The handwriting on the wall

Smoke masks the California sun

With all the talk about emergency preparedness and homeland security, the true newsworthiness of these giant disasters lies in the way they punch holes in our false sense of security, the notion that, in case of emergency, the government will take care of us. Most of us tend to view localized events — a flood, a bridge collapse, a fire — as isolated phenomena. “Oh, those poor people! Lucky I don’t live in a burn area/floodplain/decaying city!” We refuse to see them as litmus tests. We fail to read the handwriting on the wall.