So, I live in Cedar Rapids, IA.  The heartland of the Midwest.  We bring to the world such things as corn, beef, pork, soy products, dairy products, as well as corn syrup and cereal.  Quaker Oats, General Mills, ADM Sweeteners, Cargill, PMX Industries… just to name a few.  We are also a major global communications hub, home to GoDaddy.com,  telemarketing and customer service call centers, mortgage companies, highly ranked education systems.. a nice place to call home.  Until the wrath of nature took us into her grip last week.  All one has to do is turn on any world news program and your here the name of our city called out…

(Time) (CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa) — The Cedar River poured over its banks here Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets. Officials estimated that 100 blocks were underwater in Cedar Rapids, where several days of preparation could not hold back the rain-swollen river.

(CNN) Water Ebbs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Other Areas Evacuated…

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The dark, filthy water that inundated the entire downtown of Iowa’s second-largest city was receding Saturday after forcing 24,000 people to flee, but those who remained were being urged to take draconian measures to avoid overwhelming the city’s only remaining drinking water source.

These are just two out of countless numbers of stories and reports of the serious degree of damage and loss happening in my home town.  It has been estimated at this early stage that Cedar Rapids alone is looking at well over $1Billion in loss and damages.  However, the naive, anti-community super-socials of this area have decided that an event which is known to be extremely over-priced and under-providing for the prices involved, The Barbecue Round- Up, should most certainly continue as planned.  Typically this event is the last in a series that lasts just over a week and leads into the 4th of July festivities.  It has been a staple of downtown Cedar Rapids for many years.  The downtown that is basically gone now.  But hey, lets waste money needed for clean up and rebuilding.  Let’s just waste that on over-charged, less than wonderful grilled food and activities.  And lets put the event in a non-commercial, residential community.  One that has suffered from noise and pollution for over a week now as their neighborhood has been a staging ground for much of the relief efforts going on in this City…

(KCRG) The 21st Annual BBQ Roundup presented by Veridian Credit Union will take place as scheduled, June 26-29, 2008, giving the community an opportunity to come together in compassion and camaraderie. The South Kingston Parking Lot will serve as a temporary home for the festival as clean-up of the original site gets underway.

I’m thinking that putting such frivolous event on hold in order to clean up this disaster and help provide a home to over 20,000 displaced residents is in order here.  Not the 21st Annual “take-everybody’s-money-and-hardly-give-them-anything-in-return-Round-up”  What in the world has happened to common sense?