You've no doubt heard of the horrific F4 tornado that devasted a large swatch of Moore, Oklahoma yesterday afternoon as parents were at work and children were in school.
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An aerial view shows Briarwood Elementary School with vehicles thrown about after Monday's tornado, Tuesday,
May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. At least 24 people, including nine children, were killed in the massive tornado that
flattened homes and a school in Moore, on Monday afternoon. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
MORE PHOTOS OF THE DESTRUCTION AT OREGONLIVE.COM. |
The death toll is grim, injuries worse. The destruction is - unimaginable. Tonight NBC has a special report on the latest.
Miraculously, in one badly damaged school everyone was safe. Unfortunately, in another grade school many young children (K through 3rd grade) were killed or seriously injured as the school was totally destroyed.
No basements to hide in. To save money. No basements put in, or storm shelters, either, because well, it just costs too much. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes to protect our children...
Teachers -- here in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans have made them PUBLIC ENEMY #1 - greedy bastards and bitches only ripping off the taxpayers while not giving a hoot about the kids they were "supposed" to be teaching -- teachers in Moore risked their lives and limbs, using their bodies as human shields over their students. Some of them were killed. Heroine after heroine, because these days as you know, in the United States most teachers are women, and therefore being a teacher has somehow become a second-rate career choice, meant only for those who can't do anything better, tsk tsk, people who are lazy and corrupt and no good and lousy teachers not worth the incredible salaries and benefit packages they all receive. Yeah - do you know any teacher who's a millionaire? I sure the hell do not! But today that's the fashionable attitude toward these protectors of our children, encouraged as gospel truth by those almighty bible thumping gospel-spewing hypocrites of the Tea Party. These saviors of our children are Persona Non Grata and if you believe all the propaganda from the nut cases on the far right, they are gutter garbage.
Thanks to NBC for showing so many of these heroic teachers on commercial television this evening and telling their stories. Thanks to the press for having the guts to do the same on line and in print. How much is the life of a child worth, that politicians in Oklahoma wouldn't come up with a program to pay for storm shelters to be added to schools? Did the politicians' aides do benefit-costs analyses that I learned how to do in Econ 101 in 1976 and conclude that spending millions of dollars to save childrens' lives in school buildings wasn't worth the cost? How much is the life of twenty - or more - children worth? Ask yourselves
that question, taxpayers...
I salute the heroic teachers of Moore, Oklahoma, who laid it all on the line to save "their" children - our children - their pupils.
By
Jessica Hartogs /
CBS News/ May 21, 2013, 4:48 PM
From
The Mail Online
- Seven children have been killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma
- One little girl told how she clung to her school desk as the tornado roared through the small town on Monday
- Fourth-grader Damien Kline said teacher Rhonda Crosswhite saved his life as she sheltered the children in the bathroom stalls while the school collapsed
- One rescuer broke down as he told how they lifted a car to find a teacher underneath, her body covering three children
PUBLISHED:09:33 EST, 21 May 2013|
UPDATED:17:10 EST, 21 May 2013
These are just a few of the stories that you can find online this evening about our heroic teachers who, in some cases, gave all to save the lives of their students. Meanwhile, here in Wisconsin Scott Walker and his Republican majority continue to war on women and children.
There is one other story I want to share with you. You probably don't know, because I did not start this blog until April, 2007 and the last of my doggies, Tasha, had died more than 3 years before. As I built this house in the winter-1989 through summer-1990, I already owned two dogs, both dogs that I saved from uncaring owners. There was little Spencer, a very expensive "peek-a-poo" with a bad attitude, and the loving but nervous and jumpy Jocques, a miniature Schnauzer who was terrified in thunder storms. They - and I - moved into this house in August, 1990. A year or so later, I saw a story on television about a brave heroine of a dog, a resident at the time at the Milwaukee Humane Society, who had been rescued with a full litter of pups from underneath the porch of an abandoned house in one of the poorest, crime-ridden areas of the city. She not only nursed her pups until they were weaned and all of them successfully adopted, she also subsequently nursed other puppies who were found abandoned -- pups who were not even hers. Well, about me and 10,000 other people jammed the lines of the Humane Society offering to adopt this mamma dog. Mamma dog was long gone by the time I got through, but I was invited to come down and look at the other dogs and, of course, bleeding heart liberal and soft-touch that I am, I did go down the very next night. I rooked a friend into taking me there and saw 4 dogs I wanted to adopt. Impossible, of course. I did adopt one - my sweet natured, gigantic and clumsy lug of a Doberman-Brown Lab mix, Tasha, who was 11 months old at the time and did lots of chewing damage around the house until she was done "teething." LOL! It was love at first sight.
Well, I won't go into all the details. My heart was broken when Spencer died during a horrible brain seizure that happened in March, 1999. And then, Jocques was diagnosed with canine diabetes and went blind during a critical episode and spent 4 days at an animal hospital. Thousands of dollars later, I brought a blind Jocques home. He survived for 13 more months. I was not able to give him his shots of insulin 2x a day -- my hands shook too much and my nervousness transmitted to Jocques instantly, of course. So, instead, I hired a veternarian technician to come to the house 2x a day, every day, and paid $300 a month to have this service performed for me. I have to say that Jocques loved Laurie, my tech, and she loved him back fiercely. When I called her the day he passed and broke down crying as I gave her the news, she broke down crying too. Sweet, wonderful, loving Laurie. I will always be grateful to her for her fine care of Jocques those last months of his life.
Tasha was getting older. She was getting grey hair (just like moi), and she was slowing down, and had bad cataracts. She could no longer jump up on the bed at night to share it with me, and so I bought her a feather bed to sleep on and put it as close to the bed as I could but placed so I wouldn't step on her when I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (you know, us post-menopausal women, we have to pee in the middle of the night sometimes...). One day, Tasha couldn't get up. Her legs wouldn't hold her up.
So, I know about the fierce permanent unseverable bonds that exist between a human and her doggies, my faithful companions for many years, who had the amazing ability to know when I needed to be comforted because of various heart aches, or when I was sick and ailing, or when I was angry, and happy, or sad.
So, I hope this news video will bring tears to your eyes, as it did to mine, and warm your heart, too:
At Newsmax
Tuesday, 21 May 2013 02:16 PM
By Stephanie Hinderer
An
Oklahoma tornado survivor found her missing dog among the rubble of her house and was reunited on video while being interviewed by CBS News. Footage of the buried dog and his owner are going viral on social media.
Barbara Garcia tells the story of sitting on a stool in her bathroom clutching her dog while waiting for the tornado to pass. She said the electricity went out at the same time she felt the stool move from underneath her as the tornado hit. She “rolled around a little bit” and called for her dog. He didn’t come.
In the video, as CBS News’ Anna Werner asks Garcia her what she thinks of the devastation, the reporter suddenly exclaims, “the dog!” and the camera moves to reveal a scruffy face peeking out from the rubble.
Garcia asks the news crew to help her rescue him, and as they pull away the rubble, the dog crawls out and stands while his owner pets him.
Garcia thanks God, then says, “Well I thought God just answered one prayer to let me be OK, but he answered both of them. Because this was my second prayer,” she said, referring to her little dog, who appears to walk away without even a limp.
Emergency crews continued to search the wreckage of Moore, Okla., on Tuesday after an F4 tornado hit the town Monday. At least 24 people were killed by the storm.
Earlier reports put the toll at 51 deaths, but it was revised after officials said many people were counted twice.
President Obama called the tornado “one of the most destructive” in history and declared that Oklahoma “needs to get everything it needs right away.”
The twister followed a similar path of a tornado that hit the area in May 1999. This was the fourth tornado to hit Moore since 1998.
The destruction comes almost exactly two years after a deadly tornado hit Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people.
Sydney Monday 20 May 2013 
Here's a photograph of the collection of 12 stones I posted back then: