As if Joplin hasn't been through enough

[carolina-rig-01]

I know you guys have been seen the coverage of the Joplin MO tornado on t.v. and for the most part the coverage is pretty good. But no matter how good the t.v. coverage is it still can't tell the whole story. There is so much good going on here, I have never seen an area rally around a town like we are here. Maybe it's because that is the type of thing that seems to be left out of media coverage but it sure made me proud of where I come from. Every parking lot in town has hundreds of pallets of bottled water and food. Britney and I have donate all kinds of stuff from canned food, baby wipes, baby food, diapers, baby toys, and clothes and at every turn when we were driving through town donating these things we were just blown away with all the good that is being done in town. On top of all the donations that people are giving, there are also BBQ grills fired up and cooking in hundreds of parking lots to feed the people who were affected by the storm as well as the volunteers who are dropping their personal lives to help everyone out. There are lots of storys of hope and encouragment that don't seem to make it to the 10:00 news for some reason. On what buildings that were left standing you can see spray painted messages like "Down but NOT OUT!" , "We will be fine", "Thank you so much volunteers, we love you so much", "Drop the camera and lend a hand", and my personal favorite "Go Home Obama". You also see all the spray painted X's on vehicles and buildings showing that they have been searched, but sadly some of these have numbers out beside the X that shows how many people were found dead there. Well as if Joplin hasn't been through enough, today they are having a memorial service for the town of Joplin which President Obama is to give a speach but also the Westboro cult is also in town protesting. They said that God hates Joplin and that is he why he put a tornado here, and we got what we deserved. We decided not to go because it isn't a venue for Lake but my dad is over there and called earlier to tell me that one of the Westboro idiots just got chased across a parking lot by about 50 bikers who were going to kick his arse. He said that 3 cops grabbed him and slammed him to the ground behind his van and at that point nobody could see what happened after that but the bikers never got to finish their job . There are a lot of people here who are at their breaking point from the past week and I wouldn't be suprised at all if somebody who had nothing left to lose finally did what so many Americans have wanted to do to these idiot for a long time now. 3 meals a day and a roof over their heads sounds pretty good to a lot of folks around here now, even if it is in jail so hopefully today will be the day the Westboro cult has been asking for over the past few years.

[carolina-rig-01]

It is also a grim subject but I thought I would mention that the death toll you hear on t.v. is not even close to right from what I hear. I have a few buddies who are on rescue teams ranging from firefighters to local EMS units. All of them are saying that the death toll is probably closer to 2 to 3 times higher than they are reporting and that there are at least 200 bodies at a few of the temporary morgues. I took Lake to get his hair cut the other day and I heard an old man say he called a city official and asked why they aren't reporting the true numbers and he was told because they didn't want to cause any more stress on the people of Joplin???

Sadly, anytime you have a tragedy like this you will also have some scum bags who want to steal anything that is left behind. I personally wish that they would add the looters to the death toll. But don't let that influence your opinion on the great people of this area, these sorry excuses of life are just a small minority of the people here. I have been very proud that there has not been one person complain about anything. Not one complaint about the government not stepping in fast enough or giving enough, not one person blaming anyone for anything. This area just wiped their tears, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work. There are a lot of places in this country that would have just sighed with relief that they were spared from this storm and went on with life as normal, but I am proud to say that this area has risen to the occasion and while things of this nature bring the worst out in some people, it also brings out the best in people. God bless Joplin MO. Please keep all those affected in your prayers guys.

Not really sure where I should have put this in my post so I will just say it down here at the end but it is deffinately way up there on the list of important things to mention. Last I heard there are still somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 unclaimed babies at hospitals around here. Please remember them too as you hit your knees tonight.

[WTL]

That pretty much describes what I witnessed in alabama a few weeks ago, minus the westboro jokers who probably would be added to the death toll. There is a lot of kindness in this country, and more than a few idiots on the margin who spoil it.

[bamabassman]

kory, like billy said, for every kind thought, deed or gesture, there will always be someone trying to break it all down. glad to hear of the kindness and go get it fixed joplin is doing. here there seems to be a little lull now (rainsville and sourounding areas), i guess folks are fighting the isurance companies from what i have heard. never fails, your house gets damaged form a tornado and the ins. company wants to say it was something else. but things will work out in the end.

[carolina-rig-01]

Well the memorial service was very well done, I really can't even find anything negative to say about Obamas speech which is out of character for me. The Westboro cult was there but a few of them did bite off more than they could chew. There were several bikers there who took exception to what these idiots had to say and a few of the Westboro cult members got a good old country arse whipping.

It started with this



Which lead to this



And things continued to get out of hand



And from what I hear somewhere in this mob is a few bikers welcoming this idiot to the Ozarks. I heard he got beat pretty badly, but if he is still breathing then they quit too soon as far as I am concerned.



The frustrating thing is I know that these cops really would have rathered to just let everyone have their way with these idiots but unfortunatley their jobs require that they protect everyone..........even morons who don't deserve protection.

[66KingFisher]

We don't get tv signals so I haven't seen any of the news reports you speak of Kory, but as you know, I have been thru a tornado recently,and I can tell you first hand that what you discribe seeing around Joplin is exactly the same thing I witnessed in our small town here.....I think its just good ol' human nature to roll up our sleeves and help our neighbors during time of catastrophy. It really did remind me that there is goodness in this old world and not everyone is just "looking out for themselves"!

Yes, the lowlifes, and scumbags craw out from under their rocks to prey on those down and out, but you can usually spot them a mile away and can avoid them or run their arses off...which ever is needed...lol

I pray that Joplins recovery goes as smoothly as our did....it'll take along time before things start to resemble normal, but it'll come. I just hope that tornado season is about over, but unfortunately thats not the way its looking. As for the Westboro lunatics...if the bikers don't show them the err of their ways, send them down here....we gots lots of Hillbillys and Rednecks that'd be happy to take'm for an educational hike thru the wilderness...If'n ya know what I mean?