Since Hurricane Helene clobbered western North Carolina a friend with a house a few miles east of Asheville has posted updates on social media on what it’s like to live in a war zone.
In his dispatches he describes a world of unfathomable woe and carnage. He writes of lost homes, of untold numbers without water or vehicles or food. A few miles from where he is, floodwaters washed away small communities wedged in between ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains, which straddle western North Carolina and Tennessee.
He is trying to help — his family is safe — but sometimes it is overwhelming.
His dispatches are not entirely grim, however. He writes of people traveling from afar to remove fallen trees on homes, of communities coming together to feed and clothe one another, of people lending a hand. It’s an accumulation of small gestures that can make one feel hopeful about humanity.
It is inspiring.
Then politics intrudes to remind me that we don’t live in a world solely filled with people trying to lend a helping hand.
In an age where national politics is rife with misinformation and disinformation, we learn that former president Donald Trump and his campaign are weaponizing federal aid to hard-hit areas like the one where my friend lives. Trump’s mistruths about the Biden administration having no money left to help hard-hit areas are mingling with rumor and conspiracy theories on the Internet and on social media, creating a toxic mix and hurting desperate people in need of aid.
Amid all this toxicity over the weekend, a story appeared about a North Carolina man who threatened to kill federal emergency personnel trying to help a hard-hit county about an hour’s drive from my friend. Federal officials relocated the emergency response personnel until the man was arrested.
Perhaps the threats were the ravings of a single man, but the consequences of his actions could have affected many North Carolinians desperate for help.
Then the thought occurred to me that maybe the man is merely a cog in a network of Americans ready to resort to violence against the U.S. government. Numerous people from across the spectrum have described the rise of an extremist right as the most serious threat to American democracy in recent years.
Perhaps this man is another example. I remember that Eric Rudolph, the man who bombed the Olympics and a gay bar in Atlanta and two abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham from 1996 through 1998, evaded arrest for five years by escaping into the mountains of western North Carolina near Asheville.
In letters he mailed to news outlets in 1998, Rudolph said he was targeting federal agents and supporters of abortion and homosexuality on behalf of the “Army of God.”
To evade arrest for so long, Rudolph likely had help from people sympathetic to his views.
So, what does this all mean in our unsettled political times?
My opinion: the last thing we need in this country right now is a presidential candidate lying and spewing mistruths about federal aid that could not only hamper aid to Americans in desperate need of it but potentially activate anti-government activists and militants.
Instead, to paraphrase Fred Rogers, we need to look for the helpers.
Helpers like my friend, and neighbors who are helping neighbors, and federal emergency personnel traveling long distances to render aid.
Ignore the people trying to disrupt aid to your fellow Americans to win a political contest. We don’t need that kind of selfishness and cynicism.
Trip Jennings started his career in Georgia at his hometown newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle, before working at newspapers in California, Florida and Connecticut. Since 2005, Trip has covered politics and state government for the Albuquerque Journal, The New Mexico Independent and the Santa Fe New Mexican. He holds a Master’s of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. In 2012, he co-founded New Mexico In Depth.