By Carol Lucas
Earlier in the week, I watched as parts of Los Angeles continued to burn out of control. I couldn’t help but feel some of the anguish of those who looked on as their homes became nothing more than a pile of ash.
Then I read how some of those in the Republican hierarchy were responding, namely that they would move for certain strings to be attached before any money was allocated. Just what these strings were, I was unable to glean, but apparently, according to one legislator from Iowa, water resources mismanagement on the part of state and local government was one reason to hold back. Another, and hold your breath for this one, “after all, LA is looking to become a sanctuary city, violating federal law.”
Ah, I see. We will, by damn, put you in your place for providing a place for all those criminals, all those “pet-consuming” derelicts.” Forget that thousands of American citizens are now homeless; they may well have voted Democratic, and the time for retribution is now. Just ask our incoming President.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House was one of the first to proclaim this. And this should come as no surprise although I would like to ask Mike what he thinks Jesus would do under these circumstances. After all, it is our speaker who has stated more than once that he lets the Bible influence every decision he makes. But, as I say so often, dear reader, I digress.
Somehow, pathetically so, the fires that raged for over a week in California are akin to where we are politically today. I watched, I became teary, and then my thoughts turned to where we are in our country. Some are comfortable, even delighted, with our position, and I see that to be much like the oblivious person who is shown surfing in a hellish, war-torn scene from “Apocalypse Now.” Since I can vividly remember that scene, I decided to research it because I somehow knew there was more to it than I remembered.
What I found follows, and it is, for me, terrifyingly accurate. One critic noted that the movie, and this scene in particular, “ironically glorifies war to criticize the morals of American people. The characters are enthusiastic about committing terrible acts against innocent people.” The article went on to say, “The film is a metaphor for ‘a journey into the self’ and shows how the self, in the face of war, darkens beyond recognition.”
It seems to me that the ‘war’ we are fighting now, while of a different nature, retains many of the crucial aspects set forth by the movie. Consider that we are now seeing a battle where billionaires, who appear to have no social conscience, are mounting a technological takeover of what we read and hear. A cabal of men, every one of whom once demeaned the rudiments of Trump’s authoritarian plan, based upon Project 2025, but now embrace all that he touts. Men who don’t put country above all else, especially the almighty dollar.
Along with the technological takeover, we have to deal with the highest court in the land that has become dramatically politicized. Furthermore, those justices who flaunt their political prejudice gleefully thumb their noses at any attempt made to reign them in. Sadly, there is no mechanism to do so; they know this, and the fact is the Supreme Court is less than supreme, much less.
Surely, the novel “1984” comes to mind, and when I think that I taught that novel in the year 1984 (I insisted it be put into the English curriculum),I am still dumbstruck by how prophetic it is, and how naive I was as an adult when I taught it. All the components are in place; the news, the courts and the branches of government … the perfect storm. And the MAGA arm of the Republican party has managed to gain leverage over all.
In an article written by Michael Ray and fact checked (you know, the process that Facebook abandoned) by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, I found what follows.
- According to his biographer, Suetonius, the Roman emperor Nero “practiced every sort of obscenity,” ranging from incest to cruelty to animals to homicide. Nero was such a bad guy, in fact, that he may very well have been the first Antichristin the Christian tradition. But did Nero actually fiddle while Rome burned? In strictest terms, no. In slightly less strict terms, probably not. In very loose terms, perhaps so.
- More likely, he strummed a proto-guitar while dreaming of the new city that he hoped would arise in the fire’s ashes. That isn’t quite the same thing as doing nothing, but it isn’t the sort of decisive leadership one might hope for either.
We would be better off if those about to take over did nothing, but, assuredly, that will not be the case. And while we can only imagine the worst, but hope for the best, it behooves us to look at the Republican response to the plight of their fellow-Americans in southern California. If this is a harbinger of things to come, we are looking at the beginning of the demise of our once great country.
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
