The Hill Street Blahg

The wild fires in California are beyond belief. Its one thing to lose a house but it’s another thing to lose a home. Houses are nothing more than lumber, bricks, and mortar but what’s inside that house is what makes that house a home. Imagine having your most cherished personal possessions and family memorabilia destroyed in an instant. It must be emotionally devastating.

What is always amazing during disasters is how normal everyday people, who don’t even know one another, chip in to help others in need. I witnessed this camaraderie first hand during the 2004 hurricanes while living in Florida. There was no sitting around crying “woe is me” and blaming everyone else for their suffering. Everyone banded together to get the job done and to get on with life. From all reports, this same phenomenon is taking place in California. Unlike the Hurricane Katrina Superdome evacuees, there apparently is no rioting or any other unrest taking place at Qualcomm Stadium where up to 8,000 evacuees are being temporarily sheltered. I attribute this to the fire evacuees being proud self reliant people who haven’t surrendered their individual needs in exchange for entitlements.

I might add it was disturbing to hear Governor Schwarzenegger defending the dedicated fire fighters, the selfless volunteers and everyone else who are doing their best to make a bad situation better to a blood thirsty media. The only thing the news media was interested in was finding fault with relief efforts and finding someone to blame. And, if the media wasn’t bad enough, the politicizing of this disaster by the blame America first politicians was ill-conceived but certainly not unexpected. These politicians need to have their feet held to the fire for saying some of the things they are saying. Instead of politicking over this event, I would think Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer and the rest of the finger pointing politicians would bloviate more on an encouraging note than their usual diatribe.