President Obama’s disaster schedule competes with issues

By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) — President Barack Obama returned from a whirlwind trip to Europe May 29 and headed straight to Joplin, Mo., where neighborhoods were reduced to rubble during a May 22 tornado. Some 122 deaths have been confirmed. The number of missing was dramatically re­duced from 1,500 to 10 this week.

At a memorial for lost loved ones on May 29, the President lauded the heroism of some who lost their lives while saving others in Joplin: “And, in the face of winds that showed no mercy, no regard for human life, that did not discriminate by race or faith or background, it was ordinary people, swiftly tested, who said, “I’m willing to die right now so that someone else might live.”

Almost as much as dealing with domestic and international issues, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have found themselves comforting victims of natural disasters over the past several months. Among them:

• In mid-May, thousands of people, threatened by flooding from the Mississippi River, were forced from their homes into shelters to await the crest. Though thousands of acres of corn and other farmlands were lost, the river — swollen after severe weather — reportedly crested at 47.8 feet, 14.1 feet above flood stage, only a few inches below projections. States of Tennessee and Louisiana were also majorly affected by the flooding. Still, Obama met with some who were affected.

• In late April, the President and First Lady visited Tuscaloosa, Ala., after deadly tornados killed at least 300 people and more than 100 remain homeless.

• In Japan in March a devastating earthquake and tsunami that followed killed more than 250,000 people. President Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan during an international summit in France last week. Obama promised reporters that Japan will emerge “stronger than ever.”

That was also the hope as thousands gathered at the Missouri Southern University May 29 to mourn lost loved ones in Joplin. Comforting the crowd, Obama mostly focused on how the best in people comes out during disasters.

“A university turned itself into a makeshift hospital,” he said to applause. “Some of you used your pickup trucks as ambulances, carrying the injured … on doors that served as stretchers. Your restaurants have rushed food to people in need. Businesses have filled trucks with donations. You’ve waited in line for hours to donate blood to people you know, but also to people you’ve never met. And in all this, you have lived the words of Scripture: We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; We are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”

He concluded, quoting Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri: “As the governor said, you have shown the world what it means to love thy neighbor. You’ve banded together. You’ve come to each other’s aid. You’ve demonstrated a simple truth: That amid heartbreak and tragedy, no one is a stranger. Everybody is a brother. Everybody is a sister…We can all love one another.”

This story originally published in the June 06, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.