Jeffrey Jena at the conservative entertainment site, Big Hollywood:
A few years ago one of the most culturally significant cities in the United States ended up under water and millions of Americans rushed to her aid. A lot of conservatives and liberals joined church and civic groups and headed to The Big Easy to help rebuild the city. The Hollywood elites got in front of the cameras and opened their checkbooks, which was great….
Nashville is drowning and Hollywood is nowhere to be found. Country singer Julie Roberts has lost her home and yet Julia Roberts has yet to send help. Julie Roberts wrote my wife’s favorite country song which goes, ”…men and mascara, always run…” Where are Brad Pitt and the rest of the Hollywood liberal elite who rightfully rushed into New Orleans now that culturally significant sites like The Grand Ole Opry and The Country Music Hall of Fame are under water?…
The President has yet to tour Nashville and give comfort to the American families hit by this disaster. So where is that rude fellow Kanye West? Why isn’t he on television proclaiming that the current President hates country folks since he has taken no real action to help Nashville? Why doesn’t he step up to take the mic from Taylor Swift again and match her $500,000 donation to the relief efforts?
Listen, it's very true that with the Gulf Oil spill, and terrorists in Times Square, the flooding in Tennessee has gotten short shrift of headlines and national attention.
But to compare the flooding of the Grand Ol Opry with New Orleans after Katrina? That's just sick.
Katrina was the largest natural disaster in American history. Over 1800 lives were lost; Total damage was $81 billion.
The Tennessee floods, while tragic, have resulted in only 23 deaths, and $1.5 billion in damage in Nashville.
They're just not the same.
More to the point, I'm sure the Grand Ol Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame are well-insured. They'll be back. Not so the homes and livelihoods of many of the people in the Treme.
Presumably, the Big Hollywood writer was trying to make a point that the liberal elites in Hollywood only care about minorities, and don't care when conservative whites get killed in natural catastrophes. As a sidenote, I seriously doubt that's true. But more importantly, the writer (unlike me) himself doesn't seem to care about the Nashville floods and the death toll. The only damage he mentions is the house of a country star, and two rather extravagent buildings relating to country music. And according to him, that makes the Tennessee floods just like Katrina. One wonders why he didn't mention the effect of the flood on other country singers, too:
Dierks Bentley, whose basement flooded, had to cancel several shows due to hazardous driving conditions. Naomi Judd's buffalo escaped after her fence was washed away by the strong currents. And Joe Dee Messina returned home from touring to find five feet of water in her house.
I expect cynical writings from Big Hollywood. But I never thought they would use a flood which killed 23 people to make a point about liberal elitism in Hollywood. That's cynical beyond words.