focusing on the fire

… five football fields every minute…

I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around that reality for days now, watching the fires continue to engulf Southern California. Such is how fast authorities said the fire was initially spreading with zero containment at the time.

What an awful, awful thing.

The numbers are mind-boggling… the extent of the destruction… tens of thousands of acres burned… hundreds of thousands evacuated… still going…

When we experience awful things, we react. Fast and furiously, we want it to stop; we want to see it no more; no more hurt; and while so often there is nothing we can do, we feel helpless and find ways to react. And one of the fastest ways to react — even with the ongoing awful — is to blame a singular person.

I get it.

Blame is fast. It’s easy. And a singular individual or entity gives us a target at which to conveniently direct all of our emotion. It just may not be entirely accurate.

Let’s face it; much has contributed to California’s catastrophe. To suggest that this is all the result of climate change is an exercise in magnanimous naïveté.

To start with, greater Los Angeles was experiencing drought conditions. According to the Los Angeles Times, “The last time Los Angeles recorded rainfall over a tenth of an inch — the threshold that officials typically consider helpful for thirsty plants and the reduction of wildfire risk — was May 5, when downtown received just 0.13 inches of rain.”

Then came the Santa Ana dry winds — those that sweep down from the deserts and across the Southern California coast — which were said to be “supersized.” Topography played a role. Humidity was low. Then, too, multiple other aspects factored into both the initial and comprehensive response… land and forest management… fire department budget cuts… budget prioritization of other things… water availability… dry hydrants… ambiguous evacuation plans… emergency preparedness… inaccurate alert systems… etc. etc.

But… (Follow me here…)

Some of my friends who’ve come to a solid, Judeo-Christian faith have found their way there because of a simple, binary equation. They see evil on this Earth. They have no doubt evil is real. And they thus know a greater good must exist in order to counteract (and be victorious over) the evil.

One of the ways, no less, evil is alive and well is how satan — sorry, I don’t believe his name deserves capitalization — but how satan tempts us to focus on the wrong things at the right time.

Yes, in the current catastrophe, people certainly made mistakes. Yes, we might not like all the politics involved. True, we trust (rightly or wrongly) some politicians more than others. But the bottom line at this very moment in time is that the enormous problem needs to be solved. The fires need to be extinguished. People need help. They need our physical assistance and our heartfelt prayers. 

It matters not if the people are rich or poor, citizen or immigrant, celebrity or not. It matters not if you like them or not. Those affected by the fire need our prayers. Hence, it would be wisest to put our energies there.

The time for evaluation will come. Until then, let’s withhold casting any rhetorical stones, focusing first and foremost on the biggest problem at hand.

Respectfully…

AR