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View Winners → Opinion Sep 18, 2020
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A funnel appears in a thick plume of smoke from the Loyalton Fire in Lassen County, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. The dreamscape of California has looked like a hellscape this week. California, America’s Golden state — “Warm, palmy air — air you can kiss…” wrote Jack Kerouac — has had choking air, scalding heat, and surreal orange skies. California has been the dreamland of so many who hope to strike it rich, or start over, a state-of-mind, as well as a state: a place for fresh-starts, freeways, and free love. This season has brought a cascade of calamities to California and the West, atop the pandemic. And Californians may wonder if these are catastrophes to be endured just once a century, or a generation, or are they our new way of life? Steve Pennebaker, a software engineer and 4th generation Californian, told us this week that when drought, fires, blackouts, and mudslides struck his state time after time these past few years, friends would say, “Well, this is once in a lifetime.” “I’ve been hearing ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ every few months for years now,” he told us. Steve and his wife, Susan Parker, were already discouraged by how so much […]
