In Solidarity with LA

I’ve been quiet the last few days because I’ve been obsessed with the fires in LA. Watching the flames and storm of embers has brought back memories of Australia’s own Black Summer, and before that, my State’s horrendous Black Saturday. The parallels are chilling: long drought and then ferocious winds to send embers kilometres in front of the fire front. Devastation in its wake.

After Black Saturday, I remember the awful feeling of guilt that Warrandyte survived because the wind change sent the fire away from us to devastate someone else’s town, someone else’s home. So like every other Victorian, I donated food at the supermarket, hay to feed the animals left without anything to eat, money to help ease the pain.

Was it enough? Of course not, not for people who had lost everything. Never enough. But I hoped that they felt some of the love that prompted each donation. Because they were loved. Everyone knew at least one person directly affected by the fire. For me, it was the doctor whose friend died in the blaze, and the vet nurse who fought for days without sleep to protect her home, and the famous newsreader who died in Kinglake.

Real people, real pain.

So now there is another state suffering, and if anyone knows what that feels like, it’s us. My donation is tiny because that is all I can afford, but I sent it with love.

If any other Aussies want to donate this crowd seem to be legit:

https://www.calfund.org/funds/wildfire-recovery-fund/

When you click on the donate button you’re taken to a page where you can select what currency you want to use and how much you want to send. You can donate in US dollars but I recommend changing the currency to AUD for two reasons:

you won’t have to worry about the currency conversion and,so that Angelenos can see that Australians care too

The realtime, scrolling list on the right will show the country of origin if you donate in your own currency. You can choose to have your name displayed or donate anonymously:

If you can, please donate something so that those who’ve lost everything know that they are loved, even on the other side of the Pacific.

Meeks