The California Wildfires, Government, and Necessity

I advise my school's Sigma Kappa Delta chapter. It is an English Honor Society and we are very active. Students have volunteered for the Literacy Coalition; we run a Poetry and Storytelling Night; we just had a Friendsgiving; we're currently gathering books for a reading room in a hospital. If you want to read about our past endeavors, here's a round-up of last year's activity.

Sigma Kappa Delta also sponsored a literary journal which was published on the school's website. Our students did amazing work putting this together and allowing our campus community to express itself. I can't really ask for anything else–students doing more, not being afraid to create, encouraging each other–I mean, this is what it's all about. I'd love if you'd look through the issue. If you like anything you read, let me know in the comments! I'll pass the compliments on to the contributors and editorial board:

OC Oraciones, Issue 1, January 2025

Me, on television

In this segment from CBS7 news, there's a brief clip of me arguing that TikTok isn't merely an addictive habit, as people depend on it for their livelihoods. There's another segment of a report where I'm featured here and there 3 times. When I get a link to that, I'll share it.

Song: Pale Waves, "Noises"

"I feel like I'm slowly losing myself / I'm afraid that I need help" – it's funny listening to a song and thinking that the lyrics don't fit my life, but they're still compelling. I think what I relate to is that need for any recognition or approval. There are times we're absolutely desperate for it and we're not wrong. You do need some kind of signal you're on the right track, and neglect can be devastating when there's no signal forthcoming.

The California Wildfires, Government, and Necessity

I started my Federal Government classes by talking about the California wildfires and how they encourage reflection on our collective capacities. Below is a short talk for an online section.

We are busy. Our families demand attention. There are chores to do, households to maintain, people to care for. Turn away for a moment and someone will ask for you. But there's work, too. Endless trainings, service with required smiles, managers always asking you to close. And what about friends? They want to see you, but they have needs too. You can't just go out and have a good time. You want to be able to really hear them, and hopefully they want to really hear you, too.

This is a lot to manage. I haven't even mentioned school! Or relationships! Life is busy, and there isn't a lot of space to think about government. Not just what it does, but the situations where it is demanded, how it relates to society, and what capacities it implies. So we need to start with a concrete example of what government entails. Unfortunately, one of the most pressing examples is a still ongoing tragedy. The county around Los Angeles has been burning because of wildfires the likes no one has ever seen. People described fire hurricanes because fierce winds kept picking up glowing embers and throwing them on anything that would catch fire. In one PBS Newshour report about the fires, you watched a man who evacuated go back to his home and see nothing there but a pile of ash. He immediately broke down. He is 86 years old; the home was filled with memories of his late wife; he has to rebuild at his age, somehow.

The question of how government is relevant emerges so clearly here, especially when you consider how many times we hear government is useless or worse than useless. We often encounter someone who complains that their taxes are wasted. In my neighborhood growing up, quite a few people complained that the fire department even existed. It's okay to be skeptical and ask questions. Any institution that takes your money has to be held accountable. But when we have to confront the enormity of some emergencies, when we realize that any given town or city or county doesn't really have the resources it needs for the worst scenarios, we can see that government has to have a lot at its disposal. As you saw on the videos, what was needed to extinguish the wildfires were helicopters which could drop massive amounts of water and fire suppressing chemicals. Think about how much that implies about a governmental agency tasked with stopping fires: 1) need helicopters, need to store them, need to equip them properly, need to maintain them 2) need pilots, ones trained in firefighting 3) there needs to be practice. Here I'm just talking about helicopters. What about land use? What can government do with regards to zoning or regulation that might prevent an area from getting too dry? What kind of experts are needed on hand to advise with regard to fire prevention and safety? How much does all this cost? We're simply talking about fire: we haven't spoken about hospitals, police, laws, schools, trash pickup, parks, museums, the military, medical research, space exploration and a thousand other things government is involved in which we take for granted.

I'd like you to reflect on how government doesn't just need resources and power for emergencies. Government also involves the thinking which invites people to plan for the future. It's about reflecting on what communities, not just individuals, need. You can say this isn't exclusive to government. There are professors who study how regions develop over time and how to manage issues of change. Sometimes a private company does try to predict what an area needs and sell a solution. There are communities and societies with very strong social bonds that plan beautifully. And I'll agree! The thinking government has to do isn't exclusive to it, but it is a moral priority for government. It is not optional if a government wants legitimacy.

So I want us to have some vocabulary to talk about what's involved in this sort of thinking and planning. How do we explain to someone who believes amazon.com can replace a public library that a library is so much more than books? That people are acting in the capacity of public servants, trying to address a community's needs and prepare them for the future? This small list isn't exhaustive, but it should get you to find terms of your own for what government addresses:

• Collective action problem – in the video, you heard about a lack of water pressure making it impossible to effectively fight fires. Everyone wanted water to fight fires at their specific location, and the demand caused the system to malfunction. This is a collective action problem: there is something which all of us need to do or else all of us suffer (cooperate in fighting a specific fire). However, we have our own idea of what is good (fighting the fire closest to us). The resources diverted to one person's notion of what is good are conflicting with what is best or the highest priority for everyone. Monopolies are a good example of a collective action problem. It can benefit us individually to shop at a place which has no competition and dominates the market. However, by giving one company that much power, we lose as a collective. That company buys everything else up and finds ways to exploit us.
• Self-sufficiency – It is true we need to figure out how to take care of ourselves as individuals. People can't do everything for us. But this logic can be pushed too far. Think about the wildfires and how much is needed not just from strangers, but from institutions and experts no one ever thinks about. What's happening is that we, as a society, will act like everyone must be able to take care of themselves with no help. That's not possible – a large part of being independent is knowing how to ask for assistance, learning who to trust, and being someone trustworthy yourself. People insist that complete self-sufficiency is possible while saying government is useless. I'd like you to think about interdependence. It does seem we can be free, we can be relatively powerful and independent, when we know how we depend on each other. How exactly do we get that knowledge?
• Complexity – Look at how complicated it is to fight fires! How hard it is to make sure people evacuate, are taken care of, and can rebuild! These are not simple problems. Just one person losing everything requires the assistance of an entire community, if not communities. Now think about the planning involved, especially that of land use policy. How do we build to make sure the worst sort of disaster doesn't happen again? How do we establish authority and credibility so people make choices which don't result in hurting each other? How do we even determine what experts we need? These are very clearly questions for the public, and the public needs a representative to sort through them. Government, or something like government, is necessary for being able to appreciate how complex the issues we face are.

None of this is to say that everything the U.S. government does is right or useful. But we hear continually that if people were left alone and there were no rules, that would be true freedom and everything would work out. We hear that taxes pay for nothing even as people clearly benefit from the services they provide. It's important, in the face of this skepticism and cynicism, to note that government involves thinking and planning we don't normally acknowledge or do. It requires a mindset which differs from how we approach our everyday lives. We need to take the time to think about how groups, communities, and institutions work. We need to not take public service for granted.