Insensitive

A home by any other name is still a home.

When the hot winds blow here and the sparks fly from careless citizens, brush fires spawn like rabbits and homes are often burned.

With the insensitive fires come insensitive statements from our media, I suspect, based on what we want to hear. A fire racing toward “expensive homes” is no worse than a fire racing toward lean-tos, or shacks, or tract homes of any price. If your home is in danger, the price of it is irrelevant. It’s your home.

That a fire did damage “in the millions of dollars” is secondary to the fact that people lost their lives and homes and vistas. For those of us fortunate enough to have fire insurance, let’s leave the dollar figures to our insurers.

Our concern and caring ought to be for the people who have sustained damage and wildlife that counts on us to just leave it alone. If we want to talk money, why don’t we figure out how much we need to raise to reseed the hillsides and all chip in so our citizens won’t lose their homes in mud slides two months from now. Or will we be talking of mud slushing toward “expensive homes?”

LYNN D. SHEPODD

Pasadena