When the Levies Broke

I’ve been watching Spike Lee’s four part documentary about the Katrina disaster on HBO on Demand and I feel obligated to make a number of observations.

My first observation is that if I had any doubts that Spike Lee is THE premier film artist of our time, this documentary eliminated them. My second observation is that the Bush administration is at least guilty of criminal incompetence and my third observation is that, for all the talk about the “New South,” blacks are still treated like crap down there aren’t they?

I mean, it sounds to me like the place was a freaking disaster if you were black, or poor white, before the freaking disaster and Katrina took it from really bad to catastrophic. I wouldn’t let a dog live in some of the places shown in the film. They were little more than shacks. No wonder they got flattened by what wasn’t even a direct hit by the hurricane.

I can understand why some of the people displaced by Katrina are considering not going back. Since they have to start from scratch anyway they’re realizing that they might be better off doing it in Texas or Oklahoma or Pennsylvania.

As for the New Orleans city administration and the Louisiana governor’s office, both underestimated the impact that a category 5 hurricane was going to have. Bianco should have activated the National Guard BEFORE the storm struck and Nagin should have used them, his police force and every bus they could find to enforce the mandatory evacuation. Yes this is 20-20 hindsight on my part, but if you want to be the leader, then be prepared to pay the piper when you drop the ball.

After the storm struck I think Nagin did the best he could with an impossible situation and Bianco was more concerned about politics than doing what needed to be done. I’d vote her ass out of office but he can play on my team anytime.

Of course on the other hand, we’re not talking about the sharpest tools in the shed here. While I sympathized with what happened to them I couldn’t help observing that a lot of the people involved were not prone to logical thinking. I loved the lady that explained how Jesus helped them wade through the water to safety. Err, wouldn’t he have done better by you to keep the storm away or at least keep the levees from breaking? I’m amazed by the attitude that God helped me AFTER the catastrophe struck so that shows his love. I guess he didn’t love those that drowned did he? I think I would prefer a God that either prevented the catastrophe or was at least totally neutral rather than one that allows the catastrophe to occur and then plays favorites helping some while leaving others to their fate.