The Fire We Got
Eight years ago, the New York Times did a feature on the musician Tom Waits, who later emailed the following anecdote to the reporter. The reporter didn’t seem entirely clear about what Waits was trying to communicate, but the timing, less than a month into the first Trump administration, gave it the power of metaphor:
“I was a firefighter when I was 19 or 20. I was trying to get out of the draft and I thought of it as a good place to hide. I was working out of a fire station in a tiny town called Jacumba. One night at maybe 3 a.m., the bell sounded. This was the real thing. I slept in my clothes and only had to put on my boots, and down the pole onto the truck and the siren was blasting and I am hanging onto the ladder and my heart is going like a drum and I am panting hard.”
“It was late and all of a sudden the aroma of fried chicken envelops our truck and we begin to slow and there it is, roaring and crackling: a chicken ranch on fire. The old farmer couple, Mom and Pop, are holding each other in silhouette as their world burns.”
“The captain says: ‘WAITS!!! Take that hose and start putting out some of these chickens.’ So there I am aiming at these flying, screaming, burning chickens, and I had never seen a chicken fly before, but boy can they fly. There had to be a hundred or so of them and the blast of water would douse the fire and they would come crashing to the ground — and then another and another. There was no time to think or prepare.”
“It was an emergency, and when dealing with emergent behavior there is nothing to do but respond. I was in the moment. And it was not the fire I imagined or dreamed of. It was the fire I got.”
Yesterday, the Trump administration went through with 25% across-the-board tariffs with our largest trading partners and closest allies. The Dow has shed more than 3% of its value since the announcement (as of 8:15 am Pacific time), and the Atlanta Fed predicts the U.S. economy will shrink 2.8% in the first quarter of the year. Core inflation is rising again, as is unemployment, even though the federal layoffs haven’t figured in to the latest numbers.
The Wall Street Journal comments on matters: “The Trump administration’s tariff campaign is generating huge uncertainty for businesses that was already becoming a drag on the economy. It will only further intensify in the weeks and months ahead.” President Trump has been in office 43 days. Whether you make and sell beer for a living or just live in the U.S., matters seem to be darkening fast.
We have had no time to think or prepare. We did not expect to be visited by a world on fire, with flaming, panicked chickens screaming overhead. But thanks to Tom Waits and his gothic American storytelling, at least we can put into language how this feels.
Hang in there, my friends.