Eyes on Texas

Houston, the fourth largest city in America, has become a devastating flood-zone, and with Hurricane Harvey becoming Tropical Storm Sit'n'Spin, things may only get worse over the next few days.

Even though Houston is such a large, highly populated area, I know no one who lives there.  This may be more of a commentary on my relative lack of friends than anything else.  I'm sure many of you know people in that area, and it must be a very harrowing thing.

I have one friend who lives in San Marcos, a city between San Antonio and Austin, and home of Texas State University.  She and her family evacuated, but have been given the all clear to come back.  San Marcos has not always been that fortunate.  There has been  terrible flooding in recent years in that area.  My friend lived in a home that was flooded, and suffered a loss of many possessions, and much damage to the residence she rented.

Yes, global warming is contributing to extreme weather events.  But the intensity of flooding (Houston has had three 100-year flooding events this century), and the harm it causes, is exacerbated by the expanded building into floodplains, and by the destruction of wetlands and other natural barriers that, in the past, may have helped absorb much of the rainfall.  Nothing gets in the way of American development.  This will become increasingly true, as we now have a real estate developer for President, one who has great disdain for any regulation or conservation efforts.

Trump will be judged based on his response to the rescue and recovery efforts, as he should be. These will be hampered by lack of leadership, as he has not nominated heads for FEMA, NOAA, and DHS. But whatever their political stripes, true leadership during these crises should come from everyone, and I do think many dedicated civil servants and first responders will give it their all, many of them in heroic fashion.  They need everything they can get, and we can count the pennies later.

Trump should also be judged on his policies.  His resistance to even acknowledging climate change, his deregulation that endangers conservation and the natural barriers we need, his desire to slash the budget of the agencies that would help in these disasters - all this needs to be taken into account.

Trump should also be judged on his behavior.  He use the storm as cover for some truly horrendous things -   the military transgender ban, the pardoning of the racist sheriff Joe Arpaio, the potential ending of the Dream Act.  He also continues to tweet out irrelevant and stupid things.


During this time of grave crisis, where so many lives are at risk, if you are not part of a first-responder team, or a group of responsible, organized volunteers, please note that the most important thing you can do is to give money to charities you know and trust.  That may include the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army,  Episcopal Relief & Development, or whatever faith-based charity you are most familiar with.

Texas and Louisiana need your thoughts and prayers.  If you are able and can do so responsibly, they meed your physical help.  If you are fiscally able, they need your cash.  And in the future, they and the entire country, need your votes, in electing politicians in the future that will back up first responders WHEREVER they are needed (not just legislators that vote for disaster relief in their own areas, and then vote against when it's someplace else), that will favor environmental barriers and concerns over uncontrolled development, that know that global warming is real and largely man-made and are willing to do something about it.