The thoughts and prayers of the nation and world have gone out to the residents of Southern California this week in the wake of the worst wildfires since 2003. Over one million residents were displaced at some point during the week, and over 1300 homes were destroyed.

The fires were no respecter of persons.  Mobile home parks burned as did multi-million dollar mansions belonging to the famous, the rich and the powerful.

The state and federal response to this tragedy shows that some lessons were learned since Katrina in 2005.  Governor Schwarzenegger in particular earned high marks for his handling of the events of the week. 

Tales of heroism and kindness abounded amid the tragedy.  My favorite was the story of Shary Shores, a volunteer registrar at a shelter in San Diego.  She appointed herself the shelter’s official “hugger.” Every person she signed in got a warm, heartfelt hug.  Shores, who lost her home to foreclosure a few months before felt genuine compassion for those who found themselves suddenly homeless.  Many responded by tearfully saying, “Thanks, I really needed that.”

The stories from Southern California are not all bouquets - there are some brickbats to hand out as well. There were, as you might expect, politicians on both the right and the left who could not resist using the situation to get some PR mileage or as a chance to take a shot at their enemies.  These dirtbags - especially California Senator Barbara Boxer, who ridiculously blamed the tragedy on President Bush - are deserving of our scorn.  Running very close behind Boxer are those on the right who said - with no proof whatsoever - that illegal aliens were to blame for the fires.  Or how about those that said - with a straight face - that the fires were caused by global warming.  They all deserve to be voted out of office at the first possible opportunity.  But, sadly, they probably won’t be.

Reuben Navarette is a nationally syndicated columnist who writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.  He has written a great first-person piece about what his family went through this past week, and his feelings toward politicians who try to use a tragedy like this for political advantage.  Read the column here.

This past week I was reminded of Larry Hardiman’s etymology of the word politics.  It comes, he says, from the root words poli, meaning “many” and tics, meaning “blood-sucking parasites.”

True dat.