The Los Angeles Pacific Palisades wildfire has become the most devastating in the state’s history. It’s blown through thousands of acres of structures and now has a death toll of over 25 people. Despite these catastrophic numbers and the level of seriousness that everyone is operating under, it seems that our government officials don’t see it that way. During a briefing at the White House concerning the federal response to the wildfires, Vice President Kamala Harris offered little consolation. President Joe Biden accompanied Vice President Harris at the briefing, where she told those who have lost their homes and loved ones,
“Lots of people who still have a home who are under evacuation order, I know you want to get back home, but this is a time to be patient. There is still so much work that firefighters, police officers, FEMA, and others are doing that is about search and rescue. The work that still needs to be done to ensure the safety around utility lines — this work is still very much in progress.”
She followed the statement with another that many, including American Family Associate senior policy advisor Jenna Ellis, consider to be just a vast ‘word salad.’ To be fair, it does sound like Vice President Harris said a lot of words that, together, had little to no meaning.
“It’s critically important that, to the extent you can find anything that gives you an ability to be patient in this extremely dangerous and unprecedented crisis, that you do.”
My take on the quote is that she understands this is a difficult time and would like those affected to do everything possible to stay patient. It worries me that the relief efforts for the Pacific Palisades wildfire will take much longer than anyone could have expected. Realistically, there is so much damage that I would be a little surprised if it didn’t take a long time.
Regarding the first quote, there isn’t much anyone can do right now, as every available effort is spent on containing and stopping the fire. While I agree that some of the advice Kamala Harris gave was a little bit insensitive, I don’t know what anyone is expecting of them now. Once the first has been stopped, we can turn to our government officials and ask what we can expect to continue to survive in its aftermath.
