I was grocery shopping when the song playing through the store’s stereo system stopped me in my tracks. “It Never Rains In Southern California”, by Toni!Tony.Tone! It’s back at the center of my mind now because of these wildfires that have been ravaging the hills above Los Angeles all week. Fires that seem stripped from verses in the Bible. And for a lot of people looking on, their eventual talk brings them around to mentioning “end times” and the Book of Revelations. Others are making heavy mention of the great Octavia Butler and her “Parable of The Sower” which is lining up with the events of these five - FIVE - wildfires uncannily. It pains me to tune in to coverage of the fires, to see so many losing their homes and others evacuating.
Shit is a lot to take in. It’s only the eleventh day of the year. We’ve got neighborhoods burnt out, and the person who’s supposed to take the reins of the nation in nine days reminds you of that drunk at the end of the bar going on about bullshit back when Jimmy Breslin was king of the black&white print and when you had vending machines on the subway platforms, and no one is willing to tell him that he’s got pastrami crumbs on his lapel. Observing this while the entire East Coast down to the Carolinas has been in and out of a single-digit freeze? I don’t see how others can’t see anything is wrong. Besides the fact that we and the Earth are very (2024 was the hottest year in history - breaking the record last year), it’s a full tableau of everything we’ve ignored to land here.
The fires tug at my heartstrings with more force because there's a couple of good people I know out there. One good friend & her family call Altadena home. Fourteen miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, the neighborhood is one of the nation's oldest Black middle and working-class enclaves. It got that way because of highly discriminatory practices by realtors in the late 1940s. My friend's home so far has been spared from the Eaton Fire, but so many others have not been as lucky. Logging onto Twitter, or looking in on TikTok, there's so many who are out there seeking help because they've lost everything. So far, there is a running list of those who've started crowdfunding campaigns for Black families and individuals who have lost it all.
Speaking of social media, it seems like these wildfires also are another death knell for decency on Twitter, thanks to the machinations of Apartheid Andy aka Elon Musk. There’s been a few accounts with blue checks (those who decided to pay 8 bucks a month for “premium” status on a free app) who have gone out of their way to parrot misinformation for their echo chambers and for ragebait retweets. People lying about fire engines from other states having had trouble before arriving. People going out of their way to make the Black mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, the pinata for their anger and obscuring certain facts to do so, then deciding in a pathetic manner to whine that "it's not about race" when called out. People going after the governor, Gavin Newsom, including President-elect Donald Trump who is calling him "Newscum". People talking trash about the fire department headed by a woman. These half-assed keyboard warriors are getting worse by the day. And they’re being rewarded for it since Elon removed the majority of fact-checkers and made it so racists and trolls could avoid having their accounts blocked due to hate speech.
It's not hard to tell that once these fires are quelled, the price gouging is going to rev up - there are already landlords and realtors raising prices and coldly saying, "supply and demand" when challenged. The Altadena community especially needs protection because Pasadena has been slowly eroding its boundaries within the past decades in a not-so-subtle quest to fully incorporate the community into its own city. And this country has an unfortunate track record when it comes to Black people having their land taken from them.
The antidote to all that digital cowardice is to lend a hand, however you’re able to. Reposting links and videos where people are, donating money and resources. Resist the urge to excessively share the foul stuff people have said just so you can look good to your people with a slam dunk. Share the stories people need to read, such as those about the Resnicks, the billionaire couple behind the Wonderful brand who now owns a large chunk of California's water reserves. Or those about the incarcerated youth firefighters battling these fires, and how to help them (fundraiser is here). It's a new year, and there are those counting on you to continue not to focus on the proper places to help those out who need it. Don't give them that power.