Dad would comment “It takes all kinds to make a world, and somehow every one of them got in it.” He credited the comment to Oscar Banner, an old neighbor he met as Dad was moving his life from the Navy to northwest Montana.
As an early member of the Forest Service, Oscar had achieved a certain level of fame for looking at what his father was accomplishing, deciding his efforts were inadequate, and firing him. Family dinners must have been interesting at the Banner household.
It interested me to read that there was a suspect arrested for arson over in Spokane – somehow, I’m a lot more accustomed to people from that area asking how we’re doing with fires here, so an arson arrest didn’t surprise me.
Now an arrest doesn’t mean guilt. But the first thing I heard about this dude was that he had a record in the Southwest. Then came his name – Aaron Farinacci – and a little information about his record. He’s 37, and the court records show that he shot his father, dead, back in 2010, in Mesa, Arizona.
Seems like his father asked him to wash the dishes. So Aaron shot him. Then threatened his mother with the gun, and then shot himself. Both of those details have some importance. Specifically, another of Dad’s observations comes to mind: “A guy who will shoot himself will shoot anybody.”
The Arizona court reduced the charges to manslaughter, and got a guilty plea. He’s been out of the big house since 2020. The reports from Washington show that it was citizen involvement that got him busted in Spokane. Sixty thousand Spokanites evacuated. 700 buildings gone. Farinacci had been questioned about previous arsons around Spokane.
August is the month when I’m concerned about fire. As September moves in, the days get shorter and the nights get cooler – that doesn’t prevent fires, but it does make fighting fire a bit easier (there is nothing easy about fighting fire to the guy with a Pulaski and gloves that have been turned inside out).
I’m getting ready to mow hay – the precipitation this past Winter and Spring left my subirrigated fields too wet to mow until now. That’s probably a good thing – but none of our communities needs a nut with a Zippo and matches.
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