Storm victims will need long-term help
For every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. It may sound trite to reference that adage so soon after Friday’s killer tornadoes, but it still seems apt.
A hour or two of death and destruction has been met by days — and we would hope weeks and months — of an outpouring of help and support to those impacted by the tornadoes. It’s a testimony of the basic goodness in human nature, exemplified no better than here in Mississippi, that the initial reaction of people is to help when disaster hits their fellow man and woman.
For 170 or so miles, a supercell — estimated to be unleashing top winds of nearly 200 mph — turned Friday’s stormy darkness into a nightmare for small towns and communities from Rolling Fork to Amory.
The first tornado, according to the National Weather Service, was on the ground for almost 60 miles, leveling Rolling Fork in Sharkey County and Silver City in Humphreys County. A second was spawned shortly afterward, slamming into Black Hawk and continuing on some 30 miles toward Winona, claiming three casualties in the Summerfield community of Carroll County.
The storm was remarkable not only for its ferocity but also for its duration. The average tornado is on the ground for less than 4 miles, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of weather service data. Less than 1% of tornadoes in this country travel more than 50 miles. When they do, the amount of destruction is usually epic.
One can only imagine the carnage that might have occurred if this supercell had taken aim at a metropolitan area, instead of some of the more sparsely populated counties in this state.
Instead of 21 deaths, there would have been hundreds; instead of dozens of injuries and 313 destroyed structures, there would have been thousands of each; instead of thousands with their lives impacted, there would have been hundreds of thousands.
So although we can be grateful the toll wasn’t higher, the storm was stupendous for its severity where it did hit. Only slabs were left on many homes; 18-wheelers were tossed on their sides; line after line of trees were snapped flat on the ground. The storm’s force was like that of a hurricane, with a wall of wind instead of a wall of water.
Because the areas hit are rural, and many of the victims of limited means, the recovery could be a huge challenge, especially for those without insurance or without enough to cover their losses. It may require lots of help — both from government and from private sources — for them to get anywhere close to back on their feet.
It was gratifying to see how people and institutions responded immediately to the storm by bringing water, food, clothes, chain saws, household supplies — basically whatever it was they thought might be of use — to the scenes of the disaster. Collection efforts began almost immediately to raise funds and supplies. Both the federal and state governments pledged their financial assistance.
The challenge will be to maintain this level of focus and charitableness on these hard-hit areas once the immediate trauma fades.
The search-and-rescue phase of a natural disaster is the easy one for which to command support. Recovery is a much longer and much more expensive slog.
The dark cloud for those directly impacted by these tornadoes won’t lift anytime soon. They are going to need the silver lining to be there just as long.
Tim Kalich
Editor and Publisher
Greenwood Commonwealth
Florida and the Renaissance
For more proof that we are living in unusual times, consider the current debate over whether a 519-year-old marble sculpture of a naked man is best defined as art or pornography.
The art in question is Michelangelo’s famous rendition of David, future king of the Israelites, as he prepares to sling the stone that killed Goliath. “The David,” as Italians call the sculpture, remains an enduring symbol of Renaissance art. The Sistine Chapel ceiling, also created by Michelangelo a few years after he finished David, is one of the period’s very few works that is an artistic equal of the sculpture.
The complaints came from a school in Tallahassee, Fla., where some parents of sixth-grade students, upon learning that the school showed their children pictures of the David sculpture, objected that they weren’t notified in advance. The school principal resigned over the fuss.
The parental objections should not be dismissed out of hand. David is indeed naked, carrying only a stone in his right hand and a slingshot over the left shoulder. His privates are on full display, and every sixth-grader in America is guaranteed to giggle at that sight instead of admiring the sculpture’s stunning beauty and detail.
It is easy to understand why showing 12-year-olds a sculpture of an unclothed man, even one of the Old Testament’s greatest heroes, can be a questionable decision. In the same way, a picture of the full sculpture would be inappropriate to print in this newspaper simply because David is unclothed.
Having said that, the sculpture, on display in Florence, Italy is not obscene or pornographic.
Most likely, Michelangelo created David without clothing for two reasons. The artist wanted to show his fine eye for details of the human body — visible from a distance in David’s ribcage and chest, and up close in arm veins and leg tendons that make a marble sculpture look so human. Also, he wanted his work to symbolize that David faced Goliath with nothing but his faith in God.
According to recent news reports, the Catholic Church in the 16th century demanded that art include appropriately placed garlands and other devices to block nudity that it deemed offensive. The garlands got removed centuries ago, but they are a reminder that today’s debate is not history’s first one.
In Florida, the complaints from Tallahassee parents and the principal’s resignation may have some people muttering that public educators have gone overboard once again. So it’s interesting to learn that the institution in question is a charter school, funded by public money but operated independently from public schools, and popular with parents who wanted an alternative to public schools.
Just as interesting, The Associated Press reports that the charter school “follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.”
That conservative background makes the case that the school only intended to show its sixth graders art that has endured. Michelangelo’s sculpture certainly passes that test.
Jack Ryan,
The Enterprise-Jounral
