Pimping the May flood tragedy for political gain does tend to turn the stomach

That the news media could so easily trivialize the tragedy of last May and ingratiate itself to the Mayor's Office with a groveling award somewhat nauseates South Comm blogger Betsy Phillips:

Robert Woods is dead, killed by the creek that he tried to get the city to fix for 30 years.

I know folks all over town know this same feeling ... but when I drive down West Hamilton and I see the shells of house after house, when I see cars parked in the driveways of houses that are interspersed among those empty houses because those folks have no other place to go, I feel like I'm choking on a cry too deep to come out. And I also know that we're supposed to all get about the business of pretending that we all came together, united by our lovely mayor. "We are Nashville." Aren't we great? ....

I'm sorry, but handing out accolades for how Dean handled the flood without mentioning that his administration failed to help Woods and his neighbors ... is a sugar-coating so thick on a tragedy ... that it leaves me sick to my stomach.

One of the commenters on Betsy's post reminds us that Hizzoner was not perpetually huddling with his staff to come up with protective options as the waters rose. Instead, he attended a Jimmy Buffett concert to sooth and to reassure the visiting parrot heads that their tourist amenities would survive nature's onslaught whether locals did or not.