Threads- Let's Pull at Them...And Get a Story

What is the theme? How do we carry the story?

I have been wrestling with the theme of the rebuild for a while. We have “threads,” but the story, the bigger story, remains harder to tell.

Part of it is the story is unfolding which makes it hard to tell. What is today can change tomorrow.

Telling the narrative in “real time” means picking little parts, completed “gates.” I remember this feeling when I was writing my book about my battles in DC in 2016-2021. I want to write something but the event still had to sometimes conclude so I am feeling unfulfilled.

I would finish a chapter of my book, but could not finish the story, as the theme was there but not completely.

I would try to find that “thread,” which I knew, but as it unfolded, needed to marinate. But here we are and the media wants to tell a story, but we are still marinating.

Returning back to the themes, the media has asked me on multiple occasions to “find that thread.” I struggled with the question. What is the story they want to tell? What do we want them to write about as I know what I want to hear and see but I am not the normal consumer. Where do you go with something as open ended as rebuilding a community and as limited as a small town? How do you weave the happenings into the broader themes evidencing themselves nationally? It is almost a podcast versus a story (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

Here are the themes I see at this point for our media friends. Nothing here is so earth shattering that they will be surprised.

1. Political Intrigue

There is the political intrigue about the process of bringing in the money and how it will be spent, among the other policy considerations. The various factions vying for control and acquiring and using Power is fascinating to me. The “invisible hand” is another. Who wins and loses? Which level are we looking at? Is it the hyper-local level? Is it the mid-tier/County-wide approach? Is it the federal story? Are there unique aspects of the story which can be told to illuminate these themes? How do these themes weave together? I think of the “threads” Political Intrigue is the one we touch on the most as it is the unfolding story.

2. Political Malpractice

There are a number of people who have come to me discussing the idea of political malpractice on the part of government in the episodes. Is it the local governments and their responses? Is it the State? What about the federals? Is it the fact the fires happened in the first place? Is it the response? Is it the lack of plan? Is it the lack of direction? Is it human or systemic? There are specific examples of government failure, but is it part of a broader discussion? What are the solutions to ensure these failures do not happen again? Humans like to ascribe answers to unanswerable questions, and malpractice is where we go in our naturally critical education.

3. The Human Interest

Human interest stories have been well documented as they are the most visible story line. Houses lost. Lives uprooted. The good people are doing. The looters. The tens of thousands of individual stories of how the fire affected each person. The depths of those stories can go so much further. Everyone has their own “angel story” as well as trauma. The media has been very good at telling those stories. Those stories however, will and are transition as attention moves elsewhere. The rebuild will probably reintroduce those stories again for a period of time. The houses being rebuilt. The churches and schools being reconstituted. The businesses finding root in the new city. Where does it go from here?

4. The Rebuild

I can imagine a series of stories about the stories of leaders, community, and their experiences through the rebuild. Who rises? Who falls? Where do people lead us to? All the levels also apply.

5. The People

What about a story of all the different leaders who have emerged or were there all along and their battles are now being highlighted by the event? Take those who are known and those not. You can see a spread of pictures and those who are the ones affecting the solution. The politician. The business person. The social worker. The teacher. The grandmother. The community leader. Who is going to rise up? Faces, names, and bios would be an interesting story- a who’s who if you will.

6. The Broader Story

How do these events fit into the bigger stories around our nation? Altadena is a microcosm of Los Angeles. How do our stories fit in with the narrative going on in the city being described by media? What does the response say about what our nation will look like as we emerge from these adversities?

I like the policy-political angle but I am curious where the media will go next. My conversations have centered around the idea of how we can get going and why we are limited.

Much has been made of specific issues lately, such as soil pollution or insurance. The Los Angeles Times has done a great job telling these “focused” stories. We have not gotten the media to delve deeply into the solutions portion probably because it is complex. The Times, et al, report on the day-to-day, the commissions, the petty politics, the environmental questions, the human interest, but the broader questions- what will happen next- remain to be reported.

I think back to the whole LA Federation of Labor expose the Times did in 2022. It was a fascinating look behind the curtain. The articles went to the heart of what was rotten in LA politics. What about here? Is there a need for an expose? Is it time to inform our nation about what the above themes mean and “pull the threads?”

I guess the Times stories had clear bad guys. It had history of Power and a shift going on. It had those secret “back rooms.” It had the “hidden hand” shown. It showed Power how we always imagined it, naked, crude, and obtuse. It predicated the “great fall” of leaders, showing them for being human after all. It exposed the facades we all suspect. Do we have a similar dynamic at play here? Depends on who you ask I guess.

There are the internecine battles of an “advisory” town council attempting to become a “political influence” where it was never intended to be, and the residents who do not see it that way. There is the question of incorporation which Altadena has always discussed. Would incorporation speed up the recovery? Would incorporation allow for different approaches to how recovery could be managed? Would this event have happened if there was a separate city of Altadena?

What about those who stop the progress? Where is our money and why are we waiting to begin putting the pieces in place? Is it that complicated? Why has the government not helped the residents understand the plan? Is it there actually a “grand plan” or is there really “nothing.”

In voids, we use our imaginations to see what might or might not be there. Maybe it is just as limited as people are paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. We are in a once in a lifetime moment, and while people do not want to “waste the moment,” they also do not know how to “seize the moment” either.

And there you have it media. You have your “threads.”

Still, the story is ill-defined as it is on going. That makes it fun and frustrating at the same time.

Big pieces still remain to be fit into the void. What will the rebuild be and who was right?

I would love to hear what you think and how we can continue to tell this story.