Devastation in Oklahoma

Having grown up during the Viet Nam War, I got used to seeing napalm bombs and explosions and the aftermath on TV while I was eating supper.  I also lived and worked on a farm, served on a Grand Jury for 6 months, and worked in a teaching hospital for more than eight years, seeing duty in the Emergency Room, the Operating Room, Labor and Delivery, and several Intensive Care Units.  I have seen births and deaths - beautiful, joyous, ugly and heart-rending.  I grew up, essentially, on the East Coast of the United States, in Florida and Virginia; Mom was a Virginian, but my Dad was born in Oklahoma and raised in Kansas, near the Missouri River.  I grew up knowing about hurricanes, while Dad told tales of "twisters."  Mom told us about hurricanes and flooding on the island she grew up on.  Dad countered with the Dust Bowl and tornadoes.  Dad's family thought we were crazy for staying on the East Coast with all the hurricanes; Mom's family thought Dad's family was crazy for living near Tornado Alley.
  Mom and Dad always tantalized me with old family tales of being related to famous families in Europe, and I became a history buff.  I have poured over photos from many wars, trying to understand the minds that could plot and plan such horrific battles.  Looking at photos of the aftermaths of battles and bombings, I have always felt grief - for those lost, for their families, for history lost, and for all the multiple possibilities lost because of the deaths of young men and women.  I realize that is the shape of our world today, but I deplore it.
  Yesterday afternoon, a huge tornado touched down in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City.  The "tip" of the funnel touching the ground is estimated at being one mile wide - and it traveled through Moore on a path more than 40 miles long.  Currently, the winds are estimated at having been about 200 miles per hour.  The devastation is complete and horrific.  It looks as if the town had been bombed off the map - and the tornado swept through two elementary schools, causing multiple deaths.  Seven school children drowned in a shallow pool of water at one school.  Many other students have been rescued from the wreckage overnight.  The search and rescue efforts continue today.  When I arose this morning, the national news was saying that at least 91 people were dead, including 20 children.  That number has now been revised to a somewhat lower number...  But many are still missing.  One young man was working at a horse farm on the outskirts of Moore; he had 80 horses in his care.  When he heard the tornado warning, he turned all the horses loose; he was trapped in a stall.  The barn collapsed around him. The young man survived, as did one of the eighty horses...
  I wrote about studying the photos of battlefields and bombing sites from different wars.  The photos of the results of the tornado yesterday are comparable to the bombings of Berlin, the bombings of London, and the bombs at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  The devastation is so overwhelming that words cannot really describe what is left.  If you can afford to, please donate to the American Red Cross to aid those in need in Oklahoma.  Thank you.

Learning History

I was appalled last night by the college students playing Jeopardy - these were kids who had already won their previous contest and were trying to play in the "Championship" game.  The Final Jeopardy category was Colonial America and the answer was (or, essentially, was): In a 1763 letter, these two men were described as "bringing their instruments... and able to mark a straight line of posts for ten or twelve miles."   I immediately blurted out the correct question.  I was appalled because two of the three students (and both of them female, much to my chagrin) decided that the letter must refer to Lewis and Clark.  Has our school system really failed so completely?  They couldn't remember that Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition of Exploration departed in 1804?  I honestly don't remember which colleges the two girls attended, but the young man who questioned correctly attends Duke University - maybe the girls were Yankees and didn't give a hoot about the Mason-Dixon Line. Maybe they missed the several clues in the wording of things, such as: Colonial, instruments, and straight line.  Or am I just too immersed in history, and have my head in the sand about today's education system?  I know both my cousin and I, and even her daughter (Ashley, who is 10) knew to complain when Ashley's teacher informed the school class that there weren't any trees in Kansas "because they all blew away in the Dust Bowl."  Sheesh - Heaven help preserve us from those who think they know things!
  It's snowing like mad outside.  We've had about 2 inches fall since midnight, and the weather folks said the snow would end by 9 this morning....  They were wrong.  Lovey and Nedi went out on the patio and came right back inside.  I have Destry Rides Again playing on the Western Channel; Lovey is curled up in the bed, and Nedi is watching the snow fall from the cat tree.  It's a good thing I wasn't scheduled to walk the red kids today - I stepped out onto the patio myself and had an asthma attack because the air was so cold.  We are supposed to drop to 5 degrees tonight (it's 17, now), so I will definitely walk the red kids later in the morning tomorrow.

Seeds, Guns, & An Autistic Professor

It's 20 degrees outside, and the sun is shining through high cirrus clouds. The kits went out for about 10 minutes, but decided it was better inside; Banichi is watching the patio from the cat tree and Lovey is sitting between me and the keyboard. My knees are a little stiff after my fall yesterday, but they seem to be doing OK. I'm walking the Irish kids at 9:30 instead of 10 today, and will stop at the store on the way home... I need to get kitty treats and sunflower seeds - I've found I can get hulled sunflower seeds in bulk at my local grocery store, and they cost almost a dollar less per pound than if I purchased them at a bird store.

People in Colorado (especially since the Columbine High School massacre) and all over the country are very concerned about guns or what appear to be guns on campus - and with very good reason. I do not disagree with school boards in their decision to ban all types of guns or gun lookalikes from all campuses. BUT. But there is a young lady who is a Senior in the Denver area; she is a member of the Honor Society; and she is in charge of a drill team that practices with mock rifles - they appear in parades and before games, presenting the US flag, state flag, etc. She forgot to remove 3 practice drill team rifles from the back of the SUV she drives to school. The rifles were made of wood, plastic, and were pretty much covered with duct tape; another student saw them in the rear of her vehicle. She is facing a Mandatory Suspension because Colorado state laws say absolutely NO Guns or Replicas of Guns on campus. She has been forced to stop her education, and the School Board will decide her fate early next week. This young lady has already been accepted into the Merchant Marine College; and, thankfully, they have announced that even if this young girl is dismissed from her school and cannot complete her education, they will accept her with her scholarship intact. I think that denying her the rest of her Senior year is stupid; people do make mistakes - even Honor Students.

Dr. Shapiro, my psychiatrist, asked me on Tuesday if I was planning on going to the Boulder Bookstore on Monday, February 16th. I asked him why, and he told me that on his way in to work, he had heard that Dr. Temple Grandin was appearing there, giving a presentation, and signing her new book. I told him I didn't know who she was and asked why should I go see her? He replied that she is a Professor of Animal Husbandry at Colorado State University, that she is autistic, and that she is an "animal whisperer, like you." He kindly printed out some info on her and her newest book, and gave it to me. So I am going to go see Dr. Grandin at 7:30 p.m. in the Boulder Bookstore on the Pearl Street Mall. Does she sound interesting to you? Here's the URL for a review of her newest book: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/books/21garn.html?em I'm going to have to hit the public library and check out her books, and see if the semi-biography that HBO produced about her is also available.