An open letter to our government

Dear members of the government,

While the tragedy of Oklahoma is still fresh in our hearts and minds, it is of the utmost importance that we all take stock of where we have been, where we are and where we will go from here. Yesterdays deaths, of which there were school age children killed, does nothing but highlight our seriously lacking judgement in the face of nature. Regardless of your political alignments or religious beliefs, children died yesterday that did not have to.

  No matter your belief or disbelief in climate change or it's effects, the cold stark truth is that weather is happening despite us. It happens and will continue to happen. While we sit around debating or arguing about the weathers origins, intensity and causes, the weather is killing us. My plea, due to yesterdays events is simply this. If we are going to continue demanding products such as cotton, wheat, corn and other plains grown products, the very least we can do is to provide protection for the very population we ask to reside in that dangerous area. It is senseless to allow any human life to be taken due to ill weather just because we can't seem to live without popcorn and tee shirts and we are to cheap to do anything about it!

  As those schools are rebuilt, the least we can do as a nation is to make sure they have enough money to build shelters in every single school that will withstand an F-6 tornado for every child or staff member. While our predictions are not perfect, they are good enough to alert most to take proper shelter. Yesterday few had proper shelter and were left to die in the name of cereal and pop tarts. Recently we lost around 4000 soldiers in war. I would bet if you could speak to them now, they would tell you that they would gladly give their lives ten times over just to ensure the safety and protection of the kids who died yesterday!

  Yesterdays tornado was not to blame, we are! For not having enough common sense to provide necessary protection. The technology we possess must be made available to all our citizens. We have no right to sit in our safe homes, enjoying the products we demand and say that is Oklahoma's problem, not ours! If we demand something then we must be willing to provide a humanely sound manner in which to acquire it. The homes in the plains states need to be build better and have shelters under ground that all can access at a moments notice. Shelters need to be placed along major roads to protect travelers and people working in shipping. Yes, this costs money. It is the right thing to do or we should abandon these areas and reevaluate our needs and desires as a nation. We do not send expeditions off to Antarctica with a pup tent and a lantern or to the bottom of the ocean with a flashlight and a snorkel do we? If we need these people in these places then we are obligated to protect them.

  This is not our first rodeo, Hurricane Andrew, Ivan, Sandy, Katrina to name a few. Joplin was a meat grinder of destruction. We have the resources to make this happen. My fear is that all courage and dignity has long since been lost in our countries capital and in the 50 state capitals in order to actually address a real issues that face us all. All of you are too busy bickering about Benghazi talking points or how many drones we need to send out, that all of you have forgotten we are here! Well we are here and we need all of you to shut up, stop bickering and get on the stick! This is exactly the kind of thing we want you to do, this is what we hired you to do. If you continue to fail us we will fire you and find someone clearly more capable.

Signed Ed Harris

But Hey! What do I know? I'm just a plumber!