What if we came together BEFORE tragedy strikes?

Content warning - deaths of children mentioned (Bronx and Philly fires) ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [NDLB Standard Logo]( {NAME}, We live in an increasingly polarized country. We have our political beliefs and parties that we align with, and that is who we root for. We’re all guilty of this to one degree or another, myself included. We view these fights in DC as purely political, and to some extent that's true. But this weekend we saw a tragedy in the Bronx that caused me to really reflect in a way that I have not done in a long time. Seventeen lives were lost – including 9 children – and dozens more were seriously injured when a space heater malfunctioned in the bedroom of a second-floor apartment and set off the deadliest building fire in New York City in decades. A similar tragedy happened the week prior in Philadelphia, where 12 people died – 8 children and 4 adults – in an apartment fire that burned only two units … it’s just that 18 people were living in one of them, a 4-bedroom space. If you’re anything like me, you’ve almost gotten numb to headlines like these. They’re so common, they’ve become part of the background noise of our lives. We glance over these stories all the time, and yet we never stop and really think about what the headlines actually mean. Without getting too graphic, have you ever seen what a burn unit looks like in a hospital? What severe smoke inhalation does to the lungs? That is what headlines like this mean – even if they’re lucky to be alive, the survivors and their families are completely devastated. Real people, including little children, are suffering unimaginable pain in the hospital right now. The medical bills will be enormous. The scars will last a lifetime. Tragedies happen, that's part of life, they happen everywhere, and they can happen to any one of us. Yet why is it that they seem to happen more often to folks that have it rough already? Both the Philadelphia duplex and the building in the Bronx where the latest fire happened were low-income housing and not kept up to date. In Philadelphia, not a single one of the building’s ten fire alarms was operational at the time of the blaze. In the Bronx, while officials claim the building’s heating was “fully functional,” residents had filed dozens of complaints about lack of heat with the city housing authority over the past year, and apparently it was working poorly enough that at least one family felt the need to run a space heater overnight. It was cold this weekend in the Bronx, and when it gets that cold and you don't have a warm fireplace or adequate central heating or sufficient insulation, it’s not fun. When you see your children shivering, you’ll do anything to keep them warm; that’s why these space heaters are so popular. And of course, not everyone has the means to just open up their Amazon app and one-click order a top-of-the-line, brand-new space heater that is safe. Some people have to rely on an older model – often secondhand – without all the modern safety features, but it's all they can afford, so they make do. We must stop assuming arrogantly “Well, why didn't they just buy a new one?” Because they couldn't. That is the reality of the world that these folks live in. The victim shaming has been unbelievable with these tragedies. “Why did they have 18 people living in one apartment?” say the shamers in Philadelphia. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Philadelphia only has enough affordable public housing stock for 12% of those in need, and the waiting list has been closed since 2013 to everyone but the disabled and the elderly. What public housing does exist is aging and in disrepair – the average age of public housing units is nearly a century old, and the city estimates there’s over $1 billion in outstanding repairs needed just to bring these units up to code. “The fire and smoke spread because the residents failed to close their doors upon evacuating,” say the shamers in the Bronx. The fact is, self-closing doors have been mandatory in NYC apartments for a long time now, and even the oldest buildings in the city were supposed to have made this change by January of last year. If the doors didn’t close, that’s on the building management, not the scared families fleeing the flames. “People didn't immediately evacuate when they heard the alarms.” Turns out the reason for that was because the building’s fire alarms always went off at all hours, multiple times a week. At that point, it’s human nature to assume, “Oh, here we go again, another fire alarm malfunction,” and not think that this time, after hundreds of false alarms, it’s real. (You might remember the children’s tale about this, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”) Now, aside from the knee-jerk victim-blamers in the corporate media, most people are decent and have rushed to help these folks recover. As I write this, almost $500,000 has been raised by a GoFundMe for the victims, just 24 hours after the fire, and countless organizations have mobilized to find the survivors housing, food, clothing, and more to replace what was lost to the flames and smoke. When tragedy hits America, we come together, we put politics aside and we rush to aid our fellow citizens. I love that about us. I just wish we didn't have to wait until tragedy hits for us to come together. There are so many things that could have been done to prevent this nightmare and the one in Philadelphia if people had cared enough to come together earlier to help their fellow Americans. In Philadelphia, lack of access to affordable housing was the reason 18 people were unsafely cramped into a 4-bedroom public housing unit. In the Bronx, the residents complained and complained about lack of heat, exposed wiring, and broken fire doors, but nothing was done until it was too late. If we can come together as Americans and raise a half-million dollars in a day when tragedy strikes, how much could we accomplish if we worked together BEFORE tragedy strikes to prevent it from happening in the first place? Sure, not every tragedy is preventable – last month’s tornadoes come to mind (although there’s an argument to be made about climate change, but I’ll set that aside for now). Hurricanes, earthquakes, meteor strikes, pandemics – pretty much anything your insurance company calls an “act of God.” But even in those cases, the death toll can be minimized by making the right choices and allocating enough resources to give folks a fighting chance. Better infrastructure. More and safer affordable housing. Stronger gun safety laws and background checks. Increased funding for not-for-profit scientific and medical research. Universal health coverage, including preventive and mental health coverage and treatment for addictions. Better training and emotional support for police and other first responders. How many of these things could have prevented any number of tragedies our country has endured in the past decade? How many catastrophically expensive recovery efforts could have been avoided by spending a little more up front to prevent disaster in the first place? And all we have to do is come together as Americans and decide to do it. The only thing holding us back is ourselves. Again, almost everyone is guilty of the cynical partisanship that says we can’t work together and nothing will ever change, including me at times. But we must do and be better. Things will not change overnight, I get that, but let's at least do something to move our country in the right direction. This week’s tragedies (heck, the ongoing tragedies of the last two years!) are a stark reminder that tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. Regardless of your religious beliefs, we all know that this life can end at any time. So let’s try to make the most of it. Sappers clear the way, Airborne all the way! -- Richard No Dem Left Behind is a federal PAC focused on building a base of support for progressive values in rural America. We are committed to helping solve the issues that people in rural America face by creating a foundation of trust and helping great local leaders emerge to run for elected office. We provide a national platform for our endorsed Democratic candidates to increase their exposure and help them mount winning campaigns. [Pitch in today to join our Democratic movement and help us flip more seats blue >>]( [DONATE]( [NoDemLeftBehind.com]( [Facebook]( || [Twitter]( No Dem Left Behind PAC PO Box 15320 Washington, DC 20003 United States Paid for by No Dem Left Behind PAC. Not authorized by any federal candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to {EMAIL}. [To unsubscribe from this email list, please click here.](