As the Los Angeles fires rage on, it’s becoming harder and harder to spot an end to this devastation. At the time of writing, the death toll has climbed to 25, and roughly 60 square miles of land containing over 12,000 structures have succumbed to the flames. To make matters worse, extreme wind warnings threaten to carry the wildfire even further. Indeed, this is a time of gutting tragedy.
The thing about the human experience, however, is that it’s defined by how we can create beauty out of the worst possible circumstances. And while it’s going to be quite some time until we can manifest a proper bright future with rebuilding and reimbursing, Prince Harry was happy to provide a spark of humanity for one evacuee.
Per Pasadena Star-News, Harry and his wife Meghan recently made a visit to Pasadena in hopes of assisting civilians whose lives have been ravaged by the wildfires. Their visit included a meeting with Pasadena mayor Victor Gordo, assisting with the distribution of meals, and meeting with the evacuees. Harry, however, wasn’t done yet.
According to Gordo — per the same Pasadena Star-News piece — Harry met an elderly gentleman during this time, and this elderly gentleman found himself struck with a craving for a donut. There were no donuts on-site, and so Harry — without revealing who he was — ventured off in search of a donut, and then brought it to him.
Those partial to Harry’s celebrity were quick to praise his selflessness, while others continued to bang the “disaster tourist” drum and alleging that he and Markle only showed up in Pasadena to enhance their public image.
To both parties, I suggest the following: rather than using this story to jump to the conclusion of “Harry is good” or “Harry is bad,” why not read this event as a human being going out of their way to gift another human being a donut in the wake of an unthinkable catastrophe that we need all the positivity/humanity in the world to counteract?
Folks, I cannot spare even the most marginal iota of a hoot about whether or not Harry is a good person. What we ought to care about instead is that someone’s day was, in all likelihood, ever-so-slightly brightened by a donut. Why debate how worthy someone is of praise, rather than celebrate this instance of shared humanity?
Focusing on trivial nonsense rather than the fact that some good is being done in the world has been a running theme of Harry and Meghan’s response to the Los Angeles fires. Last week, the pair put out a statement urging those in the community to contribute to relief efforts in any way they can — Harry and Meghan, for their part, have since opened their mansion to evacuees and made many donations — only for their haters to swoop in on them for releasing the statement on Kate Middleton‘s birthday.
In other words, Harry and Meghan are being accused of using this entire campaign of compassion was to snub Middleton’s big 43rd. There’s a lot of work to be done indeed, folks.
Published: Jan 14, 2025 02:41 pm