Fighting Fire with Money and Prayer

Photo by ELLEN M. BANNER/THE SEATTLE TIMES

Darcy Burner's house burned the other day. The cause was traced to a faulty lamp.

I personally have put out fires that stared because of:
"spontaneous combustion" -- a hot lawnmower covered with greasy blankets.
Bottle rockets -- igniting dry grass along a highway
oil on a hot valve cover -- igniting a car engine
oil, grease and gas -- igniting a pot, a kitchen hood and a tank half filled with water

I also have seen the tragic aftermath of electrical fires and candle fires.

Fires happen.

The person whose house has burned needs the community to support them. This is what we do. This is how human communities respond. We are NOT an "every man for himself" community on the left (especially since there are a lot of women on the left!). I know many good people on the right who care for the problems of others, but often their concern is only for their immediate family or only members of their "tribe".

Darcy is a Democrat running for Washington State’s 8th Congressional District. If you can't provide financial support via ActBlue then say a prayer or think supportive thoughts. As one of my favorite grade school teachers tells me, the power of prayer is nothing to underestimate. (On a side note, for those who are interested: Patron saints of firefighters: Barbara, Catherine of Siena, Eustachius, Florian, and John of God)

If you have a blog and want to write about your concern for Darcy, please do. If it helps, simply recall your experiences of fire and loss. If you want to talk about the courage to rebuild and keep fighting, do that. If you want to write about the despair that you feel that the world is coming to an end after a tragedy great. My friends from the NOLA community bloggers have lots of stories.

My friend Gentilly Girl is still working to get her home rebuilt. The creator of FYYFF, Ashley Morris, will never get a chance to rebuild after his tragic death, but his spirit lives on in his friends who are holding a benefit in New Orleans (link). We ALL have stories of loss, hope, destruction and rebuilding to share. And that is what our community is about. We are real and electronic, far away and as close as our computer screen. We are the people we turn to when we have a tragedy and the ones we love to share our victory's with. As my good friend Athenae at First-Draft reminds us, when we get knocked down we have to get back up. And it can be hard, so we reach out a hand to help each other out.

I often write about people who want to divide us. The people for whom violence is the response to every problem. Who think that, like the Grinch, it is things that make up a life.
Things are important, but people and spirit more so.

This is how we come together on OUR side. We unite in support.

I'll never forget the support I got, financial, written, prayers, letters, blog posts, stories, fairy tales and songs. From various different skill sets and backgrounds people united to support me and to fight back.

Darcy's one of us. Let's help.

Update: I added the credit to the photo of Darcy at her home. Love the t-shirt that she is wearing. It looks like the kind of thing my brilliant nephews would request. You can get one of the t-shirt from Radical Rags