Look Beyond the Helpers

Hi folks.

It’s been a week since I last wrote to you, and in Los Angeles it has felt like a month. Devastating fires have changed this city forever, with entire neighborhoods burned to the ground. Citizens are on edge as we face another week of high winds, which, when paired with the fact that we haven’t had any significant rain since May 5th of last year, primes LA for large scale fire events. If you are interested in learning more about how fire is part of the landscape of Southern California, check out this excerpt from Mike Davis’ Ecology of Fear on Longreads here.

In the wake of such loss, it is easy for our attention to be drawn to the politics of how it happened, blaming and finger-pointing, calls of arson, looting, rent hikes, profiteering off of tragedy. I have also seen some version of Fred Rogers’s famous advice to look for the helpers. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,” Rogers said to his television neighbors, “my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

Wonderful advice for children. But as adults, we must come to see these moments as opportunities to be helpers and to truly understand what a privilege it is to be of service at this time. So that, god forbid, when our own lives we have built from scratch are destroyed by climate change, by corporate greed, by the apathy of our own government, we are surrounded by the care and support of fellow humans.

If you are local to LA, check out this spreadsheet. It organizes the places that are accepting donations and what kinds, who is in need of volunteers, and it is updated daily. If you are not local to LA, GoFundMe has compiled a list of fundraisers for people affected by the fire; there are many that have not yet met their fundraising goal and you can donate here.

The mutual aid that is arising from this tragedy is stunning and a true reflection of the city’s promise. Be a helper this week.