Livin' in the South

This is a special post for my sister Laura. She's moving to Georgia today so that she can do a dietetics internship and be a real registered dietitian. I read the paper during breaks at work and I loved this story. I hope you packed your riot gear. Good luck. (I'm not sure how copyright works but this was over the Associated Press on 8/25/2009):

MARION, Ala. - Two Alabama families that had been fighting for years turned their feud into a full-scale riot Monday outside a small-town city hall, with up to 150 screaming people hurling tire irons and wielding baseball bats. Eight people were arrested, and at least four were hurt, Trooper John Reese said. Two were taken to hospitals. The town's police chief was hit in the head with a crowbar but was OK.

The two- or three-year-old feud apparently prompted a fight earlier in the day at a high school, after a window was shot out of a home Sunday night. Then, "all hell broke loose" later in the day, said Sgt. Carlton Hogue of the Perry County Sheriff's Department.

"It was a full-scale riot is what it was," said Tony Long, mayor of the town of 3,300 about 85 miles west of Montgomery.

Hogue said the rioters were "throwing jack irons, throwing tire irons, anything they could get their hands on." Some people carried baseball bats and brooms.

Reese said two people were arrested at the high school during the initial disturbance. Relatives of the people who were arrested followed officers to police headquarters at city hall, and then the melee erupted.

Six more people were arrested at city hall, Reese said, and police called in reinforcements from surrounding cities. Some officers wore riot gear, and many planned to stay overnight to help maintain order.

The mayor said he wasn't sure what sparked the fracas.

"Everybody's trying to point the finger at everybody," he said.

Judson College, a church-affiliated women's school with about 300 students in downtown Marion, issued an alert asking students to stay out of the downtown area for 24 hours as a precaution.

Roadside Assistance

(This is the beginning of my new commitment to blogging regularly. I'll try hard.) So I'm driving home from another day at work and I see a few cars on the side of the road. I think it's just a normal fender-bender so I just drive by and watch to see what it is in my mirror. As I pass there's a guy lying on the sidewalk and 3 teenage girls standing nearby. I watched for a few more seconds, wondering if I should stop. I decide that it might be a good idea and remember that I bought a first aid kit for my trunk a month ago. I quickly pull over and jump out to get my kit and run over there. My trunk: empty. I cleaned my car a month ago and I guess I didn't put anything back in. Woops. I figure that I can still do some good so I run over there. I ask his name, no real answer, and move on to an orientation question (ie does he know where he is or the day). Just as I get that question out of my mouth 2 Stanford doctors show up on the scene and take over. None of us had gloves and the man was being uncoperative adn I already had blood/dirt all over my pants so we all worked together. The police, fire truck, and ambulance quickly pulled up and completely took over. I was still standing nearby though and helped with some positioning, etc. However, when I went to help move the guy onto the gurney some other ambulance lady showed up out of no where and shooed me away. Something about being in jeans and a T-shirt made me look like just another annoying bystander trying to get in on the action. Moral of the story: doing a good deed doesn't really work out if you don't have the supplies and aren't dressed in proper attire. Until I blog again... (I promise, this is my new try to do a lot better.)