Fleeing to the woods.

Long time, no see....

I purposely waited until after the midwest flooding story took a back burner on the nightly news to write this blog.  I was curious how long it would take.  Two weeks is about right for a news cycle these days.  Unless, of course, you are a tragically flawed celebrity and then you are a headline in perpetuity.

My question is this -- where is all of the whining and pining for the midwest that there was for New Orleans?  Where are Geraldo Rivera and Anderson Cooper standing on the banks of the Mississippi River crying at the devestation?  Because, you all realize that the flooding in the midwest caused far more devestation and on a wider scale than did Hurricane Katrina -- don't you?

What's the difference?  Why are there not telathons on every cable channel available to raise money for the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people who have been displaced by the flooding?  Who is going to stand up and rail that George W. Bush "hates farmers" the same way he "hates black people" -- thank you Kanye West!?

The difference is simple.  The people of the midwest, unlike the people of New Orleans, do not rely on the government for their very existence.  They do not suck dry the public coffers for their daily survival.  They do not share a belief that someone owes them something.  And, so, when tragedy strikes and when their livelihood is destroys as theirs has been by these floods, they do not go running to the media to whine about how the government abandoned them.  They do not resort to begging on the steps of the White House or the US Captiol Building for a debit card that will allow them to purchase porn or booze while they are housed in a luxury hotel on the taxpayer's dime.

No, indeed.  You will not hear any of that from these people.  In fact, what most of them would probably request of the government is to simply stay out of the way and let them rebuild.  They will rely on their churches and neighbors for assistance that will be repaid.  They will "cling to their faith" to keep them sustained during this hardship, thank you Barak Obama.  But, mostly they will rely on what got them where they are in the first place -- the sweat of their brow.  Three years from now you will not see them as witnesses on a congressional panel investigating how President Bush ruined their lives.  No -- you will find them tending to their crops, their families and their lives.  Because that is who they are.

And, that is the difference.