Jan 11, 2025
Readers of my articles will know that I don’t usually hold back.   However, this month I’m going to keep it short.  The fires across Los Angeles County are devastating. The death toll will rise. People’s livelihoods have been destroyed. Lives devastated. Homes gone.  There is a lot to process.  There is a lot to discuss.  Why was the mayor of L.A. in Africa when we all knew in advance about the risk and we knew in advance about the winds?  Why don’t we have enough water?  Why don’t we have enough reservoirs?  However, now is not the time for me to go through line by line or to get too political. I’ll save that for next month. Because our elected officials need to be held to account. And they will be.  For now though, politics can take a back seat.   What matters right now is helping others. What matters now is supporting each other. What matters now is asking, what can we do to help?  We know the devastating impact of wildfires. We’ve seen it before.  Ask yourself, what can you do to help next time?  Get trained in first aid? Get trained by the Red Cross? Join a community group? Get your neighbors together to plan an emergency response? Take Federal Emergency Management Agency training?  Ninety percent of the Red Cross are volunteers.  For now, if you can afford to donate, then donate. If you do have some time, look at getting training. Whatever you do, it can help when there’s the next disaster.   For now, open your hearts to others. For now, focus on being the best human being you can be. For now, focus on love. Be kind, be gracious, be understanding. For now, comfort others, for now donate to relief efforts if you can.  For now just show love.  For when the fires die down, when the flames are out. When people can sleep safe in their homes, in their beds, sleeping soundly, not worried that their lives and loves are about to be destroyed, that is when there shall be a reckoning.   Be under no illusion, difficult questions must be and shall be asked.   Be under no illusion, this out-of-control situation cannot ever happen again.  Be under no illusion, politicians will try and gloss over this and will try and move on. They’ll say it isn’t the time. They’ll say people are being political.  But be under no illusion, politicians must be and shall be held to account.   Our state cannot continue like this.   But for now, keep our brave firefighters in your thoughts and prayers. Keep checking in on each other. Keep showing love.  I pray that the fires are out soon. I pray for the protection of our firefighters. I pray for all our emergency workers.  May the Lord protect us all and through Divine Providence may this destruction, this nightmare be over soon.  Neil Fitzgerald is an international nonprofit leader having served in the U.S., U.K. and globally for various nonprofit and charity boards. He served as a conservative council member in the U.K. and as a campaign manager. “Right Here, Right Now” regularly appears on Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans. The post Neil Fitzgerald | A Lot to Process Amid LA Fires’ Devastation appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
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