Two Opinions Need Third Option

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O p i n i o n

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Congratulations, Anderson Cooper - And Response

posted May 8, 2010

Congratulations to Anderson Cooper of CNN for admitting his network and other members of the "Lamestream," media were late in covering the disastrous floods in Middle Tennessee this week. He also admitted that he was amazed how the people of Nashville pitched in to help their neighbors and "volunteered" to assist in the clean-up.

Contrast this to the wall to wall coverage of the New Orleans flood five years ago when the media went out of the way to interview citizens of New Orleans who complained about the lack of federal response. I guess the "national" media has more interest in covering people complaining about a Republican President not responding to a natural disaster than people actually taking responsibility for rebuilding their own lives and not depending on Washington.

Thanks Anderson, for admitting what we have long known.

Doug Jones

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Anyone who is trying to spin it this way is selling partisan politics.

The city of New Orleans is located below sea level. When the levee broke, there was absolutely nothing they could do to fight the incoming water from Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico because water runs to the lowest point. It takes specialized equipment which they obviously didn't have in operating order and they needed the Army Corps of Engineers. No amount of work or hoping or praying was going to save the city and a large number of people were going to die.

The city of Nashville is above sea level. Their citizens were fighting a river. The difference is that in a couple of days, the forces of nature would take over and the water would eventually recede back into the river. No doubt that its just as awful for them but eventually it was going to get better on its own.

One merited an immediate national response, the other just a supporting role (which has already been declared). The important thing is not to let it happen again and to learn from the mistakes made. Two cities- Denver and New York have showed over the last couple of years that they have learned from key emergency services errors and corrected their individual problems. Nashville, I am confident, will revamp their river system (which I believe was put in in response to another major flood in the early 1960s).

Unfortunately, both parties are going to let New Orleans get away with this again. And if you want to play partisan politics, remember that it was a Democratic governor sitting (who didn't even know what the Emergency Broadcast System was) who was fighting with the Republican President over the use of the National Guard while people were dying.

America desperately needs a third option.

Kenneth Nelson
Chattanooga