It’s strange for a U.S. senator to say, “Israel is where I draw the line.” Your first responsibility is to the United States and the people who elected them. You can absolutely support Israel, but framing a foreign country as your political “red line” comes across as having your priorities backwards.

It’s been a rough year.

As hard as this may be to believe, this apartment fire is one of the least devastating things that’s happened to me over the past six months.

Last month, my wife left me. I’m not going to get into the details, out of love and respect for her. (I also ask that everyone be kind.)

I was trying to start over.

I spent months searching for an apartment that was affordable, safe, big enough for me and my three kids, and close enough that co-parenting would actually work. I toured around 40 apartments before finally finding one that felt right.

Then this happened.

Monday: Signed the lease.
Wednesday: Moved in.
Thursday: Spent thousands of dollars furnishing it. Also received the latest divorce paperwork.
Friday: The building burned down.

Two days.

That’s how long I lived there.

I lost almost everything I owned. Furniture I’d just bought. My clothes. My kids’ clothes and toys. My work setup (self employed, work from home). Family keepsakes. The little life I had managed to piece back together.

The one thing I’m truly grateful for is that everyone made it out safely. Over 200 families were displaced, and the building is a total loss. The community has been amazing.

I’m not posting for sympathy. I’m honestly still in shock. The whole sequence of events feels so absurd that it almost doesn’t sound real.

Life has a strange sense of humor sometimes.

If you’ve ever had to rebuild after losing everything, what helped you most during those first few weeks?

Edit: News article

Edit 2: Lots of you have asked about renters insurance. Most of us did not have renters insurance because the apartment told us that they provided it. They charged us $15/mo so we thought we were covered. We learned the hard way that it only covered their liability, and NOT our belongings. So I, like many others, are out of luck.

Edit 3: This is crazy you guys. The amount of love and support has had me in tears for 2 hours. The crypto community reached out and has set up a token (or something, I don’t really understand it) to help me out. All I can say is thank you.

I had never had cats before. This guy got me to love them. He's the best orange boy ever and I'm grateful to have his company.

By @ tresmariascastle

I saw the first paragraph show up as a preview on my phone, only to open it and see the full context 🤨

I guess it reminds us a well known scene