Thang Nguyen 555

In Mayfield, KY, more than 100 workers worked the night shift, were making, of all things, candles. Then darkness and destruction strike.

Power outage. Where are the candles when we needed them.

Where is God when we needed Him.

Where is everybody, EMTs, firefighters, police when we needed them.

Everywhere, all we can see is rubles. 9/11 again (one veteran even said it looks more horrific than all the bombing he saw in war). Except we can’t pin the blame on anyone…climate change (winter cold should temper down tornado penchant).

On top of covid, we now see this.

A jailer who accompanied inmates on a work program at Mayfield candles factory was killed. A lady, interviewed by PBS, said she resettled to KY after Katrina, only to see her whole house turn to rubles.

Tragedy does come in two’s: Delta and Omicron, Iraq and Afghanistan, Korea and Vietnam, WW I and WW II, Cold War and Cyber War.

What absent has been an election-hack, from those young BMW owners in high-unemployment Estonia . Where are they now. Out splurging after sabotaging and sending robocalls to Fox channel viewers?

Some may say God send fury. Others see calamity of epic proportion. Proponents of Climate change pin this on human exploit, which for years, has disregarded ecological balance. (That’s why in Mayfield, people at least, produce something useful: candles, just in case).

One of those rare manufacturing facilities left in the heartland. Then up North, it’s all distribution centre, by Amazon (America, the beautiful, showroom for all things made elsewhere).

Warehouse workers said they were “rocked” from one side to the other before the roof caved in.

Death on a third shift.

Going to work, carrying your lunch box, to never see the light of day again.

R.I.P. by last count, getting close to 100.

I feel undeserving. I was sleeping, just like you all who are reading this.

We’re alive. Celebrating Christmas. Celebrating our extra weight, extra lighting outside , always on with batteries and generators.

Meanwhile, people died in the cold and damn, while trying to make something glowing and warm.

Something romantic and energy-conserving.

I hope they “build back better” in Mayfield. With manufacturing capacity that can compete.

We live in an age where everything and everyone is disposable.

Like diapers. Like cups and candles. Like offline and online friendships.

Take it and run. Nordstrom luxury purses. Just snatch them. Driver! drive. Bonnie and Clyde.

Ain’t no Superman to catch the flash-mob thieves (80 cars in all). Everything is coordinated, good and bad guys, using the same tool – machine aided and ad-sponsored social media, at our disposal.

Some are motivated with the desire to revenge: against a society of winners take all.

Losers? well, sell all you have, pay the coyotes and get in the trailer. Only to die in a tragic traffic accident never reaching the border (southern of the US).

And that just on the bulletin of news: people snatching purses, people died from trying to cross the border for a better life, and people died by just showing up to work, on the night shift which promised additional pay..to make something that burns bright in the dark. The dark which we all live in (or sleep away) almost half a day everyday, utterly ungrateful and unacknowledged of all the public benefits we took for granted.

Switch on the light, turn on the heat and start the car: let’s go shopping for luxury purses…of all places, Nordstrom….if there were any at this time of logistic challenges.

I want you to join me in saying a prayer for the ones who were asleep, thinking their bread-earners were coming home after a night working at the factory or the warehouse. Who is left to bury them when they themselves get buried by nature (I did not say Mother Nature).

What kind of “mother” that would lash mercilessly out at the innocent: old (86), young, children (5 months old) and nursing home residents? You tell me, by just looking at the picture. When in calamity and grief, we would hold vigils, light a candle. This time, for the candle makers themselves and praying to the candle-makers’ Maker! I would love to believe very much, esp during this time of the year.

Candles in calamity.