  

You got that right. It sounds like you've experienced the
essence of the cell phone debate writ huge. Oh, wait. That's
not what you meant at all.

What did you expect? When people are unwilling to ensure
their own well being -- to follow the tenet that charity
*begins* at home -- what makes you think that they'll
be willing to take the subsequent step of volunteering
charity to the community?

>                                 Those who were helping were the same ones
> who always help.  This time people died from the excuses made by those who
> never help.  I wonder if the AT or any other trail will die someday
> because of excuses? 

That is a totally unfair comparison. The Appalachian Trail
itself exists solely out of the efforts of volunteers,
contributors and maintainers. People, on the other hand,
are largely capable of providing and are responsible for
their own well being. Things may have been different in
your neck of the woods, but from what little I've learned
about the recent ice storm in Maine, all of the deaths were
attributable to either accident or capital stupidity (such
as CO poisoning from running a generator inside a dwelling).
"Excuses" have nothing to do with it, and most of the 
suffering was totally avoidable.

You can shame or inspire people into contributing to trail
maintenance, but the lack of emergency preparedness by people
who should know better will not arouse much sympathy in me.

-- 
mfuller@somtel.com, Northern Franklin County, Maine
The Constitution is the white man's ghost shirt. }>:-/> --->
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