Solidarity and the California Wildfires
The American Solidarity Party of California is grieved at the devastating loss of life and property in the wildfires of southern California earlier this month. We call on all Californians to make their solidarity tangible with material help, policy solutions, and prayer for God’s mercy in the lives of those affected.
We are similarly grieved at the avalanche of misinformation, conspiracies, and calumnies that have only added to the misery of the situation. While scapegoating is an all-too-human reaction to disasters of this magnitude, it is the duty of public authority to foster solidarity and concord rather than fan the flames of enmity between citizens for political advantage. Sadly, before he was even inaugurated as President, Donald Trump set exactly the wrong example on January 8 when he wrote on Truth Social (his own social media platform):
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
His childish name-calling aside, the chief role model for America’s youth once again demonstrated a contempt for the truth and an incapacity for responsible leadership. There was no “water restoration declaration” that California’s governor refused to sign. Sending more water to southern California would have done nothing to prevent the fires. Gov. Newsom had little to do with the delta smelt controversy, which is overwhelmingly a federal issue; and for the record he has largely been in favor of more water, to the frustration of smelt defenders. In any case, environmental policies affecting the delta smelt have literally zero impact in the region of the fires. There is nothing Gov. Newsom could have done about dry fire hydrants, even if he had the authority to require every California city to have a water infrastructure capable of defeating a fast-spreading city-wide fire. No city does this anywhere because, in most cases, it would be absolutely cost-prohibitive.
Following this, people who know nothing about the challenges of California water policy or fire management have been spreading rumor after rumor, all the way up to claims that the fires were deliberately planned for political or financial reasons.
One reason for this madness is that our political, economic, and social structures are fundamentally adversarial. Conflict is seen as the engine of progress. “Winning” takes precedence over justice. As a result, many of us have adopted a reflexive adversarial approach to all of society’s problems – it’s us versus them. And there is almost nothing we can say about “them” that is too outrageous to be believed.
The solution is what it always has been: solidarity. Criticism can only be trusted in the context of solidarity. If you have no feeling of solidarity with those whom you criticize - if you don’t see yourself in them, as a fellow sinner, sufferer and bearer of the imago Dei - your perspective will be distorted, your judgments rash and tainted, and your criticism will miss the mark.
The Platform of the American Solidarity opens with “the belief that all people are created with an equal and inviolable dignity before God. Our shared nature as image-bearers is the source of our rights as individuals; it also demands that we pursue justice together, at whatever level of government or society responds best to the needs of our families and communities. Recognizing that governments derive their just authority from God, we seek laws and policies that put the universal call to love our neighbor into practice by promoting authentic human freedom and flourishing.”
There are undoubtedly policy improvements that ought to be enacted to mitigate fires in California. Those discussions need to happen. Investigations may reveal culpable neglect in various places, in which case there should be proportionate consequences. But we must avoid the temptation of scapegoating. People who choose to live in beautiful places where there has always been an inordinate risk of fires cannot expect a risk-free life. And who shall we blame for inaccessible terrain, 60 mph gusts, and the dryest nine months on record? The Anglo-American legal tradition has long referred to events like wildfires as “acts of God” for a reason: they are largely beyond human agency. That should humble us a little, restrain our judgments, and move us to solidarity with all those who bear His image and share His world.