As I wrote the other day, the part of Georgia where I live was hit by the recent tornadoes, and as the news comes out, it was apparently hit worse than I had thought.

According to a story in today's <em>Griffin Daily News</em>, a member of the Spalding County commissioners said that 381 homes were damaged, and nearly a third of them basically will be condemned. Nearly 20 businesses were destroyed and two people were killed.

Now to some people, it will look like Spalding County got off easy, and I didn't even know the tornadoes had touched down here until a couple of days later. (That's what I get for not watching television anymore) But if I were one of the folks who lost their home ... or their business ... or their life ... I'm sure I wouldn't have thought we got off easy.

[caption id="attachment_1096" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tornado damage"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1096" title="20110429_2" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

But I wonder how some of the folks who lost their homes last week felt about the news we had killed Osama bin Laden.

Truthfully, they were probably pleased. Patriotism seems to ride a little closer to the surface here in the South, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Taking pride in your country is usually a positive act; it helps make you feel good about yourself to be part of a bigger whole.

Still, as bin Laden fades into history, someone who is without a home or a business still has to deal with that reality. What happened in Pakistan really has no tangible effect -- lasting or otherwise -- on their life.

Foreign policy successes don't solve domestic policy problems. In fact, billions spent on foreign policy probably actually exacerbate domestic policy problems by leaving fewer resources available to be used.

That isn't always easy to see, and it isn't even always true.

In the early '70s, people asked why we were spending money to go to the Moon when there were so many slums that needed to be cleaned up.

So we stopped going to the Moon, but we didn't clean up the slums either.

I didn't live here then, but I would be willing to bet plenty of folks here in Spalding County were proud we went to the Moon.

Ironically, there's a fairly large percentage of folks in this country now who don't believe we ever really went to the Moon. I don't know what that says, but it isn't good.

I believe we did go. Heck, I met the second man ever to walk on the Moon, and I don't believe Buzz Aldrin would have lied to me.

I believe we actually did kill bin Laden too.