The Los Angeles Wildfires

Usually, it takes a while into a new year for a truly unique news story to come up. You know, the first major news story to be identified with that year. 

Sometimes, however, it happens very quickly into a new year. I remember the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan back in 2011 feeling like it was the first news story to be firmly entrenched for that calendar year.

Well this year, we had one which came even earlier than that, of course. The wildfires in Los Angeles have wrought unbelievable devastation to the region. Of course, wildfires themselves are nothing new to the western half of the country. After all, mostly dry conditions in semi-arid land will have wildfires from time to time.

However, it seems like the severity of the wildfires in recent years has grown. There may or may not be more such fires, but they appear to have grown in intensity.

Still, these recent Los Angeles wildfires stand out in particular. As I understand it, the dry conditions were mixed with unbelievably strong winds, which of course allowed the fires to jump around, and incredibly quickly. There was a water shortage to boot. And so the fres spready, and astonishingly quickly.

By now, we have all seen the utter devastation. Thousands of homes and buildings have burned down. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from high risk areas. Businesses closed for many days. And we all saw pictures of the sky over Los Angeles looking literally apocalyptical.

There is not much that I can add to this story. Like most people, I watched this news story in horror, but from afar. My one and only visit to Los Angeles came last spring, so it makes it feel a bit more real to me, since I know some of the areas which were in danger and outright affected. 

Yet, I am literally on the other side of the continent. The major natural disaster that I can remember here in the greater New York/New Jersey area was the complete opposite of this. It was back in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy wrought unbelievable devastation. Whole parts of towns were underwater in a matter of hours. Homes and even neighborhoods were largely destroyed. The region made all sorts of headlines for what happened. Similar to New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina a few years earlier, and similar to the Carolinas and Florida last year.

Of course, the situation in Los Angeles is very different. What is sad is how this has become politicized, with members of Congress threatening to withhold funds, largely for political reasons. And an incoming president blaming the our sitting president, Joe Biden, and California's governor, Gavin Newsome, for the disaster. Those stories are reprehensible. They illustrate the worst of what people can do and be, and betray an increased absence of empathy and, frankly, yes, maturity in this country. There are times for political games and maneuvering, but a natural disaster is not one of those times. There are thousands of people there who need help, and they deserve better than slimy politicians trying to play the blame game and using that as justification to try and withhold emergency funding. 

Nor is it just politicians. I saw some frankly cold-hearted Facebook posts from a high school classmate who's political leanings should be obvious enough that I need not bother mentioning them here. He had several fabricated images of politicians, including President Biden and Governor Newsome, standing before the fires, with a clear implication that they are responsible for them. Another showed the fires burning out of control over the entire city (again, a fabricated image) with the words "God is Not Mocked" written underneath, and then explaining how "Hollywood" had mocked God at one of the awards shows just days earlier. The implication, of course, is that God is punishing Hollywood, and Los Angeles more generally, for being Godless sinners, presumably. 

Somehow, of course, when natural disasters occur in the "good" red states, these are tragedies which are horrible, and which we all need to try and do our part to help alleviate the situation. Some of them even suggest - apparently with a straight face - that the elites (by which they presumably mean liberals or Democrats) have machines which control the weather, and so they are responsible for these disasters, much like they are apparently responsible for the Los Angeles wildfires.

I will say it again: we need to grow up in this country, collectively. This kind of conduct and thinking should be beneath us. It should not be tolerated, and it is unbecoming of thinking adults, frankly. 

Despicable. 

Also, incredibly ugly. You know, I am not the most religious person, admittedly. But if anything, when I see the conduct (often very public, and too often without any sense of humanity or shame, frankly), it makes me run the other way from those people claiming to be religious There are some good people who take their religious faith seriously. We just lost Jimmy Carter, who seemed like such a person. He believed in his religion, and tried to practice his beliefs, both in his everyday conduct, as well as what he did to contribute to making the world a better place, like building homes for poor people. That, to me, is what Christianity should be about. What I have read of Jesus and his words in the Bible, it seems like that is what He would do. But this petty finger pointing and blaming the victims, and mocking them, all the while proclaiming themselves to be of some kind of superficial moral high ground?

No, sorry. That's not for me. The audacity. The level of arrogance and entitlement that they betray time and time again. That kind of religion has indeed become very popular in the United States in recent decades. But it's nothing that I want any part of, frankly. And I say that basing it on the conduct which I have seen far, far too many of the practitioners engaging in. 

Really, there are no words which I can say which could possibly make the situation better. I am not a man who has much in the way of faith, at least in terms of established religions. So I will not say anything about sending prayers, which is the common sentiment that most people share.

However, I will say that my heart goes out to all of those affected by these horrific wildfires. My sincere hope is that the fires are out soon, and that life returns to relative normality in the near future there. I will look to see if there is a good charity to contribute to, so that I can do my part to help out.