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" Lessons of Helene" - a letter [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-09-28  

I wrote two versions of this; the long one for Facebook and the short one for newspapers with their 150-200 word limit. Sent to the Atlantic, the Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Charlotte Observer and New York Times.



Long:



If your state is underwater and/or without electricity, first of all, I hope and pray that you and your loved ones are safe and that you will recover from this disaster.

It's at moments like these that our most basic assumptions and beliefs about the world are shaken, and this can be a disorienting crisis or an opportunity to reset, to check our new experience against our previous reality. Specifically, for those of you in red states who have historically voted Republican, this is an opportunity to consider what insights this storm might bring.

This is the 8th category 4 or 5 storm to hit the US in 8 years. Prior to that, we had 8 such storms in 57 years. The ability of a tropical storm to spin up into a category 4 within a few short hours is only possible because climate change has drastically increased the temperature of ocean waters in the tropical Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Climate change is real, it's happening, it's hurting people and costing us money, and doing something to reduce its impact on our children and grandchildren makes sense.

The same reasonable conservative outlook that tells us that too much deficit spending and debt can lead to problems down the road also tells us that releasing more carbon indefinitely will balloon into more and worse disasters in the future. One party recognizes this and seeks to invest in the green jobs that will power our country's economy now and in future years, while the other party invests millions of dollars in protecting oil, coal and gas companies so they can extract the last possible dollar from their dying industries. They do this by funding a sophisticated and multipronged propaganda machine to tell you climate change is a hoax, or not our fault, or unavoidable. Your vote today won't prevent a storm next year, but it can make fewer and less destructive storms 10 years and 50 years from now -- or it can make them worse. Your call.

When disasters happen on this scale, we can't rely on the kindness of strangers or our own individual ability to survive. This is what competent government is for. This is why we pay taxes, so that when something too big for any person or company to do is needed, our collective resources can fund the effort to do it. It's what built the Interstates, defeated the Nazis, brought electricity to rural America, eradicated polio and smallpox and put humans on the moon.*

As you look at the National Weather Service's predictions and guidance, at the rescue efforts of thousands of first responders, at the evacuation plans and shelters and coordinated leadership from your sheriffs, mayors and governors, and the incoming help from FEMA and other agencies, be aware that Trump's blueprint for his next administration includes dismantling the NWS and its parent agency NOAA and defunding FEMA, leaving each state to fend for itself in future disasters.

Ideology is no substitute for competence. When you need to be plucked from your rooftop in a flood, it doesn't matter whether the helicopter is a Democratic or a Republican helicopter. But whether the funding was there to have a helicopter available is a Democratic or Republican policy issue, and a party that believes that government is always bad (and proves it every time they're in charge of the government) isn't going to be useful when what you need right now is a government that's good.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/28/2273548/-Lessons-of-Helene-a-letter?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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