Biden hasn't played politics with LA fires. Trump will use disasters for revenge. | Opinion
Hopefully, Trump won't use the next natural disaster in California or some other blue state to inflict his revenge. But should anyone going through this horror and devastation has to wonder?
I am sitting inside my house in Los Angeles, about 5 miles from the nearest conflagration, about half that distance from the closest evacuation zone. Our go-bags are packed, and my wife’s sister has a guest room for us if it comes to that.
We are the lucky ones. For now, at least.
In a way, we are all lucky – that Joe Biden is still the president. It's a terrible thing to say, but it is undeniable.
The president spoke to the afflicted and the terrified in our region Thursday. He spoke with compassion and reassured us that the U.S. government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would do everything in their power to help.
There was no judgment in his words, no politics, no self-aggrandizement and certainly no manipulation or retribution.
The president’s humility and humanity are what we ought to expect from a president. Sadly, in the very near future, we can no longer enjoy such expectations.
I fear our next natural disaster under a Trump presidency
We will have a president with grudges to settle, a president who has promised retribution. Those of us who live in California will have a president who takes it personally that this state resoundingly rejected his candidacy three times − even if the most recent rejection was by a slightly smaller margin − and a president who has repeatedly attacked our leaders and has threatened to imprison one of our senators.
Fortunately, President Biden isn’t just offering support and resources for the remainder of his term; he is committing them generously for six months to assist those of us impacted by these fires. Hopefully, the new president won’t try to use his power to renege on that commitment.
Hopefully – and perhaps he won’t use the next natural disaster in California or some other blue state to inflict his revenge.
If that is true − if the hostile words and sentiments President-elect Donald Trump has expressed toward us turn out to be posturing and not real threats − what a relief, but should anyone going through this horror and devastation has to wonder?
We hope also that this will be our last round of natural disasters, but no one can realistically expect it to be. The fires keep getting worse – not just in California, but throughout the Western United States.
Trump’s promises to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and, as I watch the flames through the smoke that burns the eyes and throat, I find that his preference for and history of deregulation and his climate denialism are reasons for alarm.
I am not a scientist, but I believe in science. The war against science − whether about vaccines or climate science − is a war against humanity.
Trump's billionaire friends won't save us from the next wildfires
When I read about the cynical calculations of oil companies helping get Trump elected and when I read about anti-renewable energy activists, it is with a sense of dread and anger.
I am reminded of the words of Dr. Astrov in the third act of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya": “We are confronted by the degradation of our country, brought on by the fierce struggle for the existence of the human race. It is the consequence of the ignorance and unconsciousness of starving, shivering, sick humanity that, to save its children, instinctively snatches at everything that can warm it and still its hunger. So it destroys everything it can lay its hands on, without a thought for the morrow. And almost everything has gone, and nothing has been created to take its place.”
The play takes place more than a century ago, and Astrov is lamenting the destruction of the Russian forests and the refusal of so many people to build houses of stone and to warm them with turf, a plentiful resource that did not require deforestation, but which created less heat than wood.
Today it is not “starving, shivering, sick humanity” threatening the future; it is craven politicians unwilling to stand up to the selfishness and inhumanity of corporate power and billionaires who have abandoned any nonexploitive connection to working people.
I should say there is a reasonable discussion to be had about where people ought to live, especially along coasts and amid wooded areas where fire is part of the natural cycle − and that discussion should include the obligation of developers and the lawmakers who are supposed to regulate them to build housing that is safe and sustainable.
For now, though, I am grateful for the courageous firefighters risking their lives for us and grateful for a federal government and a president who cares.
Larry Strauss, a high school English teacher in South Los Angeles since 1992, is the author of “Students First and Other Lies: Straight Talk From a Veteran Teacher” and "A Lasting Impact in the Classroom and Beyond," a book for new and struggling teachers, due out this year.