Frank Shyong: Why did no one warn the housekeepers about the Getty fire?

Joan Didion once wrote, "The city burning is Los Angeles's deepest image of itself."

Wildfire season never passes without this quote going viral on social media, and while I roll my eyes every time, I understand the impulse. Her words capture the constant unrest that comes with living under threat of disaster and the way imminent destruction shows us who we are. It lets us put a sexy, intellectual spin on the real dangers we face in California.

But lately I've started to question how deep that image is. I think it could use some edits to make it relevant in 2019.

First, zoom out from the flames. Show the neighborhood where wealthy homeowners, having fled themselves, have inexplicably forgotten to warn their domestic workers not to come in. Pan over the hill that those workers, largely Latina women, must climb from the bus stop.

Give us a close-up of these women's faces, so that we might understand why, when everyone else is fleeing for their lives, they walk