My heart goes out to the millions of people in Los Angeles whose lives were an unbearable struggle before the fires, and will be long after the fires. They weren’t affected at all by the fires, but are equally and constantly affected by the horrendous policies and apathetic nature of our state government. The people who have to deal with rampant homelessness, crime, unaffordable housing, and jobs that don’t come close to paying their bills. 

My heart goes out to the people have to deal with influencers screaming into their phones 24-7 everywhere they look; using their struggle as a backdrop to mass produce “content” nobody asked for or needs; unaffected by these policies and living in places they can’t actually afford; paid by for by the wealthy parents of ungrateful brats that have never worked a hard day in their lives.

For most of us, life here has been a disaster long before the first embers flew on Tuesday. You don’t hear about it; and if you ever do, you didn’t and don’t care. You’d say “why do you live there? Why don’t you just leave?” 

As if a single mom working at Chipotle has the resources to pick her entire life up and start over. She hasn’t been asked to tell her story on the news; and Demi Lovato will never use her celebrity to start a GoFundMe for her.

Those of us that live here don’t want your sympathy. We don’t want your thoughts and prayers. We don’t want your apathy to our corrupt politicians. We don’t want to be criticized for “how we vote” in rigged elections. We know by Monday, you’ll go back to not giving a shit.

What we want is for you to go to war with us. We want you to stop apologizing for the failure of corrupt leaders and corruption. Not just California; everywhere.

No more petitions. No more votes. It’s time that the “all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world” stop accepting that nobody cares about you until there’s a photo-op. Stop applauding catastrophe pornographers.

Being an American is a full-time job. Caring about your fellow man only when tragedy strikes is like being a Christian that only worships on Christmas.

I’m exhausted with empty gestures. Most of you spent the week reaching out to those of us that live here after YEARS of not checking in. You don’t “care,” you’re just data mining for a testimonial you can share at book club. 

Bodie Thoene famously said “Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand,” and America has become a fucking mitten factory. 

Apathy is what brought us here. Apathy is what is destroying this country. Apathy is what we will go back to when the last flames are extinguished. 

You may be awaiting on the return of the Messiah, but if we don’t START giving a shit on a regular basis, the whole fucking world is going to burn, and all we’ll be able to do is watch some slimeball on the news talking about how we can “rebuild.”