The explanations will have to wait.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
When a disaster like the California wildfires plays out on national TV, it’s understandable why so many, although unsure what should have been done, are eager to see someone blamed. Usually, and often appropriately, that is politicians — or, if there’s a way to blame the media somehow, that too can come into play, and indeed, sometimes should.
To be sure, we saw a “perfect storm” of factors, some natural, some avoidable, some a result of complex elements that require extensive untangling. Many people, of course, will have instant analyses, and claim to know exactly “the reason” this happened.
Apart from those risking their lives to fight these deadly blazes, the roles of everyone else in what happened will need examination.
We know that much already.
California politicians from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on down, and certainly including LA Mayor Karen Bass (D), will be expected to explain why they were not better prepared — if indeed there is even some specific thing that they obviously should have done and failed to do. That is, in a place prone to fires and winds and droughts and populated by people who want to live in the hills. And in a city whose infrastructure is underfunded despite the prodigious wealth of the upper strata there.
However, instead of gleefully pointing fingers and trying to exploit this crisis for political gain — something they accuse Democrats of doing whenever some mass shooter butchers school children — Republicans and their allies should also be held accountable for standing in the way of policies that address climate change.
In both cases, powerful special interest groups — the gun and fossil fuel lobbies, respectively — are influencing the Republicans’ actions.
It will also be necessary to once again talk about misinformation on social media. It’s safe to assume that a lot of the “information” that Elon Musk and others like him are spreading about lower fire department budgets or the impact of DEI initiatives on the preparedness of firefighters will prove to be either completely or substantially false.
Then there is the media, which is always willing to benefit from a profitable audience spike during a crisis without contributing much in terms of genuinely useful information. Instead, it’s just talking heads, who have suddenly become experts on how much underbrush has to be burned off to protect forests, yelling at each other. (And still we watch, because at least the footage is powerful and the maps and data graphics good to study. It also is somehow irresistible, a compelling if unsatisfying way to indulge our need to do something, even if just from our couches.)
Of course, when families affected by the fires realize that they won’t get made whole, there will also be a time to talk about the increasingly familiar topic of insurance companies, their profiteering and redlining, and the consequences.
However, right now is not the time for knee-jerk reactions based on incomplete information. We’ll leave that to others. Once the dust settles and the smoke clears, it will be time to take stock and to face some hard truths.
Here is one: A growing number of politicians are no longer willing and able to make difficult decisions that benefit the people — rather than special interest groups. They’re too busy scoring instant points, settling feuds, seeking attention, and kowtowing to magnates, influential constituencies, and — it must be said — Donald Trump, to actually dig in and solve complex problems before they get worse.
Right now, it’s the simple things we can and all should do — like sending money to the organizations helping the thousands of people who have lost their homes, checking on people we know, offering direct help. The time for investigations and proposed remedies will come later.
And we’ll be there for that.
