Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 03, 2017

whoa. prays

I reached the donation page at: www.rcucommunityfund.org/donate/

‘In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments – there are consequences.’ Robert Ingersoll

Wiley was serious with this week’s strip. All kidding aside (for now).

So we come to a Wiley-comic with no political commentary inferred at all, and some hate-monger finds a need to inject a divisive comment.

@BRICK FLAG: Donate as you wish, but there is no need to continue with comments that separate rather than unite. I’m certain that not all who suffered a great loss were “rich wine snobs.” When mother nature wipes out whole communities, it doesn’t pick and choose who will lose and who will win based on their personal finances and choices in life. She’s an equal-opportunity destroyer.

Wine snobs is too harsh, but consider this.

Wine snobs is too harsh, but consider this: the American citizens in northern California have a state and federal government that will rapidly address their needs while the American citizens in Puerto Rico do not.

Add to that the Federal government has sent more billions to defense contractors since the recent disasters than is needed to make both northern California and Pueto Rico whole again.

Jeff HessHave Coffee Will Write

Bravo!

Just a thought about comparing Puerto Rico to any place in the Continental US. To make a valid comparison when disaster strikes a Continental US area, the area of the worst devastation would need to be fenced off and the only the people who live in the area can work to make things right. And the only aid allowed in would have to be loaded onto a train in Chicago and shipped in that way.

In October I was a volunteer with FEMA, taking calls from both Puerto Rico (and the Virgin Islands) and California. There was no shortage of devastated people with no resources of their own in both places. Both were grateful for any help we could supply, but we all knew it wasn’t enough.

It’s not either-or. Most of us can afford to help both places — and the others affected by this year’s disasters.

I have friends and family down there.

The stories that i have heard are horrific.

Please, if you have a little after taking care of your own, don’t forget Northern California and Puerto Rico.

My daughter lives in Napa. My wife and one of my sons were driving to visit her the day of the fire. The devastation is unimaginable.

The US and Puerto Rico suffered several back-to-back disasters in a short period of time. It’s admirable that this strip chooses to devote a day to raise funds for the victims in Northern CA. Don’t forget also about the flood devastation in Houston and Louisiana where so many did not have flood insurance and are still trying to rebuild their lives.

It’s been a devastating year. Donate to the Red Cross and help everybody.

That’s good for humans. How about the animals, the plants, entire ecosystems? I’m not seeing much attention, or assistance, given to our nonhuman neighbors.

Sorry but if I am donating to a charity, I want it to go where there is no CEO who s getting part of my cash.

This is a great reminder that people are still suffering in these places. We have a tendency to forget once it is out of the news. A friend just visited Northern California and said it was like a bomb went off where the fire was. It takes many years to restore what was lost. And, just remember, it could happen to you.

It will be interesting to see if they rebuild. Santa Rosa is NOT in a area that would be normally considered a high fire risk. Large parts of the Houston flooded areas were also not considered at high risk for flooding. The insurance companies should be forced to pay what was everything was insured for, but not be forced to write new policies for these areas. Coastal areas have been having a hard time getting insurance due to the Hurricane threats so a lot of homes in the Keys and Florida coastal areas are building the homes on pilings sunken deep into the earth with the house elevated 10 feet off the ground. I know if I was rebuilding in Houston that’s what I’d do. Maybe California will require home builders to make the homes highly fire resistant and do away with vegetation around the home the basically makes great tinder.

I don’t have much to donate, but I know every little bit helps. I’ll do this; I will compare the average insurance payout to the California fires victims to the average payout to the PR victims, and will donate accordingly…

Nicely done, WIley.

Thank you, Wiley.

Congratulations, Wiley. This was named #1 on the GoComics “Today’s Top 5” – well deserved!

To Brick Flag; My daughter was evacuated four times. Her home was saved by a neighbor with a garden hose. My daughter is a grocery clerk with two other jobs, and three children to support. Hardly a “rich wine snob”. These are the people Wiley is writing about.

Thank you for posting this. My heart goes out to all affected by the huge disasters this year. My grandparents lost everything in the Oakland firestorm of ‘91. We in the East bay all know people who lost everything, and some their relatives/animals. None of the ones I personally know are rich. It’s short hand for the media to call it wine country as it covers a huge area, including many communities of middle and low income, uninsured renters. Also, many low income people have lost their jobs as many businesses are suddenly gone. Thank you Wiley-this is a timely reminder

It’s up to us; the government isn’t doing its job anymore. Surprised?

Shouldn’t our government be taking care of helping these people?

Oh yeah, I forgot, they’re too busy giving money away to the rich and corporations.

I suppose that if the 1% lived in this area, the people living in this area would be showered with all sorts of help.

The northern California wild fires were started by the Mexican drug cartels as a way to get rid of the medical marijuana farms. The disaster that came from Hurricane Harvey and Irma were acts of nature. Put out contracts on the drug cartels and make them pay for both disasters!

Donate and help your fellow humans or don’t. It is up to you. But taking time to be snide or insulting tells everyone what kind of person you are, and does not help you to convince anyone your side is correct. Hate is the currency of today’s political marketplace. Faux News, et.al., exist to promote hate and make money. Wiley holds a mirror up to society and uses simile to show hypocrisy and ignorance. If a comic strip can make you angry, maybe you need help.

Well done Wiley. I have contributed to PR. and I will contribute to the fire victims of Northern California. And shame on people who traffic in hate.

I’d hafta place that idiotic comment by Brickflag right up there with that tragic verdict handed down in San Francisco the other day. Gotta ask YOU Brickflag: What if it were YOU and yours in those horrible fires? Like I’ve stated, I’d ask those jurors a question also: What if were YOUR child, jurors?

BHALL77801 . Proof please.

It doesn’t matter the cause, or where you live. Reach out YOUR hand and offer some help.

Thank you Wiley for a great strip EVERY day.

Hey Brickflag. They stopped the fire two blocks from my house. We were lucky. Many of my wife’s co-workers weren’t so lucky. She works at Memorial Hospital, the only hospital open after the other much bigger ones were evacuated. Nearly 100 of her co-workers lost their houses. There were the doctors and nurses, nearly all of whom continued to work throughout the fire emergency. Most of them came to work in their pajamas, with their families in tow and lived in scrubs for the following week. Most are still homeless – it’s not like houses grow back.

Santa Rosa is the biggest city north of San Francisco until you get to Portland, Oregon, so it’s not just “wine snobs” that live here. Over 14,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. 5% of the housing stock, gone. Thousands of people are homeless. Let that sink in.

There were other disasters this summer, Houston and Puerto Rico suffered from Hurricanes and more people there have been affected and continue to be. Send your money there if you want. They need it too. But, when I go to work (i’m a middle school math teacher) and I drive through what used to be Coffey Park, I see a neighborhood that where 1000 homes vanished over night. I don’t think “wine snob” I think about friends and neighbors.

Our “natural” disasters, whether northern California, “Chetco” in Oregon, Great Smokeys, Houston, are largely the result of poor land use planning combined with global anthropogenic climate change, and ofte “developers” ignoring reality and conning people into buying, like along the forest/urban interface. Sometimes, not so much. The key of Wiley’s effort is to find folks who need help, and HELP!

It isn’t “wine snobs”, it’s PEOPLE! Puerto Rico and the Caribbean by the way were hit by those massively increased in power storms coming from the Atlantic, not anything wealth or status can protect from, but the poor do suffer most. We need sound environmental policies and regulations, not more feed for the greed like this latest “tax reform” that GUTS science and real programs to improve the lives of PEOPLE, not corporate profits based on a casino operation instead of real growth in investment for production…and jobs.

Thank you, Wiley. It’s going to be a long time before things are back to normal around here. The love in the air is thicker than the smoke and we’ll pull through as a community.

For the naysayers and the finger pointers here – I get it. You don’t know anyone in Sonoma County (or Houston, or Florida, or Puerto Rico, or Las Vegas or Sutherland Springs) and they’re not real to you; they’re just a blurb in your news feed that’ll be forgotten when the next tragedy strikes. But behind those stories are real people whose lives have been devastated. Grandparents with no homes, children with no schools, families who have lost loved ones without warning and people who have lost their home and their job in one terrible event.

There are people like this in your community. If you can’t relate to some remote disaster victim who’s just a blip on the news, find someone nearby who’s hurting, look them in the eyes, hold their hands, listen to their story and find a way to help ease their pain. It’s what makes you human.

I live in Clearlake, which is exceedingly low income. Our fire, the Sulphur Fire, wasn’t connected to the Tubbs firestorm, yet it happened at the same time. 158 homes were wiped from the map. 158 families, many of whom can’t afford to restart their lives without assistance. Retirees, low-income families, veterans, and the disabled were affected, but not a single Rich Wine Snob.

5 of our children’s friends lost their homes. My daughter’s good friend and her family had to flee in their pajamas, so shoes, without her purse or cell phone. She woke up to a bright flickering light, it was flames coming up the back side of their house. They got the kids and dogs and ran for the garage, got both cars and drove through (literally ) flames down to her Mother-in-laws house in Walnut Grove.

Now what? Where do the kids go to school? How do we apply for insurance without papers, need to buy clothes (lots of clothes) Her family heirlooms….lost. All the kids pictures….lost. EVERYTHING lost…….

Done!!

On my account I apologize to those insulted, demeaned, and disrespected by many posters/comments in today’s Willey’s entry, It makes me want to throw up and disassociate myself from humankind altogether But that won’t solve much, I don’t have much to give, I am already helping support an elderly family relative in dire need of medical care and such, but I am not asking for sympathy only making the point that if you want and can just help, and do it sans judgment or vilifying, Thanks fo allowing me to rant

I am truly sorry, Wiley, but I think my few extra dollars are better spent supporting those here in Chattanooga who daily/weekly/whatever spend their nights sleeping in a refrigerator carton, or a small tent, under a bridge — and have been all summer.

Or even those in Huston or Puerto Rico are more in need than those Santa Rosa — after all, they reside in a very affluent city/locale…that same State/locale should look after their own.

We simply cannot afford to help everyone in need. That is what States/locales are for…..

Instead of those stupid tax cuts for the rich maybe Congress should have helped those less fortunate. Tax cuts for the rich are always followed by service cuts to the less fortunate. And that’s my rant.

Sorry, would like to donate to those millionaires, but us down here in the hurricane/flood disaster of Texas are struggling just to make ends meet, and some to find a home that isn’t a tent.

THX Wiley from Santa Rosa, where I am on a fixed income, disabled and was spared the devastation by a mere 1/3 mile, w/4 major fires surrounding my home as I fled in the dark, ashes and cinders burning my hair & clothing. Visited Coffey Park yesterday to help the fire survivors with holiday prep. The devastation surpasses anything you can see or imagine. Worse than a war zone. Tho that’s how we all feel. Shell shocked to see our community in ruins. Yet the tenacity, the bravery, the stamina of these ppl, ordinary families who are construction workers, nurses, teachers, seniors, children, all ethnic groups… all of us here have been affected. We will never be the same, but as our new motto says, “The love in the air is thicker than the smoke”. Ppl whose jobs are now lost, or like me, who were spared being burned out but cannot breathe still, and cry at the scenes of tenacity in the face of destruction. These ppl lost everything they own. Every. Single. Thing. They ask simply for a Xmas tree and maybe a present or 2 for the kids to put under it. But they have no decorations, no family photos anymore, no pix on the fridge, no fridge! no kitchen, no home to call their own, no car to get to work or school or even a family outing. Burned, the car’s aluminum wheels melted into the ground of ashes (aluminum melts at 1200 degrees!), Nothing but the clothes on their backs. And those are most likely donated, 2nd hand. Wiley is right, the Redwood Credit Union who is donating all admin costs (unlike Red Cross where 90+% of your donation is spent on admin costs!) yet RCU gives 100% of your donation to the 5,000+ families who have lost all they know. A worthwhile cause. Your brethren, your fellow countryppl, your neighbors. Mine. It could be you. Think about that. It could just as easily be you. It was, it is US. Happy Holidays. And thanks again Wiley!

Done! Donation made, in honor of Wiley and his Non Sequitur.