Under the baobab: Neighbors, leaders will help Maui recover from devastation
We have been messaging with my brother-in-law, Frank, who has been living on the northern side of Maui for more than 30 years. Most of the fire destruction has been on the western, windward side near Lahaina. He said no one was prepared. They had anticipated that danger would come from storms, volcanoes, tsunamis. No one anticipated an apocalyptic fire fed by a hurricane with winds traveling at speeds up to 80 miles an hour.
The fire incinerated everything and everybody in its path. More than 100 people have already been reported dead. It is estimated that the number of casualties will be much higher. Thousands have lost their homes. Lahaina was the ancient capital of the Hawaiian kingdom during the 1800s. Hawaiian ancestors dwell there. Now it is decimated. Frank came to Penn State in 1969 after his army service in Vietnam. Driving a truckload of tents to his neighbors he realized that the devastation on Maui was as bad as he had seen in Indochina.
The spiritual devastation is as bad as the physical destruction. But neighbors are still helping each other. They are committed to rebuilding their homes and their communities. Their primary concern is with locating the hundreds who are still missing and working to heal those who have been emotionally and physically crushed. Islanders know this will take commitment and a protracted struggle, but Frank believes they can do it. I believe they will do it.
On Monday, President Biden and his wife Jill are visiting the grief-stricken island to witness the destruction visited upon an American city and provide comfort and support to its survivors. The Biden’s are a family, intimately familiar with personal grief, having suffered the loss of two children. Presidents, elected by all of the citizens of our country, are the embodiment of our collective spirit. They are the leaders and ordained witnesses of the national zeitgeist and the sacred vessels which hold our nation’s grief. Their messages signal where we are and where we should go.
There are some still alive who heard Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech on Dec. 7, 1941. It signaled the nation’s entry into World War II and transition into the military-industrial age, about which Eisenhower later warned our country. Truman’s Potsdam declaration promising “total and utter destruction” on the Japanese empire brought the world into the atomic age. Kennedy implored us to not ask “what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” He helped set the space program in motion.
We heard Johnson proclaim, “we shall overcome,” as he initiated the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. It legitimized the goals and aspirations of the civil rights movement. Ronald Reagan demanded that the Soviets “tear down this wall” soon thereafter the Soviet Union collapsed. George W. Bush witnessed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and galvanized our wounded country to climb out of the rubble and rebuild. And in the pits of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, President Obama got us back on our feet by reminding us that we are not “red states or blue states but the United States.”
Throughout history our democracy has been damaged more than once by hostile natural forces, outside adversaries, or internal duplicity. We have tetter-tottered on the edge of oblivion. To save ourselves we have had to assemble our collective will, call upon the “better angels” of our nature, resuscitate our community spirit, and roll up our sleeves and rebuild the fragmented American dream. Thus far we have been blessed with enlightened and compassionate leadership to guide us in that quest. May it be so for our sisters and brothers in Maui. May it continue to be so for our beloved country.