Unnatural Disaster

Fires are raging through our neighborhoods, our lives, our democracy. They have come on suddenly, violently, unexpectedly, leaving us shocked and dazed. But there is hope.

When fire ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena in LA, as a former neighbor, I wondered how they would recover. The scorched landscapes—not uninhabited prairies or mountainsides, but people’s homes and lives—looked unimaginably lost.

Yet, more quickly than I imagined, the rebuilding has begun, Nothing can make up for the terrible losses, but, as in a remote corner of nature after a burn, green shoots of new life are emerging. It won’t be too long before vibrant communities thrive there again. They won’t be the same as before. Many of the people won’t be the same, but there will be community life once again, mothers, fathers and children, shopping for groceries,  playing soccer.

The fire that has burned through our national government has been just as sudden and swift. It has left so many injured, distraught and confused, wandering bewildered over the political landscape, scraping through the ashes looking for pieces of the things they, and we, all of us, have lost. Many are wondering how they can go on, whether their homeland will ever be the same, whether they will ever again feel welcome, and safe, here.

I believe we will survive, more than that, arise triumphantly. Like those sudden fires in LA, this too will pass The damage has been great, and the suffering is far from over, but we will rebuild.

The national fire has not been fully contained, and there are grave dangers that must be confronted, resisted, defeated, but our easily distracted arsonist-in-chief is off accepting a gilded airplane from foreigners and declaring trade victories and business deals that benefit him and his family. I don’t think he or his lackeys have set aside their blowtorches, but the emergency fire departments are beginning to arrive on the scene, in the forms of the judiciary and, however tentatively so far, members of Congress.

It’s going to be a slog, likely brutal at times, but if we work together we can restore our democracy and the lives of the people who have lost so much in this unnatural disaster. The key is to treat each other the way we would a neighbor whose house has burned down. Take them food, give them shelter, give them solace, give them hope. And in the giving, we will find hope for ourselves.