SAN DIEGO, CA — I just drove 250 miles from Central California down to San Diego County — a county that has parts of it literally under fire. By Mother Nature — and now by a talk show host.
I saw the plumes of smoke. Outside of L.A., I saw helicopters flying away from a smoky area. Several fire engines with lights flashing zipped down the highway. Local news talked about not just the continued crisis in Malibu but other areas.
I stopped and breathed the filthier-than-usual air. Once in San Diego County, I hit Leucadia where the soiled sky turned so dark that it looked like sundown. Car lights seemed brightly lit. Then, right after Del Mar, the afternoon-evening began to slightly lift.
I heard on news radio reports about the city of Fallbrook being totally evacuated
I learned that my foster son’s mother-in-law had been evacuated — along with her entire hospital in northern San Diego County — to shelters. I learned that San Diego high schools and other makeshift shelters were now so full that a shelter was being opened for some San Diego refugee residents in Orange County.
An official at the football stadium noted that it is quite full and said they were asking people who could do so to sleep in their cars.
I learned that San Diego schools are going to be closed tomorrow. I learned that I-15 North was closed in key parts, so I had to re-slate four anti-drug shows at schools for next week since I probably can’t get up the highway to get to those schools tonight. I had no trouble going south on I-5 to San Diego, but I-5 North to Oceanside and L.A. had traffic backed up for miles since some other highways were closed. I heard warnings on the radio about the need to make sure kids stay inside and don’t breathe the smoky air.
I turned on the local CBS outlet KFMB to watch Larry Himmel do a report in front of what was once a home and is how a simmering burned-out lot — his OWN home. He was standing in front of it, bravely letting readers know what happened.
I heard people on the radio offering to help other San Diegans: pizzeria owners offering free pizzas, taxi drivers offering free rides, San Diegans offering their property to temporarily shelter displaced animals. Shopkeepers asking people to use their stores to collect food, clothes, medicines. I heard a call for nurses to donate their time since many of the elderly moved to the shelters need people to be with them for the night.
And I learned that 250,000 people had been evacuated — the biggest evacuation in San Diego history.
And, then, a reader sent me a link and I learned this:
On the October 22 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, host Glenn Beck stated, “I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.” Beck continued: “There are a few people that hate America. But I don’t think the Democrats are those. I think there are those posing as Democrats that are like that.” Beck’s comment came as forest fires ravaged parts of Southern California, leaving one person dead, four firefighters wounded, and forcing about 1,500 people from their homes, according to The New York Times.
Beck’s comment immediately followed his statement that “we’re all one America” and “just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean you hate America, and I love America. We all love America. We just disagree on how we should function.” Beck had been distinguishing his views from those of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who, according to the Financial Times, “has urged Republican presidential candidates to capture the political centre ground ahead of next year’s election by focusing on healthcare reform and education.” Beck criticized Schwarzenegger’s proposed strategy as “not the way to win on any front” and offered the following clarification: “When I say on the air, and I’ve said it a lot lately, that we need to come together, and we need to get back into the center, we’re being pushed on to the edges — I want you to understand, that is not on policies. I don’t mean that we come in the center on policies. We come to the center on principles.”
And, yes, it is a Media Matters link but when you read it in detail the old ploy about going after the website and trying to turn attention away from what Beck said simply won’t wash for anyone (except those whose sole value in life is to demonize the opposition).
So perhaps now it’s time for a humble resident of San Diego County who respects people who support the war, oppose the war, Republicans, Democrats, independents and even bagpipe players to have his say.
Dear Mr. Beck:
I’ve listened to your show and two close relatives in Connecticut absolutely love you. They often quote you and they are the ones who alerted me to your show. I am a consumer of talk radio (I originally wanted to be a broadcaster) and part of the reason is that my last car that I had to trade in after an accident had 296,000 miles — some 230,000 miles put on it since 1999. I listen to almost all talkers from Randi Rhodes to Ed Schultz to Michael Savage. And I’ve listened to your radio show and when my schedule permits I’ve enjoyed many of your CNN shows.
Your comments are beyond obscene for those of us living in San Diego County and indicate a new low — if we could believe that could be achieved — for talk radio polemics in the United States. People who are in the industry hate when you say it, but much of talk radio truly is evolving into “hate radio.” If there isn’t an immediate target to hate, simply create one and find it where you can. Even among people devastated and physically threatened by massive wildfires.
Couldn’t you set aside bitter partisanship and demonizing — because people do not share your agenda does not mean they “hate America” and you know it full well but this is the red meat you and other talkers throw to America since it helps build listenership and vital ratings numbers — for just one teensy, weentsy minute? And since when are you the one who defines who “real” Democrats are?
Couldn’t you have waited until the kids now crammed in our football stadium, out at the Del Mar Racetrack, with their families see if they have a home to go home to?
Couldn’t you have waited until the fire stopped burning and the firefighters that I personally saw on my trip down here rushing from all over California to help people here did their best to squelch the flames?
You need to contact all those firefighters.
They probably never realized that the homes they were risking their lives to save were probably owned by someone who “hates” America. But, then firefighters are a cut above talk show hosts who try to transform any event they can into partisan grist or partisan symbolism. Firefighters simply look at humanity and confront crisis — and try to save the humanity and end the crisis.
They tend to look at a community as a whole — not as to-be-hated segments.
I can go on and on and I have, but weblogs do. But I won’t. any further. Except to say this:
It’s not just that what you said is in bad taste. It shows just how far the United States has fallen when in a time of crisis, with a community pulling together, a talk show host has to politicize it out of the blue. When I worked as a reporter on the San Diego Union an editor once told me after I wrote something: “Joe: you’re really reaching on that one…”
Glen: you’re really reaching on this one.
I know you won’t see this post and won’t comment on it. Even if you did, that isn’t its purpose. You are a skillful broadcast professional and know how to make your big bucks and get your listeners and this is a modest weblog that will never have the kind of audience in a year that you have in a week. I most certainly would never call your show because, frankly, after reading your remarks I’ve “o.d.ed” on Glenn Beck. I just know too many families — and have done shows for kids who lost their homes in the fires four years ago — here.
Also, to be honest, there’s nothing to debate about your comments. They speak for themselves but I know that the way American politics works some of your fans may now jump through hoops to defend them.
P.S. I don’t hate America. I don’t even hate talk show hosts. But I do hate the mind-set that every, single solitary thing in the United States these days now has to be twisted into some kind of partisan and/or polarizing statement.
PSS: Our former Mayor Roger Hedgecock has been on the air all day doing a local radio broadcast carried on some half-dozen San Diego radio stations. No commercials. Roger has his own local show and often fills in for Rush Limbaugh.
Not once did Roger talk about any people here who “hate America” or whether they were Democrats, Republicans, independents, liberals, conservatives. He talked about human beings in need and worked tirelessly all day to deliver information and link up those who wanted to help with those who needed help. Roger viewed himself as a human being covering a human story and trying to use his microphone to help human beings out.
We’re coming together in San Diego, without asking about or discussing politics.
Sorry to disappoint you.
FOOTNOTE: Here’s some more info about what some of these people who probably hate America are going through now. You need to contact the Los Angeles Times to be sure in future stories they put in an insert about how many of these people hate America:
San Diego County authorities warned more than 250,000 households to evacuate today as wildfires raged across Southern California for another day, destroying hundreds of structures, clogging highways and sending smoke and ash over a wide area.
Schools were closed and hospitals evacuated by bus, and hundreds of people sought refuge in Qualcomm Stadium and other evacuation centers. Fire officials were stretched to their limits trying to cope with the fast-moving, wind-whipped blazes that burned more than 100,000 acres, or about 156 square miles.
“This is a major emergency,” Ron Roberts, chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, told reporters as he outlined the scope of the damage and evacuations.
Emergency officials estimated that more than 250,000 households had been told to evacuate through the reverse 911 system. At two people per household, that would be nearly 500,000 people, though it was unknown how many had responded to the evacuation call.
The number of evacuations rose steadily throughout the day. Five American Red Cross shelters were jammed, and thousands flocked to Qualcomm Stadium and Del Mar Fairgrounds. Many hotels reported 100% occupancy.
“We have more houses burning than we have people and engine companies to fight them,” San Diego Fire Capt. Lisa Blake said. “A lot of people are going to lose their homes today.”
Fewer than 100 firefighters were in reserve to protect the 400-square-mile city, said John Langford, a spokesman for San Diego Fire and Rescue. Firefighters targeted the Guejito Fire, which burned into Rancho Bernardo, a neighborhood in northern San Diego.
Someone needs to tell the firefighters that a lot of these people losing homes hate America. And this:
A firestorm ravaged Southern California today for the second consecutive day, destroying scores of homes and businesses, blackening thousands of acres and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate ahead of blowtorching flames.
Officials are relieved that only one person has been killed and only a handful injured, but they called the fires, a Hydra with at least 15 separate burns in seven counties fed by gale-force winds, one of the state’s worse. Engines and firefighters from Nevada and Arizona were being summoned as the state’s fire-fighting resources stretched to the breaking point with new fires erupting as others receded and reignited with every shift in the wind.
San Diego, where in 2003 the state’s worst wildfires killed more than a dozen people and scored hundreds of thousands of acres, braced as at least seven fires there intensified and forced the evacuation of entire communities, including Ramona and Rancho Sante Fe in northern San Diego County. A total of 250,000 people were evacuated, including inmates from one jail and patients from one hospital in the fires’ path.
Officials there said they feared this fire, devouring some of the thickest and driest brush in years, could surpass the fires of 2003 in destruction. The one fatality this week occurred in a fire in southeastern San Diego County on Sunday that also injured several people, including four firefighters.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in areas where wildfires continued raging on Monday.
“It is a tragic time for California,” Schwarzenegger said while on a tour to the San Diego County, more than 100 kilometers south of Los Angeles.
“I declared a state of emergency under which all resources are available” for seven counties threatened by raging wildfires across Southern California, the governor said.
The fast-moving fire driven by strong winds along the rugged U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego left one person dead and eight injured, including four firefighters, authorities said.
The San Diego fire has also charred hundreds of hectares of land and forced the evacuation of 250,000 people, according to county officials.
In Malibu, outside Los Angeles, a brush fire has scorched nearly 900 hectares of land, destroyed at least five homes and a church, but no injuries were reported, authorities said.
Despite the hard work of hundreds of firefighters, only 10 percent of the fire was contained on Monday morning, according to authorities.
The fire, which started Sunday morning, may have been sparked by downed power lines, said county fire inspector Sam Padilla.
Since then, flames have been whipped at times by Santa Ana winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour. About 1,400 firefighters were battling the flames this morning, aided by water-dropping helicopters.
“It’s been a long night,” Padilla said.
Somebody needs to tell Schwarzenegger and Padilla that some of these people probably hate America.
And here’s Larry Himmel reporting on losing his home. Shouldn’t someone help Beck out and ask Himmel if he hates America so viewers can be alerted and a warning flag can be put on this You Tube?
UPDATE: Two comments from Crooks and Liars:
–Steve Benen: “I wonder what kind of psychosis leads a person to look at the California wildfires and think about the political ideologies of those who are suffering. I guess that’s what makes Glenn Beck special.”
–John Amato: “I remember when the earthquake of ‘94 hit. I was selling computer parts back then to help support myself and a purchasing agent from Alabama told me the reason the quake hit Northridge was because there was so much pornography being produced there. See, we all deserved it.”
See our Tuesday morning update on the fires HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.