The Greater Fire

"No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.” - General George Patton

...and I sat in my own swivel chair here in Sacramento, very early on Friday morning, September 11, 2015, ready to do the daily updates on ACN...and just couldn't. I made the decision to cancel all engagements that day, loaded up the truck with 10 flats of water, and headed towards Amador County. Amador Community News has always been about just that: Community. How could I sit back and watch from afar as so many friends and families were in immediate need?

I remember 9/11...sitting and staring dumbfoundedly in my bath robe for days. I felt helpless, as all Americans did that day. I couldn't believe what was happening, and even today, even to this very minute, cannot believe what has happened to my California home town(s) in Amador County, and our neighbors in Calaveras County. How ironic, and I would be damned if I'd let that feeling of helplessness overwhelm me ever again.

So...not being one to just "talk the talk", I made the "walk" (okay, drive), and "set up base" at Mel's Diner for a while before heading up Highway 88 that afternoon. Here is what I saw: A lot of carrion birds circling. Cars filled with possessions at various stops, roads closed. I went up far enough to where smoke was billowing and flakes of ash were falling. I shared whatever I could on Facebook. I set up a blog off of ACN listing Facebook groups and donation stations, buttemtnfire.blogspot.com, Yesterday, I took a truck load of donations to Laughton Ranch and Operation Care. So many supportive friends helped me help others, and I am so very grateful to all of you.

I would like to thank the Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel, Amador Ledger Dispatch, KVGC, TSPN and SO MANY MORE (you know who you are!) who have helped in keeping the communities informed and up to date. However...the people I want to thank the most?

ALL OF YOU!

I've read and shared hundreds of posts on Facebook, and realized that there was a point where I could, as a staff of one here at ACN, hand it off to all of the good hearts and minds of people like you!

COMMUNITY is what Amador Community News is all about. And quite frankly...I don't really care if your information or sources are "official". I don't care if it's a well-written press release or a writ from the Governor or the President himself. I am more interested it what is going on across the neighbor fences and circulating through the evacuee threads...more interested in what is going on at donation stations, evacuees off the sides of the roads, base camps and whatnot...than what corporate media is being fed through "official channels". I understand why governing organizations don't want people to go into "panic mode", but...what happens behind the scenes, "behind the curtains", beyond the swivel chairs...well, that's what I'M interested in, because that's where things are really getting done. I've seen it with my own eyes.

So please, feel free to share your stories. If you have a fund set up for victims and evacuees of this fire, please let me know. If you want me to deliver some stuff, let me know.

My direct email is acneditor@gmail.com

I'll be up in the County again on Wednesday, September 16. I'll be at Hanford Courte's Business Appreciation event, which has turned into a fundraiser.

If YOU have a fundraiser, let me know, and I will post it on buttemtnfire.blogspot.com,

I'd like to close with my own quote, posted both on ACN, Amador.news, and on my personal Facebook page: