After the 9-11 attacks, Obama’s Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, famously said, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” California’s DEI and Green policy chickens have come home to roost in the ashes of a burned-out state.
Once upon a time, I worked as a therapeutic counselor for “troubled teens.” Part of their problem was that they blamed everyone but themselves for their problems. Our counseling method was called “Reality Therapy.” Whenever they made foolish choices, our response was, “Live with your answers.”
For the ruling Democratic Party adolescents of California, their answers have finally caught up with them. For every California voter who voted for the virtue-signaling policies and freebies, your answers have caught up with you. Your answers have burned you to the ground. Reality caught up with you.
Will Californians Learn from their Answers?
When you elect woke politicians whose priorities are feel-good woke policies instead of common-sense fire prevention, your answer is to ignore reality. But guess what? Reality won’t ignore you! Now, Californians are living with their answers. They smell the smoke of their answers every day as their homes burn. Families grieve over the tragic answer of at least 27 avoidable deaths in the wildfires.
Reality Therapy for California
The situation was not complicated or unforeseeable. Southern California has always been dry and subject to wildfires. The Santa Ana winds come every year. High winds that can fan flames. Southern California gets its water from aqueducts channeling water from the wetter mountains of Northern California. Reservoirs store that water for use during dry spells. That is the reality of water availability in Southern California.
So, what did the elected officials do? They restricted the building of more dams that would have created a bigger water supply with more reservoirs. Why? Because of “green ecological” concern for the smelt fish that might not have been able to navigate the fish ladders built to go around dams. Also, the hidden green agenda was to restrict the number of people by restricting the water supply. In the meantime, water officials decided not to refill all available reservoirs.
So, reality caught up with them when the water ran out for firefighting. Fire hydrants in some areas had no water. The firefighters could not do their job. Green ecology was prioritized over firefighting. The reality of the green woke policies was “better to burn than to stockpile water.”
Living with your Answers: “Green” Forestry Policies are Brown!
Professional forestry people know that allowing brush to accumulate in forests creates a dangerous “fuel load” for wildfires. Professional foresters also know that thinning out the forest with selective logging creates more space for sunlight to grow the remaining trees. Building logging roads to do this also creates fire breaks that aid firefighters in containing forest fires. Thinned forests are healthier forests. Thinned forests are better able to resist spreading forest fires.
But, the answer in our National Forests and the state forests of California has been the “green” answer: no thinning and no clearing of brush. No building of roads as fire breaks. Well, guess what? The “green” answer is the “brown” answer. The brown of burning trees and brush. The wildfires that are now burning down Los Angeles.
Which Competence? Firefighting or DEI?
As the infomercials on TV used to say, “But Wait! There’s more!”
Many commentators are saying that the elected officials and fire chiefs are incompetent. I disagree. I say that they are perfectly competent at doing what they were elected or hired to do: implement DEI policies, not implement fire prevention policies.
Exhibit A: LAFD Assistant Fire Chief Kristine Larson is the head of the Equity and Human Resources Bureau. In a 2019 video, she said, “You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it’s a medical call or a fire call, that looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better,”
My situation?!? My situation is that MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE! So, if I’m black, I don’t want a white fireman to save my burning house? If I’m Latino, I don’t want a black fireman to put out the flames and save my family? Firefighting is not their mission, DEI hires are their mission! We are not here to put out fires; we are here to hire minorities and LGBTQ++ people and show how proud we are of them!
Nicole Silverio reported in The Daily Caller that some questioned whether women firefighters were strong enough. Ms. Larson answered, “‘Is she strong enough to do this,’ or ‘You couldn’t carry my husband out of a fire.’ Which my response is, he got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire,”
So, if your house is burning, it’s your fault. How dare you expect me to do the job of a firefighter and carry you out of a burning building!
Exhibit B: Los Angeles Mayor Bass cut the budget for the LAFD. Nicole Silverio reports: “Bass approved a budget for the city in June that included a $17.6 million cut of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s (LAFD) budget after she had initially pushed for a $23 million cut.”
So, where do California politicians want to put money? Not on protecting the citizens’ homes from fire. From Nicole Silverio’s piece: “The special session decided to allocate $25 million to the California Department of Justice to fight against Trump’s policy agenda when he reenters office.” Stop Trump while California burns.
Incompetent? No! Perfectly Competent.
The point is that these government officials are perfectly competent at enacting Green and DEI programs, which is what the voters elected them to do. The true purpose of government, protecting citizens, has been forgotten by California voters. Now, they are living with their answers. They got what they voted for.
Michael McCarthy is the author of a Christian conservative thriller trilogy about resistance to big government tyranny: The Noah Option, The Rainbow Option, and The Timshel Option, which are available in bookstores and the America Out Loud Bookstore. Listen to an audio version of The Noah Option, now available on Audible.com.
Image: AP
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