California Burning

No more water,
No more water,
No more water, but fire next time.

– Darius Brooks

Photo: Alan Penner

War. Fear. Flood.
Bombs. Scorn. Wind.
Greed. Hate. Fire.
There are those who believe that the “end times” approach. There are others who claim (with a disconcerting mixture of determination and delight) that we are being punished for our transgressions. Still others quietly wait within the shadows for all to fall, leaving a clean slate for the building of a better America.

Then, there are those who fight. Fight! Fight! Fight!

When the floods came to New Orleans, and Indiana, and Mississippi, they brought potable water, drove ambulances, and filled sandbags until their hands became numb. When the winds rose in the Caribbean, Texas and the Carolinas, they boarded over windows, trucked out their neighbors, and set up safe shelters and reliable communication networks. They heard the call, and came, and stayed until the troubles passed.

Now, in California, the Santa Ana winds have inflated wildfires into giants, and blown them into the realm of man. And, the firemen have come to fight. They labor to exhaustion, knowing that the fires have no preference or conscience, and cannot be reasoned with. They know fire has no score to settle, no divine message to deliver. Fire cares not whether it consumes back-country scrub, or trailer, or mansion. It is a force of nature, and can neither be bidden nor ignored. Still, the firemen fight, knowing that battle is the only thing that will tamp down the giants.

Photo: Beth Adelson



Meanwhile, in California and across the country, another inferno gains strength. We, in the land of the free, have (once again) notified our brothers and sisters that our freedom is not designed to be their freedom; that God has pre-ordained that their state of man is a lesser form than ours. A majority of Americans in California, Arizona and Florida voted to forbid the institution of marriage to gay men and women – and felt right about it.

But, here too, champions have stepped forward, have raised their voices in support of human rights. They know that bigotry and hatred cannot be reasoned with; that those who hate may have a score to settle, but no divine message to deliver; that those who oppose them would consume them, and move on, with a song on their lips. But, those who fight are fast becoming a force of nature in their own right. They will neither be bidden to stand down, nor ignored. They know that the battle is the only thing that will tamp down the giants of intolerance.


And, I applaud the heroes and heroines who fought today. All those who battled to preserve their rights and property, all those who defended the homes and civil liberties of their neighbors, and all those who fought on behalf of those they did not know personally, but recognized in spirit. Without their reinforcement, we would have fallen long ago.

Fight! Fight! Fight!