January 21, 2025 • 15 mins
This episode reflects on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. while addressing the personal and societal challenges of racism and environmental crises like wildfires. Through personal anecdotes and community reflections, it emphasizes the importance of ongoing conversations around equity and safety.
• Honoring Martin Luther King Day as a time for reflection
• Personal stories of growing up in a community with a racist history
• Understanding the impact of racial inequality and the need for education
• Concerns over the regression of DEI initiatives in society
• Navigating family dynamics in a politically divided environment
• Update on the wildfires in Los Angeles and their personal impact
• Managing poor air quality and environmental challenges
• Practical steps taken to improve home air quality
• The intersection of personal histories and broader societal issues
• Encouragement for community engagement and active discussions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tracy (00:00):
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, Tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
(00:25):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
(00:51):
Today, I'm going to talk aboutMartin Luther King Day and also
give you an update on oursituation here with the fires
and the fire aftermath.
I'm recording this episode theday before it's live, so it's
Martin Luther King Day here inthe United States.
Happy Martin Luther King Day.
The day itself has becomesomewhat of a well, it's a
(01:13):
federal holiday, but it's becomethe volunteer day, a day to
volunteer in the community.
It's become the community.
It's become, I think, animportant day in our society.
(01:34):
I wish that I had been born alittle bit earlier so that I
would remember seeing andhearing Dr King speak on
television, that I could haveseen him and experienced him
more in my life.
I grew up in a town that, if I'mgoing to be honest with you,
(01:56):
was and probably still is on theracist side.
Am I proud of that?
No, there are stories that goalong with the history of our
town that it had a KKK office,that it had a Nazi headquarters
office and that it also housedJapanese prisoners, if you will,
(02:23):
on one of the local golfcourses in the internment camps.
Now, I'm not sure if any ofthose are really true or to the
extent that it took place, but Isuspect that they're all true.
When I was growing up, I didn'treally understand very much
(02:46):
about this and my family didn'treally talk about it that much
as well.
As I got older, I started tohave some friends who were
African American or Black, whowere African American or black.
In my high school we hadprobably close to 2,000 students
(03:08):
and there was only one blackstudent.
He was a very friendly, popularguy, but I often thought maybe
he felt lonely or felt like hestuck out, which he did.
(03:29):
I found out, probably in my 20s, that Glendale was the kind of
place where if you were black,you didn't want to be caught
after five o'clock when the sunwent down that was probably in
(03:50):
the 50s or before because youwould be pulled over by the
police and it was illegal foryou to be in the town.
As I got older, as an adult, Ilearned more and more about the
history of my town and Iunderstood why there weren't
(04:10):
more Black people in ourcommunity and it made me sad to
(04:30):
try to understand theramifications of comments and
ideas around racism and I triedto educate myself on how to be
not racist, because nobody tookthe time to explain or explain
educate me on that.
I wasn't in school and I wasn'tgoing to get it at home.
(04:50):
This is one of the brochuresthat I didn't get.
It took me a long time, sort oftrial and error, to learn that
some of the things that I hadsaid in the past were racist and
I still feel the guilt aboutthose to this day.
(05:16):
I try to be sensitive toeveryone.
Sometimes it's hard if youdon't know all the details.
Right, but I do try.
Right, but I do try.
(05:39):
Now there was a big push forDEI in the workplace and
equality in many areas of ourlives, and now some of that is
being taken away or termed notas important, and that makes me
sad.
It really does, becauseanything that has to do with
(06:04):
racial equality or ethnicequality or ethnic equality.
It's just one step away fromgender equality, and as a woman,
I am still sensitive to thefact that women haven't been
(06:29):
able to vote for really all thatlong in this society and as
much as we try and as much as wetalk about it, there's still a
lot of gender inequality, and sothe racial inequality also is
across our society, and allthose things make me sad.
(06:51):
I think that we've come a longway, but we still have a long
ways to go, and there are forcesin our society today that don't
fully support that.
I think you know what I'mtalking about.
Am I liberal?
(07:12):
Yes, have I always been liberal?
Yes, it's interesting that myparents my father was a
registered Republican and mymother for most of her life was
a registered Democrat they usedto joke when it came time to
(07:32):
vote that they canceled eachother out.
As my mother aged, andespecially after my father
passed away and my mother'sdementia grew stronger with her
Parkinson's disease, she gotmore and more secretive about a
lot of things, and one of thosewas her take on politics.
(07:53):
She had no interest in talkingto us about how she was voting
or how she felt, and that wasslightly frustrating on many
levels, not just about voting orpolitics, but frustrating on
many levels, not just aboutvoting or politics, but even how
(08:14):
she felt about what she waseating that day or where she
wanted to go or what she wantedto watch on TV.
Anyway, that's how I'm feelingtoday about Martin Luther King
and his legacy and theimportance of his legacy in our
world.
I'll leave it with that.
(08:38):
Now an update on the fires.
The two main fires here in LosAngeles are the Eaton Fire,
which is our fire, I guess youcould say the fire that impacted
us the most, and also thePalisades fire, and both of them
are still burning, but they'renot anywhere close to where we
(09:01):
are.
We're not under an evacuationorder or an evacuation warning,
thank goodness.
Are we still packed?
Yes, is the stuff in the car?
No, it's spread out all overour living room.
Some of the challenges thatwe've had.
Well, now at least you can findbottled water to purchase in
(09:24):
the stores.
It was a little iffy at first.
The air quality has been verypoor, even though you can see
the sky and it's blue mostlywhen I go out, I still feel that
the feeling in my throat like ahoarseness or I don't know what
(09:48):
it is the burning.
That's what it is, the burningin my throat, and so a lot of
the times I'm still wearing amask outside.
I went out in the backyard theother day to try to do a little
bit of yard work andunfortunately I did not take my
mask.
And also I wanted to water someof the plants and I watered
(10:15):
down a lot of the leaves andstuff, but when I was raking
just minimally, there's so muchash back there.
It's ridiculous.
There's branches and leaves, ofcourse, but there's so much ash
back there.
It's ridiculous.
There's branches and leaves, ofcourse, but there's so much ash
.
And what they're telling us nowis that we shouldn't use leaf
blowers because that'll kick upthe ash, um, and we should be
(10:38):
very careful about about the ash, because it could burn, um, it
could burn your skin.
Well, it's burning my throat.
So I watered down the wholeyard to try to help that, but
then I realized, well, it's inthe trees and any breeze is
going to throw all that stuffdown again in the air.
(10:59):
What we really need is rain,but there's no rain in sight, so
that's where we are.
A lot of people have been buyingemergency supplies like
batteries, lights, lanterns,flashlights, masks, of course,
(11:20):
air purifiers.
Right now we have four in ourhouse.
Our poor cat, he's asthmaticand he's really been suffering
and with the four air purifiersit's helped a little bit.
But I also have an air qualitymonitor so I can kind of keep
(11:40):
track of where we are with theair, keep track of where we are
with the air, the differentbaselines of the different areas
of air quality.
We also have a humidifier andluckily the humidity is better.
When the fires were at theirworst the humidity was very,
very low and that's bad forasthma, so I'm able to keep it a
(12:02):
little bit better.
I'm always looking for somethingto improve the air quality.
I know, believe it or not, withfour air purifiers, the company
that put in our central air andheat suggested that we only get
the cheapest filters to put inthe system because they said
(12:24):
there's no difference.
I finally, just yesterday, Ijust bit the bullet and I went
out and I got thetop-of-the-line filter to
replace it with, from a $7filter to a $25 filter.
It's HEPA filter.
It's HEPA.
It is supposed to filter outeverything from dirt, any kind
(12:50):
of particles, allergens, toviruses, bacteria.
I mean I thought why not?
And we put that in last nightand I was surprised.
But he's had a lot lessepisodes.
He still had some, but he's hada lot less episodes.
He still had some, but he's hada lot less episodes.
So my husband said well, I thinkthe air is better.
(13:13):
Maybe it's just my imagination,but because I could still smell
smoke in the house, which wassuper frustrating because we
don't open the windows.
I run outside the door.
I have to open the door.
So that's where we are withthat, trying to improve the air
(13:34):
quality inside the house.
I also ordered a steam mop.
That's going to come, hopefullythis week, because I was
looking at.
Vacuuming stirs up the dust.
Obviously, we're tracking inash, we're tracking in dust
every time we come inside andvacuuming stirs it up.
(13:57):
Mopping is a lot of work, let'sface it.
We have hardwood floors.
So I went online, I looked at alot of different things and I
ordered a steam mop where youjust put the pads in the washer.
That sounds like a good thing.
So I'm going to try that, to doeverything I can to keep us
(14:17):
safe and to keep us clean and tokeep my cat comfortable.
I think that's all I've got fortoday.
I hope that everyone is having agood January and staying safe,
if you're here or wherever youare, and next week we'll tackle
(14:39):
another topic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
Diaries podcast on ApplePodcasts or other platforms you
might listen on and considerrating Only Child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
(15:00):
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
Visit my Instagram page childdiaries or facebook only child
diaries podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm tracy wallace and these arethe only child diaries.
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, Tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
(00:25):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
(00:51):
Today, I'm going to talk aboutMartin Luther King Day and also
give you an update on oursituation here with the fires
and the fire aftermath.
I'm recording this episode theday before it's live, so it's
Martin Luther King Day here inthe United States.
Happy Martin Luther King Day.
The day itself has becomesomewhat of a well, it's a
(01:13):
federal holiday, but it's becomethe volunteer day, a day to
volunteer in the community.
It's become the community.
It's become, I think, animportant day in our society.
(01:34):
I wish that I had been born alittle bit earlier so that I
would remember seeing andhearing Dr King speak on
television, that I could haveseen him and experienced him
more in my life.
I grew up in a town that, if I'mgoing to be honest with you,
(01:56):
was and probably still is on theracist side.
Am I proud of that?
No, there are stories that goalong with the history of our
town that it had a KKK office,that it had a Nazi headquarters
office and that it also housedJapanese prisoners, if you will,
(02:23):
on one of the local golfcourses in the internment camps.
Now, I'm not sure if any ofthose are really true or to the
extent that it took place, but Isuspect that they're all true.
When I was growing up, I didn'treally understand very much
(02:46):
about this and my family didn'treally talk about it that much
as well.
As I got older, I started tohave some friends who were
African American or Black, whowere African American or black.
In my high school we hadprobably close to 2,000 students
(03:08):
and there was only one blackstudent.
He was a very friendly, popularguy, but I often thought maybe
he felt lonely or felt like hestuck out, which he did.
(03:29):
I found out, probably in my 20s, that Glendale was the kind of
place where if you were black,you didn't want to be caught
after five o'clock when the sunwent down that was probably in
(03:50):
the 50s or before because youwould be pulled over by the
police and it was illegal foryou to be in the town.
As I got older, as an adult, Ilearned more and more about the
history of my town and Iunderstood why there weren't
(04:10):
more Black people in ourcommunity and it made me sad to
(04:30):
try to understand theramifications of comments and
ideas around racism and I triedto educate myself on how to be
not racist, because nobody tookthe time to explain or explain
educate me on that.
I wasn't in school and I wasn'tgoing to get it at home.
(04:50):
This is one of the brochuresthat I didn't get.
It took me a long time, sort oftrial and error, to learn that
some of the things that I hadsaid in the past were racist and
I still feel the guilt aboutthose to this day.
(05:16):
I try to be sensitive toeveryone.
Sometimes it's hard if youdon't know all the details.
Right, but I do try.
Right, but I do try.
(05:39):
Now there was a big push forDEI in the workplace and
equality in many areas of ourlives, and now some of that is
being taken away or termed notas important, and that makes me
sad.
It really does, becauseanything that has to do with
(06:04):
racial equality or ethnicequality or ethnic equality.
It's just one step away fromgender equality, and as a woman,
I am still sensitive to thefact that women haven't been
(06:29):
able to vote for really all thatlong in this society and as
much as we try and as much as wetalk about it, there's still a
lot of gender inequality, and sothe racial inequality also is
across our society, and allthose things make me sad.
(06:51):
I think that we've come a longway, but we still have a long
ways to go, and there are forcesin our society today that don't
fully support that.
I think you know what I'mtalking about.
Am I liberal?
(07:12):
Yes, have I always been liberal?
Yes, it's interesting that myparents my father was a
registered Republican and mymother for most of her life was
a registered Democrat they usedto joke when it came time to
(07:32):
vote that they canceled eachother out.
As my mother aged, andespecially after my father
passed away and my mother'sdementia grew stronger with her
Parkinson's disease, she gotmore and more secretive about a
lot of things, and one of thosewas her take on politics.
(07:53):
She had no interest in talkingto us about how she was voting
or how she felt, and that wasslightly frustrating on many
levels, not just about voting orpolitics, but frustrating on
many levels, not just aboutvoting or politics, but even how
(08:14):
she felt about what she waseating that day or where she
wanted to go or what she wantedto watch on TV.
Anyway, that's how I'm feelingtoday about Martin Luther King
and his legacy and theimportance of his legacy in our
world.
I'll leave it with that.
(08:38):
Now an update on the fires.
The two main fires here in LosAngeles are the Eaton Fire,
which is our fire, I guess youcould say the fire that impacted
us the most, and also thePalisades fire, and both of them
are still burning, but they'renot anywhere close to where we
(09:01):
are.
We're not under an evacuationorder or an evacuation warning,
thank goodness.
Are we still packed?
Yes, is the stuff in the car?
No, it's spread out all overour living room.
Some of the challenges thatwe've had.
Well, now at least you can findbottled water to purchase in
(09:24):
the stores.
It was a little iffy at first.
The air quality has been verypoor, even though you can see
the sky and it's blue mostlywhen I go out, I still feel that
the feeling in my throat like ahoarseness or I don't know what
(09:48):
it is the burning.
That's what it is, the burningin my throat, and so a lot of
the times I'm still wearing amask outside.
I went out in the backyard theother day to try to do a little
bit of yard work andunfortunately I did not take my
mask.
And also I wanted to water someof the plants and I watered
(10:15):
down a lot of the leaves andstuff, but when I was raking
just minimally, there's so muchash back there.
It's ridiculous.
There's branches and leaves, ofcourse, but there's so much ash
back there.
It's ridiculous.
There's branches and leaves, ofcourse, but there's so much ash
.
And what they're telling us nowis that we shouldn't use leaf
blowers because that'll kick upthe ash, um, and we should be
(10:38):
very careful about about the ash, because it could burn, um, it
could burn your skin.
Well, it's burning my throat.
So I watered down the wholeyard to try to help that, but
then I realized, well, it's inthe trees and any breeze is
going to throw all that stuffdown again in the air.
(10:59):
What we really need is rain,but there's no rain in sight, so
that's where we are.
A lot of people have been buyingemergency supplies like
batteries, lights, lanterns,flashlights, masks, of course,
(11:20):
air purifiers.
Right now we have four in ourhouse.
Our poor cat, he's asthmaticand he's really been suffering
and with the four air purifiersit's helped a little bit.
But I also have an air qualitymonitor so I can kind of keep
(11:40):
track of where we are with theair, keep track of where we are
with the air, the differentbaselines of the different areas
of air quality.
We also have a humidifier andluckily the humidity is better.
When the fires were at theirworst the humidity was very,
very low and that's bad forasthma, so I'm able to keep it a
(12:02):
little bit better.
I'm always looking for somethingto improve the air quality.
I know, believe it or not, withfour air purifiers, the company
that put in our central air andheat suggested that we only get
the cheapest filters to put inthe system because they said
(12:24):
there's no difference.
I finally, just yesterday, Ijust bit the bullet and I went
out and I got thetop-of-the-line filter to
replace it with, from a $7filter to a $25 filter.
It's HEPA filter.
It's HEPA.
It is supposed to filter outeverything from dirt, any kind
(12:50):
of particles, allergens, toviruses, bacteria.
I mean I thought why not?
And we put that in last nightand I was surprised.
But he's had a lot lessepisodes.
He still had some, but he's hada lot less episodes.
He still had some, but he's hada lot less episodes.
So my husband said well, I thinkthe air is better.
(13:13):
Maybe it's just my imagination,but because I could still smell
smoke in the house, which wassuper frustrating because we
don't open the windows.
I run outside the door.
I have to open the door.
So that's where we are withthat, trying to improve the air
(13:34):
quality inside the house.
I also ordered a steam mop.
That's going to come, hopefullythis week, because I was
looking at.
Vacuuming stirs up the dust.
Obviously, we're tracking inash, we're tracking in dust
every time we come inside andvacuuming stirs it up.
(13:57):
Mopping is a lot of work, let'sface it.
We have hardwood floors.
So I went online, I looked at alot of different things and I
ordered a steam mop where youjust put the pads in the washer.
That sounds like a good thing.
So I'm going to try that, to doeverything I can to keep us
(14:17):
safe and to keep us clean and tokeep my cat comfortable.
I think that's all I've got fortoday.
I hope that everyone is having agood January and staying safe,
if you're here or wherever youare, and next week we'll tackle
(14:39):
another topic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
Diaries podcast on ApplePodcasts or other platforms you
might listen on and considerrating Only Child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
(15:00):
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
Visit my Instagram page childdiaries or facebook only child
diaries podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm tracy wallace and these arethe only child diaries.
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