2008 Woodie Awards
Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Opinions
A thank-you from the local chapter of the American Red Cross
Beginning August 29,2008, the Heart of Tennessee (HOT) Chapter of the American Red Cross was notified that it needed to establish a shelter for several hundred citizens of the State of Louisiana who were being evacuated in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav. As Chairman of the Board of the Heart of Tennessee Chapter, I made a call to Sidney McPhee to request that we be allowed to open a shelter pursuant to a shelter agreement that the HOT Chapter had signed with MTSU just a few months prior.
Dr. McPhee agreed and preparations began to open a shelter in MTSU's newly remodeled Rec Center to begin receiving evacuees. The shelter remained open for a week and served more than 400 people during that time.
On behalf of the HOT Chapter of the American Red Cross, please accept my heart-felt gratitude for the hospitality that was shown to everyone involved. It was a big inconvenience for the students and faculty to not be able to use to its fullest extent the Rec Center. Despite the disruption, everyone, from Dr. McPhee's office to Campus Police to the Rec Center staff, was very helpful and went out of their way to make this a positive experience.
I also want to commend the student body for the outpouring of support that our local Red Cross chapter received. Daily students were coming to the shelter to volunteer their time and talents to help wherever they were needed. That was the most heartwarming and gratifying gesture of all as students pitched in to help people in need. As a 1988 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, I was especially proud.
Once again, thanks to the MTSU family for opening its doors to host people displaced by a terrible storm. The hospitality shown by all took what should have been a trying and taxing time and turned it into a positive and rewarding experience.
- Joseph A. Peay, chief executive officer, American Red Cross - Tenn. Chapter
Voting shouldn't be about elitism
Let me take just a moment from your reader's busy day and put up some numbers that may remind our student body about how Tennessee and Middle Tennessee State University students vote on average: Tennessee voted against their own candidate Al Gore in 2000 and repeated our lack of judgment in 2004. So, we basically have nothing that we can legitimately complain about over the past 8 years. Your welcome, America. The current race at hand, has particularly got at my nose. It's quite understandable to want to be considered one of the wealthy in life. However, reality shows that MTSU students are not in that category overall. We typically come from hard- working middle class families. Yet, time and time again, the student body decides that in polling, we want to side with the elite. Well, voting with Vanderbilt.
- Orlondre Lawrence, Mureesboro resident
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