Ring of Fire
(Michael) ...Suffering, redemption, and decay!(Angels) It's a bitch.
--Wishing Window, Leonard Cohen
_________
A well-meaning conservative friend has just sent a series of pictures on the California wildfires under the caption, "Please Pray" (Godtube; it's not all about you.) They are dramatic, and show beautiful homes that look like small Hyatt Regencies going up in flames.
Most of those folks hot-tailed it our in their Hummers, and I found the most affecting photo to be one of two deer in the middle of a round surrounded by flames. The caption reads:
"Pray for all the people that have lost their homes.
Pray these fires die down soon.
Pray for the firefighters and their safety.
Please keep them safe.
"Please keep their homes, pets, and families safe.
Please convince people that no house is worth their lives,
and that they need to evacuate when asked.
Please keep people off their cell phones
so the firefighters can use the lines.
God, please let them all be okay.
[Well, at least that. Thank God they didn't have to worry about everyone having cell phones during Katrina. If any calls could have been made out, that is.]
But you know, it is not okay.
It is not okay to build such elaborate dwelling in such environmentally sensitive areas.
It is not okay to pray for the safety of such beautiful homes and beautiful people, while ignoring far more dire situations in which a much greater number of people suffer loss on a daily basis.
I received no such requests for prayer vigils after Hurricane Katrina, a debacle from which thousands are still suffering. But a shotgun shack under water doesn't seem to elicit the same pangs of sympathy from the prayer circle folk.
Everyone wants to be the people who are reaping the wind in California. Not that they want to suffer fire, but they want to have that castle in the hills. They can imagine themselves the brother of such a privileged one. Who wants to twin with the single mother of three on public assistance?
As one caller defiantly stated on an NPR call-in program Friday, "The California residents left when they were told," unlike those who abided in the wake of Katrina. The implication was clear: defiant or slovenly people are not treated to the same level of response.
How nice it is to have your own conveyance, and not be at the mercy of public transportation, and to have someplace to go, or the money with which to secure accommodations elsewhere. And the insurance with which to rebuild.
--Lisa
But you know, it is not okay.
It is not okay to build such elaborate dwelling in such environmentally sensitive areas.
It is not okay to pray for the safety of such beautiful homes and beautiful people, while ignoring far more dire situations in which a much greater number of people suffer loss on a daily basis.
I received no such requests for prayer vigils after Hurricane Katrina, a debacle from which thousands are still suffering. But a shotgun shack under water doesn't seem to elicit the same pangs of sympathy from the prayer circle folk.
Everyone wants to be the people who are reaping the wind in California. Not that they want to suffer fire, but they want to have that castle in the hills. They can imagine themselves the brother of such a privileged one. Who wants to twin with the single mother of three on public assistance?
As one caller defiantly stated on an NPR call-in program Friday, "The California residents left when they were told," unlike those who abided in the wake of Katrina. The implication was clear: defiant or slovenly people are not treated to the same level of response.
How nice it is to have your own conveyance, and not be at the mercy of public transportation, and to have someplace to go, or the money with which to secure accommodations elsewhere. And the insurance with which to rebuild.
--Lisa
Labels: california fires 2007
posted by rangeragainstwar at 5:15 PM
4 Comments:
Thank you for pointing out the world of differences between the Katrina disaster and the mess in So. Cal. Of course, not every person in California had one of those neo-Victorian mansions in the canyons, there are plenty of ordinary folks and some of them DID stay put in great fear. One reason? They wouldn't leave their pets....and their pets were not dogs or cats, but the still-illegal-in-California ferrets. Somebody (I hope somebody very honest and brass balled) will do a research project someday on ALL the differences, and I hope it is to put government on the grill over disparate response to rich and poor.
Them that has, gets.
Forgive me for digressing a bit but these two disasters bring to mind the free fire zone that was Fallujah.
Who didn't make it out of New Orleans? The old, the sick, the poor, those who didn't believe the warnings, those who wanted to stay and protect their homes. Many of the same type of people who didn't make it out of Fallujah.
trip wire,
A good digression. "Compassionate conservatism" doesn't really have a place for the poor, enfeebled, or infirm. Unless you've got a lot of money to protect yourself, that is.
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