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Watching the people of Iowa and Missouri pull together to deal with the "500 year floods" has inspired me. Floating next to my concern for the residents are hopeful feelings about the best aspects of the American spirit on display in Iowa.
I had not linked flooded Midwest with the Katrina catastrophe not to mention the aftermath. But an email I got today changed that.
This email from my friend accused the media of ignoring any comparison to Katrina because it would "place the victims and officials of New Orleans in an unfavorable light." He observed that there is no "looting" going on in Iowa and that people in the flooded towns "are doing it on their own." I might have just agreed to disagree if not for Rush Limbaugh pushing that same point this week.
Midwest Flooding
An Amish boy takes a break from filling sandbags to combat the flood waters from the Mississippi River at the Pike County Fairgrounds in Pleasant Hill, Illinois, Wednesday, June 18, 2008.(AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
AP
BURLINGTON, MO- JUNE 18: A barge is seen floating on the flooded Mississippi River June 18, 2008 near Burlington, Missouri. Reports indicate that many barges are stuck on the river because of the high water. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Getty Images
BURLINGTON, MO- JUNE 18: Hal Geren steps back from a sump pump after starting it up to move water that is flowing from the Mississippi River under a makeshift wall June 18, 2008 in Burlington, Missouri. Communities along the Mississippi River continue preparing for flooding as the river continues to rise. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Getty Images
This aerial shows a break in the Indian Grave levee caused by flood waters from the Mississippi River north of Quincy Illinois, Wednesday, June 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
AP
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich looks at flood waters from the Mississippi River in a helicopter near Quincy Ill., Wednesday, June 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
AP
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich looks at flood waters from the Mississippi River in a helicopter near Quincy,Ill., Wednesday, June 18, 2008.(AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
AP
A soybean field is seen covered in flood water from the Mississippi River in Gregory Landing, Missouri June 18, 2008. The swollen Mississippi River ran over the top of at least 12 more levees on Wednesday, as floodwaters swallowed up more U.S. farmland, adding to billion-dollar losses and feeding global food inflation fears. REUTERS/Frank Polich (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
Dave Fraley, left, gives away grilled food and cold drinks for people passing through his flood ravaged neighborhood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday, June 18, 2008. Storms and flooding across six states this month have killed 24 people, injured 148 and caused more than $1.5 billion in estimated damage in Iowa alone _ a figure that's likely to increase as river levels climb in Missouri and Illinois. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP
KEOKUK, MO- JUNE 18: A train sits idle on the track as it is threatened by water from the flooding Mississippi River June 18, 2008 in Keokuk, Missouri. Communities along the Mississippi River continue preparing for flooding as the river continues to rise. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Getty Images
KEOKUK, MO- JUNE 18: A statue is surrounded by water from the flooding Mississippi River June 18, 2008 in Keokuk, Missouri. Communities along the Mississippi River continue preparing for flooding as the river continues to rise. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Getty Images
What do you think?
Limbaugh: I want to know. I look at Iowa, I look at Illinois-I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property ... I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don't see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don't see a bunch of people doing everything they can...whining and moaning-where's FEMA, where's BUSH. I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America.
I say we all learned from Katrina. Limbaugh will never learn.
Could it be that the residents of Iowa and Missouri knew this time that "Go!" means get out of Dodge and quick? And what of stranded, dehydrated, sick and isolated Katrina victims asking for help from FEMA?
Isn't that why we pay taxes? Or is our money only to be used for waging war and building prisons? And regarding looting in Katrina, sure there were knuckleheads walk-swimming with TV's on their heads.
But for the most part, one reporter's black man "looting" was another's white woman "searching" for provisions remember this photo?. And what rapes? Or does Limbaugh mean the rape at the Superdome myth?
Comments: (32)
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By: Megan on 6/20/2008 1:21PM
Keokuk is my home, so I'd like to mention that Keokuk is in Iowa, not Missouri.
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By: Sylvia on 6/19/2008 11:32AM
White midwestern culture is self-reliant. We don't pay taxes to get help, in fact, we do pay them to have a strong military. And when something needs doing, we do it.
It's a WASP thing. You wouldn't understand.
In fact, I'm pretty sure we're the last independent, individualistic culture in the world. I sometimes wonder if we were the only one.
But don't worry. We're dying out. Soon everyone will be collectivist whiners. Beyonce can do a quavery cover of Streisand's "People" and it will be your anthem. The world will slip back into the stagnation and gang/tribal violence it's always known. Remember, the average IQ is 100.
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By: Ambertolina on 2/19/2009 8:02PM
Wow, my white, Midwestern sister. You're a first-class asshole.
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By: bette on 6/19/2008 11:47AM
response to Sylvia at 11:32AM on Jun 19th 2008
Sylvia,
We here in the midwest are not so pure as you think.
Just look at the farm subsidies which, by the way, encourage planting on marginal lands that should be wetlands. Instead they are drained, the water channeled into underground tiles, to produce a few more bushels of corn, thus adding to the wash of water downstream. Toxic water at that. Which produces hypoxia in the gulf of Mexico.
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By: daveNYC on 6/19/2008 12:15PM
Remember, the average IQ is 100.
Um, the average IQ is defined as being 100. No matter how smart or stupid people are, it will always be 100.
The flooding is bad, but you can't compare it to Katrina. You can drive 10 miles from a town that is under water and get to another town where everything is perfectly normal. In NO, the entire region was damaged and isolated. Also, this has been happening over the course of many weeks. This allows resources to be gathered and sent to where they are needed, as they are needed.
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By: IowaMyHome on 9/22/2009 5:26PM
Yes, 10 miles East or West but not North or South ie. up / down river. River town after river town was flooded; not just the biggest (Cedar Rapids, IA).
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By: Robert Tulloch on 6/19/2008 1:02PM
To bette:
Ah yes those nasty old farm subsidies that Bush has vetoed and the RATS/RINOS overrode. Well lets see there is the conservation easement program to protect wetlands by taking them out of production and destroying the drainage systems thus restoring the benefits of the wetland. I know of no farm program that is encouraging folks to drain wetlands (illegal) and plant on such soils.
We are doing good, especially here in the midwest.
Wait till the flood hits downstream at New Orleans
and you will see the same kind of whiney BS and demands that the government help cause I will sit here till they do attitude. Or maybe not since 1/2 the population never returned.
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By: Phil in flyover country on 6/19/2008 6:48PM
Sometimes it doesn't rain enough. Crops shrivel and rivers trickle. Sometimes it rains too much- we can't plant on time or things get washed out. It floods here. It snows here. There are ice storms. There are tornadoes- last week four Boy Scouts were killed by one. The power sometimes goes out for a week. Sometimes it is way too cold. Other times it is just too hot.
You just deal with it. If you are in it, what other choice do you have? The flooding was bad fifteen years ago. It will be bad again. Between those times, something else is bound to happen.
Help a neighbor if you are in a position to do so. They'll going do the same if the roles are reversed. But, at the end of the day nobody else is going to have more of a stake in your life than you do. I think most of us up here recognize that.
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By: GFU on 6/19/2008 6:53PM
Why would any white person come to this message board in the first place. If you have such a problem with black people then it would only make sense not to be here.
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By: Hank Archer on 6/19/2008 9:29PM
A lot fewer welfare queens in the midwest and people don't wait for the gov't to start taking steps to fix things.
that's the difference from Katrina.
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