The Struggle for the Soul of America: Living on the Brink

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Author: Bruce Berlin

It’s been eight days since police banged on my door in the middle of the night ordering me and my Mineral Hill neighbors to evacuate. Since then, like many other evacuees, I’ve been nervously watching the online daily briefings which describe the efforts being made by fifteen hundred courageous firefighters to contain the raging firestorm that has now engulfed 175,000 acres of northeast New Mexico.

Friday several of us drove back to our country homes to salvage valuable belongings before the fire could consume them. We all wore masks to protect us from the irritating smoke that filled the air. Given the predictions of dangerously high winds beginning the next day and lasting for possibly a week, it appeared likely to be our last chance to save what we could before the fire might come sweeping through our valley. There was no time to lose.

While I anxiously wait to see whether the fire will spare my home, I can’t help thinking about the thousands of New Mexicans who have already lost everything. Many have found refuge in shelters in Las Vegas, Glorieta and elsewhere. Some are living in their vehicles. All are devastated and just want to go home.

Unfortunately, as of Saturday, May 7, the fire was only 21% contained. It will be weeks or months, in some cases even longer, before people can go back to their properties and restore or rebuild their homes. Some without insurance may never be able to do that. But none of us will ever forget this life-altering experience.

Yet could there be a silver lining to this catastrophe? People are coming together to aid each other and help those in need get through this tragedy. My little Mineral Hill community has been in constant contact providing mutual support. Saturday evening, we got together for pizza, beer, and mutual commiseration. We shared our feelings, memories and hopes for a brighter tomorrow.

This devastating fire has brought us closer together. It’s given me a deeper insight into the value and importance of community. I know that there are people I can count on when I need them. And they know they can count on me as well. It’s a special feeling. Ironically, that which is life-shattering can often be life-affirming as well.

Additionally, when disaster strikes close to home, it can be a wake-up call. It is an opportunity for us to re-examine what is truly valuable in our lives. We may desire successful careers, nicer clothes or expensive cars, but what really matters the most in life is good friends, community and family.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

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The Struggle for the Soul of America: Sound the Alarm!

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Author: Bruce Berlin

I read the papers and watch the news on TV, but never thought it could happen to me. Then, suddenly, it does.

Friday evening close to midnight, police cars, lights flashing and sirens blasting, came barreling down my quiet country road and up my driveway, 75 miles northeast of Santa Fe. An officer banged on my door and told me I had to evacuate my home. It’s not safe. The raging wildfire that’s already consumed over 100,000 acres and 150-plus homes was just over the hill to the north. I had to leave now before it was too late.

Along with most of my neighbors, I quickly packed my car with family photos, clothes and whatever else I could squeeze in. I left the doors unlocked and my gate opened for the firefighters in case they were able to come and save my home from the uncontrolled firestorm. It was 2:30 in the morning by the time I arrived exhausted at my partner’s home in Santa Fe.

Now I just sit and wait. Nervously checking online several times a day (See https://www.facebook.com/santafeNF/videos/675228177042752) to learn if the monstrous fire has destroyed my home. There’s nothing else I can do. A friend from across the way tried to get back up to her house yesterday, but the road was blocked off for our own safety. All we can do is pray that our homes are somehow spared.

I am so grateful for the one thousand firefighters giving their all to suppress the fire. I can’t imagine what they are going through. I read online that they don’t expect to have the fire fully contained until the end of July, three months from now. How many more acres and homes will be destroyed by then? It’s mind-boggling and depressing.

I am also very angry. I’m furious that myself and millions of my fellow Americans have been put in such a catastrophic state when it didn’t have to be this way. Climate experts have been warning us about the dangers of global warming since the late 1950s. In 1988 scientists and politicians from around the world gathered at the Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere to address the threat to the Earth’s atmosphere from greenhouse gas emissions. “By the 1990s, most scientists thought action was necessary, but opposition from fossil fuel companies and ideologists opposed to any government action were effective in obscuring the facts and blocking action,” according to Spencer Weart, retired director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.[1]

The Southwest is in a megadrought. A recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that “the last 22 years now rank as the driest such period since at least 800 AD.”[2] Human-caused climate change is a major factor driving this megadrought. Yet, our government has failed to respond to this crisis with the urgency and magnitude it requires.[3]

Call the White House (202-456-1111) and your senators and representative (202-224-31-21). Demand that they take immediate action to pass the strongest possible climate change legislation. Our lives and the survival of the planet are at stake.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.livescience.com/humans-first-warned-about-climate-change

[2] https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/02/14/megadrought-in-southwest-is-now-the-worst-in-at-least-1200-years-study-confirms/

[3] https://www.abc10.com/article/news/nation-world/earth-day-biden-climate-policy/507-bf749989-3546-4735-b1fc-4353c01a7b14

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Can We Learn from the Wildfires?

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Author: Bruce Berlin

Friday afternoon my friend John and I helped another friend evacuate his home to escape the wildfires raging in northern New Mexico. As I carried a few of the precious belongings he wished to save from the house to his SUV, I saw the billowing dark smoke ominously rising in the distant sky.

We had no idea how long it would take before the fire might engulf his home. But he could not wait to find out. He knew he must leave while he still could. It was truly a harrowing experience.

Later that evening another friend called John. She said the smoke at her home was making it difficult to breathe. Could she and her son seek refuge at John’s place? Their car packed with their most valued possessions, they arrived at John’s around 10 p.m. that night. Tragically, they had to leave their horses behind.

Both John’s home and my home are 25 miles or more west of the wildfires. Since the winds are blowing northeasterly, we do not appear to be in any danger. But those winds are wicked. While assisting our friend’s evacuation, gusts must have reached 60 mph at times. There’s no guarantee they won’t turn around and put us in harm’s way.

All this makes me stop in my tracks and rethink our current state. What could be more valued than a good friend willing to drop everything and come to your rescue at a perilous time? What could be more precious than a supportive community working together to save people’s homes from a deadly fire?

Yet, our political culture tends to distance us from neighbors with contrary views. Rather than seeking common ground to work on together, we try to overcome those who see things differently than we do. Just think how much better off our country would be if Democrats and Republicans, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy, could work together for the common good of all Americans.

It can and does happen. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act which promotes online competition has broad bipartisan support. The bill would prevent the biggest platforms, such as Google and Facebook, from giving themselves an advantage over smaller competitors. The GOP joined the Democrats in supporting this legislation which prohibits big tech firms like Amazon from giving its in-house branded products a leg-up over other brands when someone is shopping on its site. Instead of backing their big business allies as they usually do, Republicans put the interests of the American people in fair competition first.[1]

But fires are not only erupting in our forests. In state houses across the country as well as in the halls of Congress, our politicians are throwing verbal fireballs at each other. If we are to rescue our democracy from these overheated partisan flames, this needs to stop. We need to find a way to reach well-meaning Americans with divergent views to lower the temperature and work together for the common good without sacrificing our values. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act is a step in the right direction.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/american-innovation-choice-online-act-antitrust-google-amazon/