Nashville Heroes

There was a lot of news breaking over the past week and yet I think Fox News got some of it wrong. A few other news divisions are now following their lead, but Fox was the first to incorrectly link the oil spill and Obama’s handling of this disaster with the way Bush’s team handled Katrina. The main point of contention was that Bush was denounced in the news for not visiting New Orleans until four days after the disaster whereas Obama didn’t show up to view the oil spill for nine days. The comparison must have struck a chord at the White House for now everyone has the same talking point in which they start any conversation about the oil spill with the phrase “day one” – as in “we were on top of this day one”. Nonetheless I think Fox used the wrong comparison.

In the midst of reporting about the oil spill, Arizona and immigration, the Times Square bomber, the stock market plunge and back again, there was another story of near epic proportions – the Nashville flooding. Now this disaster was on par with the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina. And yet the way the folks in Nashville are being treated in comparison to those in New Orleans is downright insulting.

Thirty one people have died, a vital Southern city is underwater, there is an estimated $1.5 billion in damage plus an important part of American history and our musical heritage, The Grand Ol’ Oprey was badly damaged along with millions of dollars worth of Country Music artifacts and instruments. Yet no one seems to care or even know about it. Hell, I got the above information from a BBC article as there are so few in this country reporting on it.

Gee, it took Bush four days to visit New Orleans and Obama nine days to view the oil spill yet why hasn’t any reporter accused the President of avoiding Nashville, another southern city completely underwater? Instead, nearly a week later, Janet Napolitano showed up. I still don’t quite understand why she is the spokesperson for the oil spill cleanup and now this. Regardless, the President or even the Vice President should have been in Nashville to view the damage and to maybe give a few comforting hugs to the flooded out residents.

In fact, in Obama’s acceptance speech of the Democrat ticket a few years ago he said "We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes."

Ironic, isn’t it? Someone needs to remind him of this for he sure as hell has been sitting on his hands while Nashville has epic flooding and struggles to overcome what some say is the worst disaster for them since the damage from the Civil War.

Obama also discussed something that has been annoying me recently. In his speech he mentions homeless veterans and families in poverty. Yet during the past year I have wondered about the lack of articles about the homeless. Where are the reports about filled shelters and families living in cars? I haven’t seen any, have you? And yet we are in the midst of a major recession with 10% unemployment. Can you imagine all the sob stories we would be inundated with if a Republican was president?

Anyway, back to the Nashville flood. Since Obama and most reporters are ignoring this story you may be unaware of the efforts by Nashville residents to help themselves. Country singers, many of whom, such as Kenny Chesney, had flooded homes themselves, are reaching out to help their fellow residents. Taylor Swift personally donated $500,000 to the relief efforts and a number of concerts and fund raisers are being planned to help the city. Another $400,000 came from the owner of the Nashville Titans with more expected from the NFL and individual Titan players. But, again, little of this is being reported.

One commentator from NewsBusters, a conservative website, wrote the following about the lack of coverage “The only thing that I can figure is that maybe Nashville is doing its best to handle the problem in any way they can, and they aren't whining and crying and blaming somebody or something for what is obviously a natural disaster," the commenter writes. "And also, maybe there's not much 'news' in this for the MSM, since there doesn't appear to be an agenda that they can push.”

So Nashville shouldn’t expect much, if any help from the government, nor a visit from Obama. Outside of the south, I also doubt if money will pour in or Hollywood helps out or hundreds of do-gooders flock to Nashville to help rebuild homes, all of which happened to New Orleans. Instead, for the most part, these Southerners are on their own. Rather than act as helpless victims, these stoic heroes will quietly rebuild their city and homes. In fact, a year from now I bet that Nashville will be well on its way to being restored while New Orleans, five years after Katrina, will still be damaged and parts of the city unlivable. It simply shows that government can not do everything. And yet this is the same government that is now going to take care of all of our health’s.