Also three places where you can help the victims of the Tennessee flood:
A Mini-Rant
I noticed that the national news media glaringly failed when it came to the flood. Very few stations decided to cover what can arguably be called one of the greatest national disasters in our country since Katrina. I'm not criticizing any station over the other (I do have to thank The Weather Channel for their coverage), nor do I feel slighted - in fact I'd rather TN stay out of the news, we're much better off that way! What I am concerned about is that if no one knows about the flood Tennesseans can't receive help. Tennesseans are independent, resilient, and are very good people who will rise up and get back on their feet again with or without help. Our nickname "The Volunteer State" didn't happen by itself, Tennesseans are consistently helping others - it's what we do here, but a little help from other areas of the country would expedite the recovery exponentially. What makes this disaster so bad is that this never happens here - Tennessee is not prone to flooding. People don't have flood insurance because there has never been a need for it. Lives have been changed forever - their homes may be gone and never able to be replaced - unless they receive help. Maybe the media thinks "oh they can take care of themselves." Go look at the webpages for CNN or Fox, neither one has a big front page article of our disaster or our recovery (as of the writing of this post). CNN has small link that says "Rains especially cruel in Tennessee", duh - it's about the third one down on the left side right now - you have to look for it. I can't even find a story on the front page of Fox. The coverage has been abyssal for what actually has happened. I do have to say I'm very proud of our local news stations who have gone out of their way to give great coverage.
Think about this, the New York car bombing that failed killed no one and the bomber was arrested. The flood killed 18 people and displaced thousands from their homes. Billions of dollars have been lost to our economy which was already in bad shape. Home repairs and in some cases complete rebuilds are going to cost a fortune yet all the major news stations can talk about and analyze is one attempted and failed incident. Don't get me wrong fighting terrorism is extremely important but in this case the news media has failed in their priorities. Does it have to happen in New York to get covered? Haiti received massive coverage, rightfully so, yet a natural disaster in our own country seems to have almost been ignored. How high does our death toll have to be for Tennesseans to be important? The oil spill that has been happening in the gulf is a terrible disaster too but really how much more is there to say about that when it's been talked about round the clock since it happened? I don't expect round the clock coverage but get the word out there that people need help! And do it more often than a side blurb that amounts to little more than a footnote. People are without homes, without clothes, and without food. After this post I won't be ranting about the media and I'll get back to gardening but I felt this was important to be said. Tennesseans could really use a hand right now and the more people who know that the more help they can receive. Please donate if you can to any one of the agencies I linked to above.
I don't usually rant here. I don't like the negativity that accompanies most rants. Especially when they are about good positive things like gardening, I mean really, why rant about gardening? It's people's lives that are important.