Hollywood and the Tragedy

Where is the outpouring of support? Where are the Hollywood stars pledging millions of dollars in support and bemoaning President Bush’s lackluster response?\nI am speaking, of course, about the tornadoes in Kansas.\nAs of Tuesday night, the town of Greensburg, Kansas lost 10 of its citizens. The most recent victim was Macksville police officer Robert Buckman, who died of a head wound suffered in the hellacious storm that ripped the town to pieces. As of press time, the town is still trying to determine how many of its 1,600 citizens were killed. \nWhile the outpouring of support was significant, one usually ever-present segment of American society was absent: Hollywood.\nThere was no Sean Penn walking through the streets of Greensburg helping to pick up the pieces. There were no stars crying to the cameras about the tragedy that had befallen this poor American town. Furthermore, as of now, there do not appear to be any plans for a Whoopi Goldberg-Billy Crystal-Robin Williams telethon to help the citizens of the towns destroyed by these tornadoes rebuild.\nThe question one is forced to ask is: “Why?”\nThe answer is simple: this tragedy wasn’t “sexy” enough. A tornado destroying a small Kansas town that many have never heard of will not garner enough attention to justify these actors and actresses coming out of their multimillion-dollar mansions and getting their hands dirty. After all, the deaths of people like shop owners and police officers do not give the Hollywood elite enough of a justification to poke their finger in the President’s eye like they did during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.\nNow, you may be thinking that it is wrong to play politics with such a tragedy, and you would be right. However, I am not the only one doing it.\nThe governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, blamed the war in Iraq for the allegedly slow response to the tornadoes. She said that the government’s response was hindered by National Guard deployments to the Middle East.\nMaybe that’s true and maybe it isn’t, but Sebelius should take a cue from her counterpart in Louisiana as to what can happen when you try to get too much political gain from a natural tragedy. Gov. Kathleen Blanco seemed to shoulder much of the blame and subsequently decided not to run for re-election.\nThe point of all this is that politics, for better or worse, plays a serious role in disaster recovery.\nHollywood’s elite have not come to Kansas and probably won’t because it is unlikely they would be able to use this tragedy the way they used Hurricane Katrina: to further their careers and give the President the middle finger. Additionally, Gov. Sebelius would be wise to keep her mouth shut about the war in Iraq or else suffer the same fate as Gov. Blanco.\nWhether New Orleans or Greensburg, people dying from senseless tragedies is equally tragic.\nIf a state governor or Hollywood star wants to help, they should help regardless of the tragedy or makeup of those affected. Otherwise, stay respectfully silent.