Posted on 05/07/2010 11:50:17 AM PDT by mlizzy
There’s been a lot of murmuring around Nashville, complaints that the national media had forgotten about us. Maybe they thought the flood was exaggerated. Maybe they just had other things to think about. Maybe they just think all there is to Tennessee is the Grand Old Opry -- and Deliverance.
What maybe they don’t know is that Tennessee isn’t really prone to exaggeration. We aren’t a region that overly boasts. But we are the home to some of the best music, the best hospitals, the best food, and the best landscape our country can offer. We love slow food, slow evenings of wine and conversation, and a fast game of hockey or football. Our economy isn’t bad, we don’t pay income tax and everyone is generally in a good mood, most of the time.
So I was thinking…what’s different? Why aren’t we getting the media attention like other cities have?
And I realized it.
We love. We work. We clean up. We rebuild.
We aren’t looting.
We aren’t taking advantage.
We aren’t throwing rocks at police.
We are helping our neighbors, because that’s what neighbors do. We’re hearing stories of hope, of restoration, of mercy.
And if it requires our city to take on an uncivilized, selfish face to get the media’s attention, then forget it.
There is a sign on a church in East Nashville that says something like “God wasn’t in the tornado, God is in the response,” in reference to the tornado that tore through our neighborhood in 1998. This isn’t any different.
And after our neighbors are back in their homes, the music is back at the Opry and the Symphony Center and the Titans are back running on their field, we will know that our city is a stronger, safer more beautiful place, simply because the people love, and love well.
I heard John Rich on Rush earlier and he composed and recorded a song about the flood YESTERDAY. Free download of the song available on http://www.johnrich.com and there is also a donation button on the site to help those who’ve pretty much lost everything because of the flood.
Encouraging the Freepers to help the good folks of Tennessee.
Too bad you aren’t a “Chocolate City” ... you would be up to your asses in help.
God Bless John Rich!
God bless the people of Tennessee, you are on your own, cause the media is too busy tearing a part what’s left of our country, they’re not interested in people doing what needs doing and not crying for government help. Please donate to help out Tennessee!
Idiot on CNN said he could not believe all the volunteer help that has come out to help their neighbors in Nashville...He was amazed !!!!!
Why???
Responsible people help others....This is exactly why Tennessee is known as the “Volunteer State”...
Has France offered any help? Has Germany offered any help? Has Mexico offered any help? Has haiti offered any help?
Has the UN offered any help?
No....but that’s OK...We will take care of things...
While watching the flood on the youtube video a Google Ad pops up for river rafting in California.
FAIL.
mlizzy... GREAT vid. I posted it on my facebook page :)
I lived in Nashville for several years...and the devastation is just unreal! To think...I almost bought a house in Bellvue before giving up because of the cost per square foot in the Nashville area. Decided to buy in Texas and at this point...very glad I did.
God bless Tennessee!
Part of it also is that the presstitutes are drawn to whatever story is “sexy” to them...and hurricanes like Katrina are “sexy,” especially ones poised to hit a major American city head-on. Twelve inches of rain in 24 hours is about the same amount of water (storm surge excepted), but since it’s not a hurricane, it’s not “sexy.”
This isn’t new. When Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast in 1969 as the strongest hurricane ever measured at US landfall, it killed 143 people and rightfully caused a media sensation at the incredible level of devastation, with over a billion dollars in damage. Three days later, the remnants of the storm dropped twenty inches of rain in ONE NIGHT on the foothills of Virginia where I grew up...and killed 153 people, more than in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana combined, with nary a peep from the media.
I was just shy of three years old when this happened and lived about 20 miles south of the worst-hit area in Virginia. As I grew up, whenever something about Camille came on TV, my father would grumble and say a few choice and unrepeatable words about that storm, what it did to people that he knew, and how nobody else outside of central Virginia seemed to give a damn about it.
There’s nothing you can do about it. The New York/Washington/Los Angeles media axis doesn’t give a rat’s ass about those of us in flyover country if the story can’t be sold with vivid images of flying sheet metal or Dan Rather hanging on to a streetlight to avoid being blown away. But the rest of us, we know, and we pray for Tennessee, and we’ll do what we can to help, whether or not our “betters” in Hollywood and Central Park East and Capitol Hill give a damn or not.
}:-)4
I believe Deliverance is set in GA.
bump
I even experienced some of this volunteer help in Memphis, of all places. The spirit of Tennessee has not died, though the Libs have tried to drown it out with their racism.
“Maybe they just think all there is to Tennessee is ... Deliverance. I believe Deliverance is set in GA.”
No difference to your average elite...
Everyone here is remarkably calm and kind. Today is my first day back in the office since the flood. Everyone is swapping stories about damage and looking for folks to help.
And we certainly hope all you tourists will come and visit us. Bring money and a thirst for a good time!
Nashville Flood pin ...
That's pretty my story too. I was there during the March 1975 flood, hitting those of us around McGavock Pike with a torrent. In spite of the tornadoes, occasional floods and winter ice storms, the weather here in Texas is more to my liking since I actually prefer hot temperatures.
/sarcasm
Lived in Cincinnati Ohio for several years, back in 1996 the Ohio River flooded doing a great deal of damage. Although there was some national media coverage it was fairly minimal. Flooding doesn’t draw the media attention all that much even when news is slow, combine that with the oil leak situation in the Gulf threatening the coast of LA, MS & FL and the Nashville flooding is guaranteed even less attention.
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