Baylor grad & University of Texas fan (Sic 'em! & Hook 'em!); KΔ; FReeper; CHL holder; lover of college 🏈 & 🏀! I took the pic☝in beautiful Ketchikan, Alaska!
@SandraMrazik I wonder if this will fit on a souvenir t-shirt:
"I stood by my cheatin' man, carpetbagged it to New York, left innocent Americans to die in Benghazi, ran a disastrous presidential campaign and all I got were these lousy $400,000,000 from Russia." 🤔
🇯🇵 Dear American friends, I will never forget this for as long as I live. 😭
March 11, 2011. 2:46 PM.
The Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
Magnitude 9.0.
The largest earthquake ever recorded in Japanese history violently shook the Tohoku region. 🌏
Then, dozens of minutes later, a tsunami beyond imagination swallowed the coastline. 🌊🌊
Around the world, many governments advised their citizens to leave Japan.
Some embassies reduced their staff or temporarily relocated their operations.
Sendai Airport filled with people desperately trying to leave Japan. ✈️
March 11.
The earthquake.
The tsunami.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant lost all electrical power.
The cooling systems failed, and the reactors began to melt down. ⚠️
March 12.
Unit 1 exploded. 💥
The reactor building was torn apart, and the images spread across the world.
Fear of radiation spread across the globe, and many people tried to keep their distance from Japan.
But then…
🇺🇸 America came closer.
Within hours of the earthquake, the decision was made. On March 12, Operation Tomodachi began. 🤝
24,000 service members.
189 aircraft. ✈️
24 ships. ⚓
They headed toward the disaster area.
Even with the fear of explosions still lingering, they carefully managed the risks of radiation while delivering food, water, and medical supplies, and continued their relief operations. 🚢📦💧
It wasn’t only the U.S. military stationed in Japan.
From the American mainland, from across the Pacific, and from Americans living in Japan, an overwhelming desire arose
「We want to help Japan.」 😭
They helped restore Sendai Airport. ✈️
They delivered emergency supplies. 📦
They searched for and rescued survivors alongside the Japan Self-Defense Forces. 🛟
And they stayed by Japan’s side for as long as they were needed. 🤝
The name of the mission was…
Operation Tomodachi.
「Tomodachi.」 🥹
Perhaps that name was chosen carefully.
Or perhaps there simply wasn’t any other word that fit.
A kunoichi trains for years never to show emotion while on a mission.
To observe.
To report.
To act without being ruled by emotion.
And yet, every time I remember those ships sailing toward Tohoku, I cannot count how many times I have cried. 😭
Even today, I cannot find words in any language to express what I felt back then. 💙😭
When so many people were trying to leave Japan,
you came. 😭
When fear and uncertainty covered our nation,
you stayed by our side. 😭
You rescued survivors, delivered hope, and stood with us when we needed friends the most. 😭
A kunoichi remembers everything.
Even now, more than fifteen years later. 🕊️
Happy 250th Birthday, America. 🎉
Japan will never forget the friendship you showed us on those days. 🇯🇵🤝🇺🇸
Never.
Forever… 🥹❤️
#A250inJapan
“Americans, how can you dare say that your country is not the greatest of all time? I'm in a tiny little part of like South Nashville and the economic productivity in this town, how busy it is. This is a Sunday. People are out shopping, eating food.
You can go and get anything you want. Clothes, handmade leather goods. You can go to Buttermilk Ranch, like go for beers.
This is unbelievable. This is not happening anywhere else in the world. People are safe.
We're walking around. Nobody's attacking us. Like this is unreal.
Nobody's trying to snatch my watch. Nobody's trying to take my phone out of my hand.
And people are friendly. Y'all come back now you're here. Don't you worry. We will be coming back because America is the greatest damn country on earth and anybody who says otherwise is a goddamn imbecile.”
@DefiyantlyFree@punditOcrat I remember when Bernie sanders was running for president, 5 of his supporters took a weeks vacation in VENEZUELA, they come back by the 3rd day TRUMP SUPPORTERS.
@DefiyantlyFree You’re socialists because you spent 100k on worthless degrees, where leftist professors instilled the bullshit rhetoric of socialism into your young, non-independent thinking minds & now you can’t get jobs in the real freaking world where the bs you preach is an utter failure.
250 years, and your empire has been reduced to a single island the size of Michigan, with a GDP barely higher than Mississippi, the poorest of our fifty states.
Enjoy your warm beer in that unairconditioned old pub.
Don’t talk too much shit online though, you might get arrested.