Tennessee to Sea Turtles: Enough Already

Photo courtesy the <a href="http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-flood/Content?oid=1526360">Nashville Scene</a>.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Tennessee has a problem, and it’s not the massive May Day flood damage. It’s the people: They’re so damn nice to each other in a crisis that they think FEMA and the rest of the country might pitch in without being asked. (There’s a reason it’s called the Volunteer State.)

So far my hometown’s optimistic view of Yankee nature isn’t working out too well. Unhelpfully, the nation’s TV cameras are still turned towards the Gulf oil spill and Times Square bomb scare. Until a point tips, Nashvillians on Facebook half-jokingly discuss “waiting for Sean Penn or George Clooney to decide that they should care about this so everyone else will start.”

Seriously, do you know how badly damaged Tennessee is from Saturday’s flood? Nashville alone got three full months of rain in 48 hours. Twenty people died (and counting). Days after one of the worst deluges in Nashville’s recorded history, thousands of people are out of power and whole neighborhoods are still underwater or homeless. Plus, one of the city’s two drinking water treatment plants have been compromised by flood damage, so people are being told to “delay showering or washing dishes” to avoid a potable water shortage. In any other news cycle, Anderson Cooper would already be down there interviewing country music icons, right?

Here’s how you can help the flood victims if you’re interested.

And here are two videos if you want a quick Red State primer on the flood, how Tennesseans think about the flood, the Nashville Weather Penis, and the imminent “Obama Hates White People” meme:

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate