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This weekend was one for the record books…and not the good kind.
The thing about life is that there is always a silver lining, if you choose to see it.
Nashville (in addition to the rest of west and middle Tennessee), New York City, and the Gulf Coast states
have that choice to make today.
NYC Car Bomb:
Time Square was evacuated Saturday night after a car bomb was apparently triggered but failed to explode. According to NYDailyNews.com,
“I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking,” Officer Wayne Rhatigan told the Daily News. “I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second.”
He alerted two rookie female cops patrolling the area. Together, they pushed hundreds of people away from the scene as they called for backup, he said.
Police said they found a running SUV packed with three propane tanks, two red 5-gallon plastic jugs of gasoline, a clock, electrical components and a canister of gunpowder.
The Silver Lining: People care about each other. A former Vietnam vet, Duane Jackson, now a street vendor in Time Sqaure, was the first to notice smoke coming from the SUV. He informed Officer Rhatigan who then alerted to rookie female officers in the area.
The quick thinking of this street vendor and police officers potentially saved the lives of hundreds of people.
Check out some amazing photos of the car bomb incident.
Tennessee Flood:
It started raining in Western and Middle Tennessee on Saturday morning.
48 hours later Nashville had received a record total of 13.57” of rain…and up to 18” in some areas.
If you’re a long-time reader, you may recall that the city I currently call home is Nashville. Believe me when I say that the flooding and devastation is and was unbelievably widespread.
The Silver Lining: As you can see in the picture above (a tweetphoto from @prodigaljohn), nothing can stop the music in Music City. Many residents laid their heads on pillows in emergency shelters or in the home of a friend or family member Sunday night thankful for their lives and for what they still had…even if they had lost everything.
Which many people did.
Check out the amazing live coverage and photos of the Tennessee flood at Nashvillest.com, who did an INCREDIBLE job of keeping Nashvillians up to date on areas flooding and roads closing.
Here’s a taste of what you’ll find if you search for photos, videos, and articles from the Tennessee flood. This is a mobile home floating down I-24 in Nashville. I-24 was just one of the interstates and roadways that was turned into a raging river in a matter or mere hours.
Drill, Baby, Drill
Unless you’ve been off in the wilderness for the past couple of weeks, you’re surely aware of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe.
You would think that such a paramount man-made disaster would make many politicians rethink their energy policy…but you would be wrong.
According to More Minimal, Sarah Palin has somehow found renewed belief in her “Drill, Baby, Drill” mantra through this situation.
The Silver Lining: Even though some big oil fanatics out there somehow remain true to their paradigm, the Deepwater Horizon spill is causing many non-treehuggers to rethink their own dependence on oil and our dependence on it as a country and a world.
In a tragic situation there is sometimes only 1 choice to make, do you laugh about it or cry about it? TreeHugger things that it might do us some good to laugh about the oil spill a little bit.
I agree…so does Stephen Colbert.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill | ||||
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What do you think about the Nashville flood, NYC car bomb, and Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Do you know anyone who was or have you been directly affected by any of these crazy events?
How are you (or they) responding to them?
I think every little step toward living green is an awesome one… but eco-snobbery sucks! My goal is to help newbies learn the most important steps toward living green — individually and collectively. Personally, I strive to have as little impact as possible on Planet Earth while I'm here.
