August 1, 2022
If you want to know how to help, where to donate, and what supplies are needed follow these links:
Editorial:
Eastern Kentucky Flooding
I am writing one of the rare completely real articles to be featured here on The Big Sandy Lazer, because I feel the need to address the tragic flooding that has so recently thrashed our fellow Kentuckians to our south.
In the face of tragedy, it is very common to feel hopeless and dejected at things we cannot control. Whether the tragedy is supernatural or man-made, the devastation it brings with it is unrepentant and strikes like a thief in the night without discretion for race, class, or age. I often find myself despairing over things I see in the world, which is probably a feeling not uncommon among those of you who chose to come to my silly site and read my dumb words. Sometimes it feels like the world we live in is on a depressing path, and at time that feeling can be overwhelming. It is a feeling that hovers like a heavy gray cloud over top our heads, and like rain following a crack it seeps into other facets of our lives. This looming feeling can even make someone decide to start a comedic parody news website in attempts to keep that depressive feeling at bay and attempt to write funny fake articles as a conduit to channel those feelings into something more positive.
I will guarantee people of differing views on political and social issues all feel depressed about where our communities and country are heading. It’s hard not to in today’s time. So much of the news sources we consume are designed to use bias in order to stoke fear against a mostly fabricated out-group, sometimes just referred to as “them” or “they.” This mysterious out-group is always portrayed as having an agenda that is somehow going to permanently affect your life for the worse. That kind of anger-inducing content generates clicks and views. It overrides our emotional centers and makes us irrationally feel like something we loved is getting punched in the face every single day. It’s also objectively not true. Divisions can drive polarization, which can drive revenue and profits for media outlets. Understanding and unity are not as profitable, but sometimes those things shine through in spite of the normal narrative.
I remember when 9/11 happened. I remember the tragic moments of watching the towers fall in real time. It is still incomprehensible to make sense of the wrath of that targeted devastation. More important though, I remember the days following when Americans off all different political viewpoints, sexual orientations, social class, and ages came together and truly loved each other. It’s hard to recall that feeling in today’s animosity-filled world, but I still remember it. Admittedly, things didn’t go perfect afterwards as people in power used the tragedy to springboard fraught Middle-Eastern policy, and a large portion of brown-skinned Americans became the unfair targets of racism. Nevertheless, that feeling of togetherness in the face of imminent tragedy prevailed. I have never been more proud to be an American than when George W. Bush stepped up to the mound at Yankee Stadium and threw a perfect pitch days following 9/11. It didn’t matter if I thought he was a good president or a bumbling idiot, he was representing all of us in that moment. For that moment and many other little moments that would follow in the aftermath of 9/11, the love I felt for complete strangers that I will never meet was real.
In the face of this flooding and devastation, the most powerful images and videos have been of rescuers repelling out of helicopters, snatching people off roofs, and pulling them through flooded streets to safety. I was personally lucky enough to not have to hop in a boat and pull people off of any roofs, but just know if tragedy ever hits Louisa, no matter if you are republican, democrat, a chew-bub, a transgender woman, a Duke fan, or something worse than a Duke fan, I will help get you to safety any way I can. I do not understand the choices everyone makes in their lives, but I understand everyone has the right to live their life with the guarantee of personal safety for them and their family, free of persecution because of their personal choices. If you claim to love Kentucky and Americans, it is incumbent on us to help others in both in pursuit of these rights, and in their time of great need.
No matter how you feel about Governor Andy Beshear, you must admit this guy has had a rough term as governor. He has had to deal with some rough stuff, from COVID, to the shooting Breonna Taylor, to the tornadoes in western Kentucky, and now to this tragic flooding. He’s had a rough go of it. This may have been the toughest time to be Governor of Kentucky since the Civil War. It makes Paul Patton dealing with infidelity seem trivial by comparison. Listening to Governor Beshear talk in response to this latest tragedy, it does sound like he has an honest love for Kentucky and its people. His sincere compassion for those affected by yet another tragedy during his tenure is much appreciated.
As of the time of this writing, we have lost at least 25 fellow eastern Kentuckians, including 4 children and I pray the totals do not grow. Those are real families just a few hours away from us, and the scary truth is if winds, air pressure, or other weather conditions had been just slightly different those families could have been in our community. I know if we had been hit, those communities would have stepped up and helped us out.
Here is the part that is going to be hard to swallow for some people. The environmental tragedies we are going to be facing are not immediate. They have been slow building and are gradually turning into frustratingly more frequent tragedies of an increasingly devastating nature. It is possible the television pundits and politicians being given millions of dollars by those corporations and individuals directly benefiting from practices adversely impacting the environment and driving adverse climate change may not have had our best interests at heart. It’s possible those corporations and individuals were giving politicians of both parties and television executives millions of dollars to lie to the public about climate change and convince people it was a big hoax. It’s starting to look like, maybe, it was the scientists studying climate change, living on low salaries, unable to pay off politicians and the media, who are still saddled by student debt that were telling the truth the entire time. Perhaps, the scientist just wanted to help inform the public about the world we live in and make it better, possibly even save it.
I don’t want to leave this article on such a targeted paragraph. That wasn’t my intent when I started typing this out. It just kind of snowballed into that at the end. Rather, it’s come to my attention that the Father Beiting Appalachian Mission Center is collecting cleaning supplies and the Lawrence County School System is collecting cleaning supplies, water, and $25 gift cards. For more information click the links at the top of this page.
-The Editor of The Big Sandy Lazer (As a reminder… We are not a real news website… It’s all for fun and totally made up… except for our Real Stuff section. Check it out here.)
-
Real Stuff
The section that contains our real goals. We are completely serious about them too. We try and use these goals as a way to guide our comedy. Seriously, we love Lawrence County.
-
Editorial: Noah Thompson
I did write an article that was about Louisa Voting for Noah of the Ark as its Favorite Bible Character in Tuesday’s Primary Elections, but it just didn’t feel right. One of the goals in this site’s “Real Stuff” section is to promote Lawrence County and its young people, and I didn’t feel comfortable releasing that article when I felt it took away from one of our goals. So… I scrapped that article and wrote this from the heart:
-
Disclaimer
Just a general disclaimer to remind people that we are not a real news website. Nothing on the comedy sections of this site is reliable or true.