Hi, Trades,

I got to see the Pres last Monday evening. I went to my nephew’s high school graduation in Joplin Mo. Something like 1/3 of Joplin was hit by the killer tornado last year at this time. There were 161 deaths and many injured. My nephew this year went to school in a mall, and the other high school went to school in a warehouse I believe. Something like 8000 structures were destroyed including some of the schools and one of the major hospitals last year. The tornado last year was a mile wide and was on the ground anywhere from 8-12 miles. It was an F5 and nuked everything in its path. Wind speeds have been said to be anywhere from 220 miles per hour to about 260 miles per hour. All the trees looked like stick figures, but were growing leaves. There were mile after mile of them. A lot of the structures have been re-built so I could not quite get a full picture in my mind of the destruction of the structures, but could see many new houses and buildings going up. Could see where one of the high schools that was nuked. It was a good thing that it hit on a Sunday or those kids would have been toast. They were saying it was the most devastating tornado since a 1950 tornado in Michigan. It struck on either last years graduation or the day after.

The graduation was Monday evening. I Got to hear Obama speak. National Guard and Secret service all over the place. The Nation Guard mainly took care of traffic control, parking, and some other stuff, so the police could be free to do the police work. National Guard carried no guns. Had to go thru metal detectors just to get in. Quite the experience. Had good seats right up by the stage. Had to get their early and wait in line to get in. There were 3 secret service agents on each side of the stage that I could tell. Each one seemed to have a point of focus to watch in the auditorium. It was at Southern Mo., which I believe is a division II school. They almost never looked at the Pres, but kept an eye in the stands watching everyone. The middle agent on each side was viewing the other side of the auditorium. Seemed like every time I looked at the agent directly in front of me he was giving me the old fish eye and had me in sight by looking out of the corner of his right eye. I’m sure it was my imagination.

Joplin is in Jasper county which is the most conservative county in Mo, so I don’t think many will vote for the Pres. However, he was given a warm welcome for coming. He came the week following the tornado, and made a promise to come back and he did. It worked out for him as it is an election year. I am not a fan of his, but give him credit for coming back to Joplin. Joplin has bounced back and it just shows how great the human spirit is.

I don’t know if Romney is strong enough to beat Obama, so it may play out in Congress and the Senate as you say.