My Opinion on the Spike Lee Documentary When the Levees Broke

I hope that all of you, including those that don't agree with my views on this administration will at least take the time to respect me by reading what I have to say.

I just finished watching When the Levees Broke which is a documentary by Spike Lee about Hurricane Katrina and the victims of New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast area. I'd highly suggest for everyone to watch this if you have HBO. It is available on DVD soon.

There's a few things I have to say. Here's where the parts come in that will hopefully not offend my friends who don't agree with me. Everyone has their opinions and anything I say is my opinion and not to be taken as some kind of personal attack on your views that might differ with me. However, I fully stand by these views.

Here goes, and if I have a few facts wrong, believe me, they're not wrong by much...perhaps a day or so. These are facts as well as personal comments. You can figure out which is which.

Why were people judged for not leaving? I've stayed through many storms just like they have. New Orleans has mostly public transportation so a lot of people didn't have vehicles. It costs money to evacuate. We stayed during Opal (which was originally coming in as a category 5) due to not having money to leave. Hotel rooms, gas, etc... isn't free. Let's not forget the homebound and sick who couldn't leave as well.

I don't know how anyone can support this administration after the lack of response to Katrina victims. I don't just mean George Bush either. I'm talking about Cheney, Rice, Nagin, Blanco, etc... From the White House to the local levels. Even the chief of police was one of the guys spreading rumors of child rapes and murders in the Super Dome. For the record, that didn't happen. He admitted he did that to get help faster. Nagin did ask for help though. I can't blame him as much as the others by any means. Did he blow up the levees? I'm not sure anyone knows and let's hope that's just a conspiracy theory that is unsubstantiated. I do know it's happened before in 1927 and in the 60's, which flooded the lower ninth ward as well. I'll not comment much on that since I have no clue and I shudder to even think of such an evil. However, I'd take Nagin any day over Bush.

It took us 2 days to get to Indonesia during their tsunami and recent earthquake. It took 5 days for help to arrive in New Orleans. Or should I say, lack of help?

It costs a billion dollars per month for us to be in Iraq, yet we can't build levees that can withstand a category 3 hurricane and nor can we get the help that people in New Orleans (and surrounding areas) need.

Families were torn apart and sent to various states and some, if not many, still have not been reunited. Victims were given one way tickets to places they'd never been, losing their families. Mothers watched their children die, sons watched their mother's die, etc. Now imagine that on top of losing your home, all of your belongings, your job, etc. And yet some people still have the audacity to judge these people? Imagine telling your sick mother that the busses are coming, only to watch her die in a wheelchair left out in the sun waiting on a bus that never arrived?

Why couldn't food and water be dropped down to the Superdome? Those people went for 4 days without food and a few days without water.

It took George Bush 2 weeks to step foot in New Orleans. Hey I know, let's hug a black person to show how much he cares! What a photo op that was!

What about some of the areas having electricity only to find out it was a one day thing to show the public that help had arrived. It was a mirage. The electricity was gone the next day.

Dick Cheney didn't allow homeowners on their own street in MS due to him giving a "photo op." Homeowners were detoured out of their way. Hence, the hilarious "Fuck you Dick Cheney" response during his interview.

People who had paid insurance premiums for decades were told they'd get little or nothing. One man had flood insurance, etc and paid for 50 years. He was given $600 for his home. Yes, this is not an administration issue. It's just another big "fuck you" from one agency to the people who needed them.

Looting? Give me a freaking break. Can you judge a person who has just gone through something like that? Sure, there's some bad apples but let's be realistic and focus on the tragedy, not a few people who stole TV sets and shoes. If looting is the worst thing that happened, and I know it's not, then I'd be thrilled. People want to focus on what the people did wrong, not their tragedy. To me, that's just wrong on so many levels.

Other countries offered help and were denied.

While people were drowning, Bush played guitar on vacation, Cheney played golf and Rice went shopping for shoes in NY and saw a show, Spamalot to be exact.

Barbara Bush had the audacity to say about folks in the Superdome, "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." Excuse me? You've got to be kidding me. George Bush Senior was there and let's be fair, so was Bill Clinton. Neither said a word to her about her tactless garbage spewing from her mouth.

New Orleans is a city that supplies a huge proportion of this country's oil, yet New Orleans sees none of the riches from it like Texas does.

You might be asking why I'm bringing this up. Not only was it the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina just a few months ago, but I've never stopped thinking about it. Like it has been said, sure...we've had Katrina-fatigue but the people that lived through it haven't forgotten. I live on the Gulf Coast, I have all of my life. One of my best friends lived through it. It could have been us here. Sure, we don't have levees but what if we'd had the devastation that Hurricane Andrew left? Would I want to be ignored by my government? I remember Hurricane Opal and looking for ice and milk due to not having electricity for days, no phone for weeks, etc. That's a tiny tiny speck on the scale of what Katrina victims went through. Those people are not over it and we as a country shouldn't be either. Some have committed suicide, there's post traumatic stress disorder, etc. My friend was from there. You think she's forgotten what she went through?

New Orleans is a city rich with culture and diversity and when they were dying from this disaster, our administration forgot them. I welcome any comments and arguments but believe me, I won't be changing my mind on anything I've stated.