The Color of Dawn: Day 2 of the San Diego Firestorm

The sun is doing its best to shine on San Diego this morning. But it is the yellow-orange hue mixed with gray ash that is dawn today. It is day two of smoke and Mother Nature's wrath. The wind has settled some and more help is on the way.

For the past 24 hours I have seen dancing flames rip through entire neighborhoods. I have listened to reporters tirelessly recount the events moment by moment until they can barely speak from exhaustion. I have seen the silhouettes of bravery, those fighting the fire and putting their lives on the line for the safety of others. I have seen hundreds of thousands of people, small children, the sick and elderly, strewn throughout stadiums, school and fairgrounds. I have seen the night sky littered with bright red embers and unrelenting walls of flames.

But what I have not seen are a people divided. There has been no judgment or color of skin. No sexual orientation or religion better than an other. In the place of prejudice, doctrine and status is compassion. Our eyes are all stinging with the same devastation. Our hearts are all broken from the same wrenching sights of those without homes. Our skin, hair and clothes all wreak with the stench of burning loss. What I see is one people coming together, holding one another up, giving of themselves and their resources, gifting blankets and food, diapers and teddy bears.

Is this what it takes to act as one? Is having 300,000 people evacuated; more than 1,000 structures burned to the ground; lives lost and limbs burned what it takes for us to get it?

Our vision as we look out together into this vast lens of change is the same. That vision is one of hope for all of humanity. That vision is that someday we will all see that those things that make us as individuals different, the things we once judged and mocked in our ignorance are the same things that may someday come to take your hand as you prepare to sleep where football players play and horses race.

It just may be that what you see in the face of a stranger whose race nor color nor creed matter is that we really are all the same as you lay in a stadium filled with despair because your home has been swept away by flames.

Comments

[NCGigi]

What a terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Keep being kind. Kindness is all that matters.

[barriosbabe]

We're moving to the Midwest next year, where there are four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and construction. Here in L.A. the four seasons are fire, flood, slippage, earthquake.

[OSIRISZ]

I agree. I witnessed the same thing after the attacks on the world trade center. That was the first time New Yorkers came together. Its sad that when tragedies like this occur, its the only time people come together

[Independent voter]

Has anybody noticed that New Orleans is waist deep in water again?

[joja]

My heart goes out to the people in Cali who are having to deal with this.

I hope you don't become another New Orleans, but Bush is still the prez and I'm sure he'll fuck this emergency up, just like every other one he's had to deal with.

Get ready for an insurance nightmare like the folks in Florida are still going thru 2 years after 4 hurricanes hit in one season.

[specultr]

Why are the victims of California wildfires described by the msm as evacuees, while the Katrina victims were refugees?

[TheWesternBreed]

Right now they're evacuees. If they have to fly out to San Bernardino or Phoenix, they'll be refugees.

[NABNYC]

California is doing a terrific job in the midst of a disastrous perfect storm: 100 mph winds, single-digit humidity, 90 degree heat, and hundreds of thousands of people forced to evacuate.

Continuing his mission to disprove the belief that all Republicans are stupid and incompetent, even Arnold is doing a good job. He's not sitting in an office somewhere giving speeches. He is with the people, in Qualcom, at Del Mar, overseeing the evacuations and the need for food, water, medical care.

The bad news is that Bush has declared California a national disaster, and has sent Chertoff to the state. I suspect that's the real reason so many people have evacuated and are fleeing. Will Chertoff send Blackwater troops out to indiscriminately massacre civilians? Will they bulldoze all the homes on the coast to make room for gambling casinos? Stay tuned.

And Bush will be flying over the state sometime this afternoon in Air Force One, looking out the window to "see" the fires. Can't wait.

I hope every Republican refuses any assistance during this disaster. When the government emergency groups tell the Republicans to evacuate, I hope they refuse because they don't believe in government. Stay in your homes, do it for Bush and the neocons. Don't back down in the face of a mountain full of fire.

All the government entities are doing a terrific job. Imagine 300,000 people on the I-5, the 405, or the 101, all trying to leave at the same time. Kind of like a Friday afternoon in the summer. Panic, terror, horrible fear of what will be there when they return. Yet the governor, the mayors, the police, sheriff, highway patrol, and most especially the firefighters (is "good looking" one of the criteria for the job?) are doing their job to help and protect the people. JUST LIKE GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO DO. Thanks to all the government employees for their good work.

[shockedNawed]

Fabulous comment. Good for you and your satirical edge.

[barriosbabe]

You make a good point about traffic. Let me take off my foil hat for a moment. If the 5 north is closed, the 15 to Vegas is closed, etc (they aren't, but they have been this last week) and things get worse, where would people run to? Southern California really is a bottleneck. What are we talking about here, how many millions with no place to go? I live in 91606 where the concrete jungle keeps us fairly protected (yuck), but there really isn't any place to "hide."

[MaxZook]

Contrast this with the common L.A. attitude towards the fires in Malibu, where it seems that because some of the homeowners are wealthy, they deserve to lose their homes ;... from the Los Angeles Times:

http://tinyurl.com/266dxm

[DanNo13]

Yeah, right. Because a columnist in the LA Times writes about finding a bunch of nasty stuff written on internet bulletin boards, that means that the common attitude in LA towards our neighbors' tragedy is they deserve it because they are rich.

What an idiotic comment...

[MaxZook]

I live in LA and I've heard three people in the last 24 hours say that people who live in the Malibu hills are "stupid" and deserve to lose their homes.

Those are stupid comments -- and I've told them so to their faces.

[flatus]

Here are a few tips for the potential homebuiders out there.

1. Do not build on the seashore or below sea level.
2. Do not build on a river's flood plain.
3. Do not build in the woods.
4. Stone is preferable to wood.

[FirstShirt]

Bingo. And, don't expect the taxpayers to bail you out.

[rfshunt]

Lets see how many Orange County republicans turn down federal disaster relief money when it becomes available.

[cordier]

Spoken like a true Republican!

Obviously you have never been to California or else you'd know that we have:
1. 1000 miles of coastline
2. valleys
3. canyons
4. mountains
5. deserts

What would you have us do? Abandon the State of our birth because YOU say so? Sorry you missed the point of Michelle's blog, and glad you're not here w/us in San Diego. The people here are generous of spirit and wealth and you, FirstShirt, are neither.

[Misanthrope2]

We don't expect the taxpayers to bail us out. We have insurance.

Most of those who lose their homes will rebuild with private insurance.

[banjomike]

One by water, another by fire. Only the names of the stadiums change. You have my prayer that S. California doesn't become the New Orleans of the west.

[bayouwaterdog]

Not to worry. Too many electoral votes are up for grabs.

[shockedNawed]

Fat chance that'll happen. "I'LL BE BACK" has his buddy BUSH on it, as we speak.

[Misanthrope2]

San Diego's cops did not run away and hide like New Orleans.