By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO — Hurricane Idalia left widespread damage in Florida and the southeastern coast of the United States in its wake. Once it formed, the news coverage fixated on it to the exclusion of other stories. Although this has happened in the past, this time it came as a welcome relief.
Forecasters warned that the eye of Idalia would track on Florida’s east coast. For a moment, I forgot about the cataclysmic tempest emanating from Mar-a-Lago on the opposite coast of Florida whose cone of decimation encompasses the entire country.
I was impressed by brave reporters who stood in quickly rising water knowing the exact time they had to move to higher ground. I hoped they would set an example for American voters to climb to higher political ground to avert drowning in the rising tide of authoritarianism.
Idalia originated in the Caribbean south of Florida. I’d rather hear about that than the canard about the hordes of ‘criminal’ immigrants sailing and trekking from the south to replace white Americans.
Isn’t it more soothing to watch powerful winds lift roofs, snap trees, and topple power lines than to listen to MAGA windbags demolish whatever remaining trust American citizens have in the integrity of elections and the judicial system?
Idalia reduced many places in Florida to ruins. The debris it left is more visible than the wreckage of abortion rights, environmental protections, freedom of speech, municipal self-government, and public education swept away by cyclone Ron.
Idalia has come and gone, just like DeSantis when President Biden visited the hardest hit areas of Florida this week.
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Baron is professor emeritus at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via Lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com