Saturday Night in Portland

Last night during a bout of insomnia, I opened Youtube to look at videos of the damage to the area around my hometown in the mountains of North Carolina, as a result of flooding that came with Hurricane Helene. Mud, muck, wrecked cars, roofless houses, crumpled trailers, roads collapsing into rivers. Many of the small towns will probably never be rebuilt. Most people in that area still have no running water, no wifi or cell phone connectivity.
 
There is rampant misinformation being spewed by Trump followers: the money for their recovery has already been given to illegal immigrants, or the Democrats caused the hurricanes and aimed them at the South to stop Trump followers from voting. These are the same people who don't believe in human-caused climate change, but they think the Democrats can aim hurricanes. Today I heard from a cousin, about a Trump-loving relative of ours who is 95 years old now living in Texas. “He totaled his truck and no longer drives. Had caregivers come in but they will not come back. He needs to secure his firearms and he is not willing.”

I am a citizen of a country I do not understand, and I have family members I cannot understand. I might say that the money for their recovery has been spent on bombs for Israel, but they wouldn’t listen. Here in my Portland bubble people still buy take-out pizzas on Saturday night and go home to watch Miss Peregrine or Jail Break on Netflix.