I know everyone's free to do as they wish, but I honestly don't see the point in those who don't believe in God getting on here just to say God isn't real. Kind of a waste of time, no?

Clearly some people need to invest in some constructive hobbies.

I was reading some things yesterday (and Sarah also read me some things) that kind of made me lose hope for humanity. Nashville is pretty much in a state of crisis. Nearly 90% of gas stations are out of gas. I, personally, am trapped here. I have to wait for my parents to get back from Alabama to bring me some gas before I can go anywhere. Apparently, the entire country is blaming US completely as the reason why we do not have gas. It's the people of Nashville's fault. So, in response, I would like to address some of the main reasons why people
say it is our fault or why we should "get over it."

1. The outage is solely due to panic buying.

While I'm sure that was a factor, I have a very VERY hard time believing that we were the only city in the entire nation that was concerned about not having gas. Really, no one thought that we wouldn't have gas until it had been 3-4 days with no shipments. People were more concerned for awhile about the rising prices, as I'm sure most people
EVERYWHERE were. So panic buying causing the shortage? Maybe SOME people panic, but I think the majority of us are just trying to get to where we need to be, which requires gas. There's been a breakdown in the system somewhere, not in our heads.

2. We should have prepared for this since we knew it was going to happen.

Who knew this was going to happen??? We were told the day before the hurricane hit by our governor that we had adequate supplies of gas and would be fine. We only now just learned, along with the rest of the country, that it's going to be another week before any real progress is made into the problem. We all knew gas prices would rise so most of us did fill up before the hurricane, but I don't think a single soul in this city saw this one coming.

3. People in Nashville are always panicky and whiny anyways. At the first hint of snow, you can't find bread or milk in any store.

Ok, I have to talk about this snow thing cause it really irritates me. We don't get snow. At least not much of it. You know what we do get? Black ice. People in the north don't really understand the danger of black ice because they don't have it. If there's ice on their roads, they can either see it or there's snow on top. So yeah, when there's a danger of ice, people do not like to drive and want to stay home as much as possible. Maybe they'll stock up on some groceries. Big deal. However, I've lived here my entire life and I can honestly say that I have never seen any store that was ever out of bread or milk or batteries or whatever because there was a storm coming. I have no idea where people are getting this idea.

4. People in Nashville are lazy and just don't want to walk anywhere or use public transportation.

This was clearly stated by someone who has never lived in Nashville. For starters, the metro area is VERY large.When we talk about Nashville, we don't just mean downtown. We mean pretty much all of Davidson County, which is quite the large area. While a lot of people work downtown, very very few people live downtown. We aren't like New
York or some other major city where people live in apartment buildings all through the city. Unless they are a college student, a recent grad, or one of the random few who grew up living downtown, it is very unlikely for anyone to actually live there. The majority of people who work downtown live in the suburbs or neighboring towns. These aren't
exactly in walking distance. My mom, for instance, works at Vanderbilt. She lives in Antioch (suburb of Nashville). If she were to walk to work, she would have to walk at least 10 miles on roads that for the most part don't have sidewalks. How many of you people whining about us being lazy would do THAT? My brother-in-law would have to walk 40 miles to work. Wee bit ridiculous, no? Also, I don't think that many northern cities understand that just because we're a major city, does NOT mean that we have some kind of fabulous public transport system. We don't
have a subway or any kind of trolley system or train system whatsoever. We have MTA, the crappiest buses in the country. MTA does not run into the suburbs. It runs along major roads and hits major landmarks. I would have to walk about 5 miles to get to the nearest bus stop from here. And even then, have any of you people ever had to use a bus system? Between changing buses to find the right route and waiting through all the stops, it would take at least an hour, if not 2-3, just to get downtown. Not everyone can budget 4 hours in the morning just to get to work. Plus, bus lines don't run 24/7. Unless you lived downtown already, you probably wouldn't be able to get to your average job in
time.

5. The average IQ of any Nashvillian is 85. If you exclude Vandy students, it's 70.

I almost didn't address this because the person who wrote it is clearly facing some kind of brain injury or mental retardation to actually use this as an argument for why Nashville doesn't have gas. But I just have one thing to say: Athens of the South. Why do you think we have an exact replica of the Parthenon? For kicks and giggles? Nashville has
more higher education than most any city in the South, and we were the first Southern state to implement a public school system. Just because the national media likes to portray all Tennesseans as Billy Bob in his wife beater with no shoes on, covered in dirt, holding a beer, and standing next to his run down trailer while his 20 half dressed children run around, does not mean in any way that we are all like that (it also doesn't mean that Billy Bob is necessarily uneducated...think on that one). It's a rare occasion to even see someone like that, especially in the city. But the media loves stereotypes, and YOU are the moron if you can't see that.

In the end, I can't help but think that if this had happened to any other city in the North or in California, people would be rushing to their aid. Because we are Southern (and probably also because we are a red state), it must be our own fault. Yeah, it's our fault that no station in Nashville has gotten a shipment in a week. Our overpowering stupidity waves have prevented trucks from arriving in town.

That makes sense. I understand now. Thank you all for clearing this up for me.