|
|
Post your thoughts about the HBO Documentary Films production WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS.
|
Posts:
123
Registered:
8/31/06
|
|
(510 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
May 7, 2008 7:56 PM
|
> I live in New Orleans. I like the documentry, the
> music was good, the images were good and it opened a
> lot of peoples eyes to what happened. However it
> wasnt all the governemnts fault, people were warned
> to leave and if they didnt have cars the gov.
> provided buses. Good job Spike but I dont think its
> ALL race.
REPLY; YOU ARE SO RIGHT. IF YOU READ SPIKE LEE'S INTERVIEW ON THIS SIGHT, HE CLEARLY INDICATES TO ME THAT IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT RACE. REGARDING HIS COMMENTS ABOUT PRES. BUSH ONLY DOING A FLY-OVER...WELL, IF THE BLACKS ..NO RACISM (esp not from me-a minority) BUT THAT'S WHAT THE NEWS WAS SHOWING.....WERE LOOTING (EVEN THE N.O. POLICE OFFICERS) FOR NON-ESSENTIAL ITEMS..AND RIOTS HAD BROKEN OUT, AND RESCUE PERSONNEL WERE BEING ATTACHED, HOSPITALS BEING ATTACKED, PROBABLY FOR DRUGS....SERIOUSLY, THE NEWS SHOWED THE LOOTERS NOT GOING FOR FOOD OR WATER TO HELP THEIR NEIGHBOR, BUT TAKING STEREOS, TVS..SO BIG THEY COULD BARELY CARRY THEM, TRYING ON CLOTHING IN THE STREETS, WHILE THEIR NEIGHBORS WERE DYING.....SO, OK, LET THE PRESIDENT LAND AND BE KILLED...SPIKE WOULD HAVE LIKED THAT, APPARENTLY. BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN INSANE TO HAVE HIM LAND. THIS IS NOT LBJ'S ERA..DAMN, THERE PROBABLY WASN'T EVEN CRACK IN HIS TIME!!! WHAT A SECRET SERVICE NIGHTMARE
THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN.
YOU ARE ALSO RIGHT THEY WERE WARNED TO LEAVE..AND DIND'T, NOR WAS MAYOR NAGIN OF MUCH HELP AT ALL..BUT I GUESS THAT'S OKAY BECAUSE HE IS BLACK. IT BECOMES VERY HARD TO TELL WHO WAS FOR/ AGAINST THE BLACKS IN THIS SCENARIO, DOESN'T IT?? AND THEN THERE'S THE STATEMENT THAT THE HURRICANE DIDN'T DO THIS..THE FEDS DID IT..VIA THE LEVEES....READ POST ABOUT 4 POSTS DOWN AND THERE'S A PRETTY GOOD PICTURE OF WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO THE LEVEES AND HOW NEW ORLEANS WAS VERY MUCH RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LEVEES.
BUT HEY, SPIKE CAPITALIZED (POOR LITTLE BLACK BOY) ON THE AMERICA HE SEEMS TO HATE AND MADE A LOT OF MONEY WHILE FURTHERING NEGATIVE RACE RELATIONS, THE THE REV. AL HELPED OUT SPIKE'S MOMMY (GOD REST HER SOUL..NOT FACETIOUS AT ALL) WHO WASN'T SERVED FAST ENOUGH AT THE CRACKER BARREL..OF COURSE..IT WAS BECAUSE SHE WAS BLACK..LUDICROUS..AND NOW THE REVVED UP AL IS WHERE HE BELONGS NOW ...IN JAIL..AS OF TODAY.....HE NEEDS NEGATIVE RACE RELATIONS TO MAKE HIS BUCKS AND GET A REP. FOR HIMSELF..TO ME, THAT'S THE WORST FORM OF RACISM EVER...CAPITALIZING ON SHOWING BLACKS...NOT HOW TO SUCCEED, BUT HOW THEY CAN'T CAUSE SOMEONE ELSE IS ALWAYS TO BLAME....HAIL BILL COSBY FOREVER...A HUGELY SUCCESSFUL BLACK MAN WHO TRIED TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS THAT WE ARE AL RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR LIVES, WE ALL HAVE OPPORTUNITIES AND WE CAN ALL LIVE OUR DREAMS IF THEY ARE VALUABLE ENOUGH FOR US TO WORK FOR THEM. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE HUMAN BEING..OR ANGEL, WHICHEVER HE MAY BE. IF WE WANT TO TALK RACE, WE SHOULD FOCUS ON MAYBE SUPPORTING HOMES WITH MOTHERS AND FATHERS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITIES...I THINK EVERY BLACK MAN WHO FATHERS A CHILD SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE AND VISITATION ENFORCED, UNLESS IT IS DETRIMENTAL TO THE CHILD..THE BLACK COMMUNITY, SADLY, HAS THE LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF SINGLE FAMILY HOMES AND I THINK, ALSO, THE LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF KIDS LIVING WITH GRANDS OR OTHER RELATIVES ..FOCUS ON THE EVER INCREASING RATE OF AIDS AMONG BLACK WOMEN, ON RAMPANT DRUG USE..OF CRIMINALITY...NOT ON TELLING BLACKS THAT THEY ARE INCAPABLE BECAUSE THE WHITES ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE AGAINST THEM, SO JUST GIVE UP AND LET REV. AL SEE WHAT HE CAN DO TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER. WHO NEEDS TO FEEL BETTER...PEOPLE NEED EDUCATION, JOBS, TO STAY OUT OF JAIL TO HAVE A MUCH IMPROVED INFANT MORTALITY RATE..WHEN ARE PEOPLE IN A POSITION TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING TO HELP GOING TO STOP CAPITALIZING AND GETTING THEMSELVES THEIR FAME AND GO TO CONGRESS AND BRING ABOUT REAL CHANGE AND REAL HELP. CUT THOSE WELFARE PROGRAMS..MAKE WORK OR EDUCATION MANDATORY FOR HELP, AND TRACKING DOWN THOSE ABSENT FATHERS...STOP WELFARE PAYMENTS IF MOTHERS CONTINUE TO HAVE MORE AND MORE KIDS, KNOWING THEY CAN'T PROVIDE FOR THEM, I DON'T CARE WHAT COLOR YOU ARE, MOMS...GET SOME DAMN PRIDE GOING, NOT HAND OUTS...NO ONE CAN HAVE MUCH PRIDE IN WELFARE PAYMENTS..BUT IN ACCOMPLISHMENTS...I DOUBT IF THIS FILM HELPED ONE SOUL IN NEW ORLEANS....WTF, PEOPLE, WAKE UP!!! NO ONE WANTS BLACKS NOT TO SUCCEED..IT HURTS EVERYONE IN AMERICA OF EVERY COLOR, RACE, CREED..MOMS..GET OFF YOUR DUFF AND BE THERE FOR YOUR KIDS AND MAKE THE MEN YOU BRED WITH DO THE SAME..A CHILD IS NOT WELFARE INCREASE, BUT A PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS LITTLE ONE THAT DESERVES YOUR BEST..ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. DON'T TELL THEM THE WHITES ARE ALWAYS GOING TO KEEP THEM DOWN, THAT GIVES THEM NO REASON TO TRY AND PLENTY OF EXCUSES NOT TO...TELL THEM THEY CAN OVERCOME ANYTHING, ANYTIME AND GIVE THEM THE STRENGTH OF LOVE AND FAMILY TO DO JUST THAT AND YOU WILL BE BLESSED SO MANY TIMES OVER..ALL COLORS!!!!!!!!
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
4/21/08
|
|
(509 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Apr 21, 2008 8:15 PM
|
|
I live in New Orleans. I like the documentry, the music was good, the images were good and it opened a lot of peoples eyes to what happened. However it wasnt all the governemnts fault, people were warned to leave and if they didnt have cars the gov. provided buses. Good job Spike but I dont think its ALL race.
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
4/16/08
|
|
(508 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Apr 16, 2008 1:54 PM
|
|
I think this is quite absud. Spike Lee always has a way of flipping any subject and turning it into a issue about race. SPIKE: WE ARE NOT OUT TO GET YOU!! I think the government did the best they could, their job was not easy!
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
12/15/07
|
|
(507 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Dec 15, 2007 7:03 PM
|
|
YOU KNOW IT'S A SHAME THAT WE ARE GOING ON THREE YEARS SINCE KATRINA HIT AND YET I AM STILL HEARING PEOPLE POINTING FINGERS ON WHO IS TO BLAME, IF WE WOULD STOP TRYING TO CONTINUE WHO THE BLAME SHOULD FALL ON, IT WOULD EASE THE PAIN JUST A LITTLE. I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN NEW ORLEANS, LA. AND FOR ME KATRINA WAS A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE. I DIDN'T HAVE TO LOOK AT SPIKE LEE'S MOVIE BECAUSE I PERSONALLY WENT THROUGH THE CIAOS. IT'S LIKE A BAD DREAM THAT KEEPS HAUNTING YOU. WE APPRECIATE OUR FELLOW AMERICANS THAT GAVE US A HELPING HAND AFTER THE DEVASTATION. BUT TO ME I WASN'T BLESSED TO HAVE ALL OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS MAKE IT SAFELY. SO WHERE DOES CONTINUING TO PLACE BLAMES ON OTHERS GOING TO HELP THE WOMB BUT RE OPEN IT? I FEEL AS THOUGH NO ONE CAN NOT POSSIBLY IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO THROUGH KATRINA, SO INSTEAD OF PLACING GUILT, TRY TO UPLIFT YOUR FELLOW AMERICAN HOPE AND LET THEM NO EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT. I DON'T CARE WHAT BARBER BUSH, BLANCO,NAGIN, OR WHO EVER HAS SAY, BECAUSE TO ME IT JUST WAS NO EXCUSE FOR THE LACK OF RESPONSE FOR HELP I MEAN IF YOU KNEW THAT KATRINA WAS GOING TO HIT YOU SHOULD OF HAD EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE ON STAND BY THE VERY NEXT DAY. BUT ONCE AGAIN WHAT DOES PLACING BLAME HELP THE SITUATION? NONE.
|
|
|
Posts:
123
Registered:
8/31/06
|
|
(506 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Nov 9, 2007 12:16 PM
|
Paperpeople, I don't agree with Barbara Bush making the statement, but truth, yes, there is ugly truth to her inappropriate comments. The conditions, pre-Katrina were not what most Americans can even fathom in terms of poverty. According to a whitepaper in 1994, NOLA's poverty rates were triple the national, 40% of schoolers were illiterate, 50% would drop out and many more end up at Angola State Prision. Seventy five % had no college education..that's 75%!! Something needed to be done long ago about these problems. Since the oil bust of the mid 80's it seems NOLA ignored the need for job growth and sought to make tourism the end all/be all of the economy. Short term, I guess they figured NOLA did not have the skilled or educated workers to fill jobs if they brought them to NOLA. Seems they would have focused on education, but for instance, auditors found 70 million from the school budgets unaccounted for which led to the elimination of 1000 school jobs and the closing of 5 schools. Some think the police malfeasance in which murder for hire schemes were involved, may have sapped up those funds. Far from being the "Big Easy", the place was a hell-hole of poverty. Blanco wrote up a plan after this paper was issued, but do you think there was any follow through? Here are some other comments made..Baton Rouge, Rep. Richard Baker has been quoted as stating .."We finally cleaned up the public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did". Former NO city council president, Peggy Wilson was quoted as saying the city should keep out the "pimps" and "welfare queens" and Oliver Thomas has been attributed to making the public comments that public housing should be for people who work, instead of "soap opera watchers" and public housing tenants should be screened for employment history and embloyability. (not my word, LOL) Nagin made comments about not wanting the non-working to return. So why it is alright for blacks to make such comments, but not Barbara Bush? It is ugly, ugly, ugly, but even the officials in NOLA are finally tired of what they have created in the long term by not providing on a state and local level in terms of job growth and lack of education. Most of us can't even imagine life in the NOLA ghettos. I feel it is clear that NOLA doesn't want to rebuild those ghettos and doesn't want the displaced to return when aside of personal responsibility to better their own lives, the state and NOLA is responsible for creating and perpetuating the poverty.
The same level of corruption and irresponsible fiscal behavior of NOLA administration brought about problems with the levees. No one can argue that had Bush, on his first day in office, mandated 100 billion to NOLA levees, that the Katrina crisis would have been avoided. For the past 20 years, US taxpayers have given more than 700 million for repairs, which was the responsibility of the local levees board to use wisely. All work was contracted out at the local level, per state law, but what happened to those funds?
To my knowledge, Bush did sign a funding for a huge project to be completed in 2015 and the Lake Ponhartrain project was about 60% completed when Katrina hit. Prior to Bush, a 10 year review showed that NOLA didn't use federal funds for levee and coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding. A little time-line;
December 1995 NOLA levee board "In the past 4 years, the New Orlean's Levee Board has built up it's arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that levee commissioners marched into congress and brought back almost 60 million to help pay for flood protection. The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects...completing our circle of protection". Look it up in the Picayune Times. Before long, auditors said the board was near bankruptcy and shouldn't be allowed to refinance bonds, or issue new ones until they reached a plan for solvency. Since they were blocked from from financing the local portion, they were unable to spend the federal dollars. But, federal dollars were available. In 1998, LA state had a 2 billion construction budget but less than 1 tenth of 1% was allocated for levees. In 1999, the LA state legislature appropriated 49.5 million, but had to be allocated by the state bond commission before financing. The commission placed the levees in a "priority 5" list, which is the least likely to receive full or immediate funding. In 2002, no new state money was allocated, so 65% of the matching federal dollars were never used. In about the same time frame, 200/2001, the Bond Commission approved millions for Jefferson Parish, including the Tournament Players Club golf course and the relocation of Hickory Avenue and historic district development. The restoration of the 1962 Mardi Gras fountain and 4 acre park was completed shortly there after, financed by an increase in property taxes of 6 million a year since 1983, but proposals for increased taxes for levees were shot down. Let's go way back to 1971 when congress provided funding for gates like the Netherlands, but stopped in 1977 because of the law suit brought by Save Our Wetlands.
So how is the failure of the levees a federal problem when money has been made available year after year and either corruption sucked the city dry or locals didn't want to invest in anything other than tourism? How is it Bush's failure for decades of Washington trying to help and getting no cooperation? Is this another incident where the federal government should have taken over the state of LA, altogether? Maybe that should have happened.
In regard to the California wild fires...Bush is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If his administration has improved services after Katrina and I am sure we all hope that is the case, then he's damned for the improvement. Some will surely be just stupid enough to say it is because there are no blacks living in California and that's why the response improved. He likes illegal immigrants better than black people. If response had not improved since Katrina, then he damned for not learning from that horrific situation.
The man can't win on this one, either way.
Paperpeople, I hope all is well with you and your "paperdolls " (the kids. of course) are looking forward to a beautiful holiday season.
|
|
|
Posts:
34
Registered:
9/10/06
|
|
(505 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 29, 2007 11:27 AM
|
|
basajo i never dreamed you would agree with such nonsense as what came out of our beloved president's mother. there was absolutely no truth in what she said.no way in hell would a rabid dog be better off in the conditions that those poor VICTIMS were in. really. and houston helper you say the blame goes first and foremost to nagin and new orleans govmnt. hmm so no accountability to the federal govmnt for the years of neglect and lack of concern for ensuring that this magnitude of devastation would not occur. thats odd.btw anyone see how on the ball pres kiss my tush .. i mean bush was with all this california wildfire business. just a thought
|
|
|
Posts:
123
Registered:
8/31/06
|
|
(504 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 7, 2007 5:34 PM
|
>
EXCUSE ME, MR. MIT, BUT I DO BELIEVE WE (HOUSTON HELPER AND BASAJO), WERE RESPONDING TO PREVIOUS POSTS..I HAVE NOT SEEN THAT SPIKE LEE HAS BLAMED ONLY THE FEDS, BUT OTHERS WHO HAVE POSTED COMMENTS. NOW I AM JUST POUNCING OR SPRINGING LIKE A SPIDER.LOL....SHOULD THAT HAVE BEEN A PUMA?? MAYBE??...WHO KNOWS?...AT ANY RATE,YOU KNOW, IT IS SO FUNNY THAT SO MANY POSTS THANK SPIKE LEE FOR THE TRUTH, BUT IF BARBARA BUSH UTTERS SOME TRUTH, AND HER COMMENTS WERE, INDEED, VERY TRUTHFUL, SHE IS SO GREATLY CRITICIZED. WHY IS THAT??? HEY, IF YOU WERE NOT THERE IN THE EFFORTS, JUDE, YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND HOUSTON HELPER'S COMMENTS. I HOPE YOU WILL SEND AT LEAST $5 K AND GIVE SOME OF YOUR TIME TO THE EFFORT. THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE END ALL AND BE ALL...WE ARE A SOCIETY MADE UP OF REAL PEOPLE AND SHOULD HELP EACH OTHER, EVEN IF IT MEANS SACRIFICE. THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT OUR EFFORTS WILL ALWAYS BE REWARDED, BUT I GUESS LOVE IS ITS OWN REWARD. LOVE, SPIDERWOMAN.
houstonhelper and friends, I am mystified when I read
> the many posts here that argue that Lee's documentary
> blames the federal government alone -- an error that
> many of the official reviews of the film also make.
> However, if one watches the documentary closely, one
> sees that for every evacuee (e.g. Mr. Melancon) or
> expert (e.g. Dr. Mackie) who gives Mayor Nagin a
> pass, there are two others who skewer the Mayor. This
> number includes the venerable Prof. Michael Eric
> Dyson, who minces no words in taking the guy to task.
> What's more, Lee simply rolls tape at several points
> to allow Nagin to indict himself -- such as when
> Nagin cluelessly chortles over making President Bush
> wait for him as he showered on Air Force One, at a
> time when folks who hadn't been able to afford to
> evacuate NOLA were sitting in the Superdome and the
> Convention Center in their own waste.
>
> Meanwhile, Lee's documentary grants Governor Blanco
> even less love. I simply cannot believe that any
> reasonable person could watch all four hours of Lee's
> film (plus the additional hour or so included on the
> DVD release) and walk away from it thinking that Lee
> and those he interviewed have defended the actions of
> Governor Blanco's state government.
>
> Lee's indictment is wide: his film very clearly
> presents the case of a system-wide failure with input
> from municipal (Nagin), state (Blanco), and federal
> (Bush, FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers) sectors. Hell,
> if you watch closely, you will also see that those
> two great dames from Yscloskey -- in the 98% white
> St. Bernard Parish -- even go so far as to include
> county/parish officials in the list of those who
> failed the citizens of the Greater New Orleans area.
> (e.g. "St. Bernard Parish can kiss my ass" and the
> proposed election slogan, "St. Bernard Parish is like
> a dirty diaper: it needs a change.")
>
> This latter point, about the culpability of parish
> officials, is an instructive one that also serves to
> illustrate Lee's strategy throughout the film. You
> see, Lee expects viewers to pay attention in order to
> hear and extract the threads of 'testimony' from
> folks speaking from a variety of different personal
> perspectives. Thus, even as we listen with sympathy
> to the two Yscloskey women railing against the St.
> Bernard Parish officials, we realize that since Act
> I, we've been listening with equal amounts of
> sympathy to the very guy whom their words are
> indicting -- namely, the enormously personable and
> engaging Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, who just happens
> to be the highest elected official in the government
> of St Bernard Parish. Lee leaves it up to you, the
> viewer, to decide whether or not you agree with the
> women's assessment of Rodriguez, or whether Rodriguez
> is a guy who loves his parish but was a cog in a
> larger machine who couldn't have done anything about
> the levees even if he'd tried (e.g. as his comments
> about the federal and state governments' "pay me now
> or pay me later" attitude toward the levees
> indicate). Particularly alert viewers might even find
> evidence that suggests that the truth lies somewhere
> between the Yscloskey women's justified rage and
> Rodriguez's reasonable feeling that both
> levee-inspection and post-breach aid efforts were
> both way beyond his purview as a parish official.
>
> Lee does a similar thing when it comes to critiques
> of Nagin and Blanco. That is, he allows everyone to
> run down their views -- both pro- and anti- Blanco
> and Nagin -- and leaves it up to the viewer to
> decide. Some viewers may emerge from the film
> convinced that Blanco and Nagin should not be blamed.
> Others will view the same evidence and draw a
> different conclusion. For example, I viewed it and
> sided with those interviewees who concluded that, in
> addition to the feds, tons of blame should be laid at
> the doorsteps of both Blanco and Nagin -- especially,
> in my view, Nagin, a Black man who grew up in the
> Seventh Ward, knew that poor folks both there and in
> other areas of the city would lack the funds and
> transportation to flee, but made no provision to get
> such folks out of the city. Lee has included enough
> evidence to make both sets of conclusions possible.
>
> Thus, houstonhelper, if you and other folks here want
> to challenge other *posters* whom you feel blame
> *only* the feds and not local and state government,
> fine. But please don't argue that Lee has done the
> same. His vision is more more nuanced and complex
> than that, as a careful viewing of his film clearly
> shows.
>
> StJude12
>
> P.S. BTW, Lee asked Condoleeza Rice, Bush I, Bush II,
> Bill Clinton, Barbara Bush, Chertoff, and any number
> of other federal officials to sit for interviews for
> this film; they all declined. Had they brought their
> voices to the process, the aggregate product would
> surely have been one that conservative viewers would
> find more balanced. (For my own part, I would have
> loved to have heard from Bush I and Clinton, who
> were, after all, Gulf Coast Hurricane ambassadors at
> the time that the film was being made, and who were
> both present -- and silent -- when Barbara Bush made
> her Astrodome comments.) While such federal officials
> were far from obligated to participate, their
> perspectives might have made a case for their actions
> that some folks might have found persuasive -- just
> as the participation of Nagin, Blanco, Rodriguez, and
> a host of other local officials seems to have done in
> the minds of so many viewers. Just a thought.
>
> --
> Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 4:36 PM
>
> --
> Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 4:39 PM
|
|
|
Posts:
123
Registered:
8/31/06
|
|
(503 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 7, 2007 5:15 PM
|
> basajo, according to the past several months of
> polls, you are, indeed, "a minority," just as you
> have proudly proclaimed here. That is, you are in the
> minority of the U.S. population that believes that
> the what you identify as the successes of the Bush
> presidency outweigh a litany of failures so severe
> that even Rush Limbaugh and Joe Scarborough have been
> forced to note them. (In fact, Scarborough even had
> the guts and common decency to state point-blank
> that, although he supports Bush because the president
> is a fellow conservative, he believes that the
> federal response to Hurricane Katrina was a travesty
> that not only exposed fissures of economic class, but
> also revealed extremely troubling weaknesses in the
> Homeland Security system.)
BASAJO REPLIED: HS IS A BABY IN OUR SYSTEM. IS IT PERFECTED? QUITE OBVIOUSLY NOT. HOWEVER, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, HAD IT MADE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS AVAILABLE FOR THE NOLA LEVEES, NOTHING IN THIS SCENARIO WOULD HAVE CHANGED. HAD THE FUNDS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE 10 YEARS AGO, THERE MAY HAVE BEEN SOME CHANCE OF THE LEVEES BEING COMPLETED IN TIME FOR KATRINA. THAT, MY DEAR FRIEND, IS A NO-BRAINER. BUT WAIT, THAT WASN'T EVEN IN BUSH'S ERA. OMG!! WHO SHALL WE EVER BLAME? THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING AS I AM INDEED HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS. ARE YOU IN THE RIGHT FIELD TO BE CONTENTED WITH THE ECONOMIC SITUATION OF OUR COUNTRY?
>
> I actually envy you, basajo: I would love to feel
> optimistic and hopeful about a government that I
> believed was actually doing its best for all of its
> people while enhancing our standing in the world.
> Unfortunately, I cannot. However, I can take solace
> in the fact that you seem to be happy enough for both
> of us -- since, as you have said, folks in your
> sector of the economy /segment of the U.S. are doing
> well. You go, girl.
BASAJO REPLIED: "YOU GO GIRL"? AND YOU WOULD CRITICIZE ANY FORM OF EBONICS????? I AM TRULY SORRY THAT YOU ARE UNHAPPY. MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE BETTER CHOICES EARLIER IN YOUR LIFE. YOU ARE WHERE YOU POSITIONED YOURSELF IN THIS SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY/SEGMENT OF THE U.S...SIMPLE AS THAT, MY FRIEND. BUT, IT IS NOT TOO LATE FOR YOU TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE PLANS.
> Just a few corrections to your post. I believe that
> your bias against fellow "minorities" is showing when
> you quote folks from the film as saying that Bush
> "don't like Black people." While mocking what you
> consider to be low-income Black speech might be yet
> another activity that brings you joy (i.e. when
> you're not clicking your heels with glee because you
> believe that "Bush likes [you]. LOL"), please note
> that neither Kanye West nor the folks in the film who
> quote him (e.g. Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and
> Wendell Pierce) have said "Bush don't like Black
> people." West said "George Bush **doesn't** like
> Black people" -- twice. (After all, with three years
> of college under his belt, West knows the difference
> between a rap recording and an important, if
> impromptu, political statement that will draw the
> scrutiny of critics determined to parse his every
> syllable. Curse that danged Affirmative Action!)
> After the clip of West's comment, Dyson and Pierce
> repeated "George Bush **doesn't** like Black people,"
> and Sharpton opined that West's comments appealed to
> those who have long believed the same. None of these
> men used the non-grammatical "don't." Just FYI.
>
> And speaking of your blanket assumptions about how
> other people speak and comport themselves, I was
> amused to read your assertion that liberals "support
> things like partial birth abortion." I am a
> card-carrying, loud-and-proud, lifelong liberal, and
> I do not support partial birth abortion. Like Sister
> Helen Prejean, the late Dorothy Day, and a host of
> other liberal Catholics, I quite happily bring my
> faith -- and my lack of support for abortion,
> partial-birth or otherwise -- to my advocacy of
> liberal social justice issues. In this, I am in
> fellowship with many liberal Protestants.
Basajo responded: Perhaps YOU do not support partial birth abortions, but certainly, it is not the right who supports such, nor the vastly rebulican Catholics...I am so please to hear that you personally do not support such.
>
> Indeed, we're proof positive that, contrary to the
> rantings of conservative punditry, liberals come on
> all shapes, sizes, and shades of belief. Reviewing
> the blanket indictments of liberals that you've been
> tossing around for the past year in your numerous
> posts to these HBO threads about Lee's film[*], I
> suspect that evidence that liberals aren't monolithic
> might shock you -- but then, also judging from your
> posts, I guess you'd likewise find it shocking that
> I, like Kanye West, Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson,
> and Wendell Pierce, am a fellow "minority" (Black
> American, in my case) who'd be able to make an
> important comment on international television without
> losing my grip on noun-verb agreement. Funny that.
Basajo replied: And why would I think that amazing? I am not one who considers blacks incapable of proper speech, nor do I expect that blacks cannot excel, but I do see and hear too many who feel that such is a mandate, not a choice. BTW, WHAT EVER DOES HIS STATEMENT HAVE TO DO WITH A NOUN-VERB AGREEMENT??? I AM CONFUSED!! LET'S SEE, "HE" WOULD BE THE WHAT??? SUBJECT??? "LIKE" WOULD BE WHAT???
BLACK PEOPLE????WOULD THAT BE THE SUBJECT???? ARE YOU ARGUING GERUND??? HELP ME, TEACHER!!!! PLEASE!!! SOME HOW I HAVE MANAGED TO RETIRE BEFORE THE AGE OF 50 YEARS, AND I STILL CANNOT GET THIS STUFF STRAIGHT!! GERUND? GERUNDIVE??? NOUNS, VERBS,??? WHAT THE HELL DOES IT ALL MEAN???
> Take care, friend. I am very pleased that you have
> left the ranks of liberals and are now a
> conservative; I hope that the move continues to work
> for you.
>
> All Best,
> StJude12
>
> [*] By the way, if you truly believe that Lee's film
> is so irresponsible that it merits the many hours
> that your posting history indicates that you've spent
> here over the past 13 months denouncing it --
> springing out like a spider to respond to the posts
> of those who stop in to comment on the film before
> retuning to their lives -- then surely your time and
> energy would have been better spent by picking up a
> camcorder, getting your friends together, and making
> a rebuttal that you could have posted on YouTube or
> even sent to FOXNews or Rush Limbaugh. I'm being
> totally serious here: the sheer volume and longevity
> of your posting history on Lee's film is, if you'll
> pardon me for saying so, truly baffling, and ever so
> slightly creepy. This seems all the more true because
> you've been using an HBO website as a platform for
> your passionate pro-Bush views when there's a
> presidential primary season underway and an election
> on the near horizon. Surely, the time that you spend
> here pouncing on folks who have come to respond to
> the film would be better spent stepping up your
> efforts to volunteer for the conservative
> presidential candidate of your choice. (Even the
> Republican front-runners need additional volunteers
> right now -- as is also the case with the Democrats
> -- and volunteers with web skills are particularly
> valued.) Life is calling, basajo.
Basajo replied: OH! THE ENVY OF THOSE WHO STILL TRADE THEIR TIME FOR MONEY AND CANNOT AFFORD TO DO JUST AS THEY WISH! MY GOODNESS, YOU SPENT A LOT OF TIME READING A YEAR OR MORE OF POSTS TO MAKE YOUR ASSESSMENT. I AM IN THE ENVIABLE POSITION OF HAVING WORKED SMART AND RETIRED VERY YOUNG SO THAT LESSON PLANS OR OTHER DETAILS OF LIFE ARE OF NO CONSEQUENCE TO ME. I DO AS I WISH AND YOU WOULD BE A TREMENDOUS LIAR TO STATE THAT YOU DO NOT ENVY ONE WHO CAN GOLF AS SHE WISHES, PLAY ON THE COMPUTER, MAKE MY OWN CHOICES AS TO WHAT TO DO WITH MY TIME. I DO NOT NEED TO PORTRAY MYSELF AS A QUASI-INTELLECTUAL AND YET, INTELLECTUALLY ELITIST, AS YOU SO APPEAR. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU HAD THE TIME, SINCE YOU MUST WORK FOR A LIVING, TO READ MY 13 MONTHS OF POSTS, YET I AM VERY FLATTERED THAT YOU TOOK THE TIME FROM YOUR LESSON PLANS TO DO SO!
LIFE IS MINE....WHAT IS YOURS? LESSON PLANS? THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN EARNING A PAYCHECK. ALTHOUGH, I MUST GIVE YOU DUE CREDIT. "LESSON PLANS" INDICATE THAT YOU MUST TEACH IN SOME FORM AND THAT, I DO SO GREATLY ADMIRE. TEACHERS ARE SO VERY IMPORTANT TO OUR SOCIETY. I WAS ALMOST FIRED BECAUSE A FACILITATOR LAUNCHED INTO THE OLD "THOSE WHO CAN, DO...THOSE WHO CAN'T..TEACH". I WAS INFURIATED BECAUSE TEACHERS HAD BEEN THE MOST REVERED AND IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN MY LIFE. NO PROFESSION IS OF GREATER IMPORTANCE OR MORE HONORABLE. TEACHERS COULD MAKE A GREAT DEAL MORE MONEY IN PRIVATE BUSINESS, YET THEY SACRIFICE AND WORK WITH THEIR HEARTS FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL SOCIETY. THE GREATEST PEOPLE I HAVE PERSONALLY KNOWN ARE TEACHERS. THE PAY SCALES, EVEN FOR COLLEGE PROFESSORS ARE PITIFUL, THE HOURS LONG AND THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE TAKEN HOME. THAT IS IMPORTANT LEGISLATION THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE BEFORE CONGRESS...THAT TEACHERS SHOULD BE GIVEN BOTH THE PAY SCALE AND STATUS THEY DESERVE...AND YOU..OR THEY..ARE, INDEED, DESERVING! NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EDUCATION...NOTHING!!
|
|
|
Posts:
123
Registered:
8/31/06
|
|
(502 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 6, 2007 8:25 AM
|
STJUDE12, If you carefully read your own post, you will see the error in the Homeland Security/FEMA provisions and why it is not applicable to Katrina, which is exactly why new legislation has been attempted since Katrina. There are gaps remaining in the current legislation.
There is no perfect administration. But, we as a nation, as a people, are the most fortunate of the world.
I enjoyed your writing skills and style. You mentioned lesson plans. Do you teach high school journalism? Great field.
I read all of your posts or thesis and I was hoping your comments would inspire some interesting comments to wake up this board and keep Katrina alive in the hearts of those of us who still support recovery efforts. Disappointing!
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
10/5/07
|
|
(501 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 5, 2007 11:27 PM
|
I just wanted to say, upon review of what Spike Lee brought to the screen, I saw a lot of ones self. Meaning that I too have been homeless with a child and my heart really goes out to the people in La no matter what people may think. The price of living is out of this world in DC and the only thing I ever wanted to do with my life was reach out and touch someone, and you know what, I have. There are a few people still here in DC that left the south after the storm and I still make sure that the rent is not a problem and please don't think that it is cheap to live in DC because it's not.
My main goal was to reach out to someone still living in the past, the hurt, the confusion but you know, with me just talking to people still in the lower the ward they acted as if I was not for them but I am one of the main people with limited means that want to see them strive again and from the calls I made tonight, I am hurt and shocked that, we as a people have yet to mend the wounds of time and start anew!!!!
Education in DC is fucked up too, the minimum wagehas gone to hell but I just want to help someone to let the knowthat they too are not alone in thisthing called life. Afteralmost three years I, an African_American woman gets theblameand the only thing that I wanted to do was to share my earnings, how f$%&ed is that???
I hurt too!!!
|
|
|
Posts:
3
Registered:
10/4/07
|
|
(500 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 4, 2007 7:18 PM
|
houstonhelper, I was prepping my lesson plans for class this afternoon when I realized that I had forgotten to mention something important in the reply to your post that I'd made early this morning.
In your comments to the poster who argued that the federal government bears much of the blame for the failure of the Greater New Orleans levees and the slow response to human suffering after Hurricane Katrina, you argue that this poster "does not know the facts." You go on to argue that said facts are that "the feds could not come into NOLA until Nagin and Blanco gave up their control and asked for help."
Although I suppose you can't be blamed for your error here -- after all, even Spike Lee edits his film in a way that is misleading about the issue -- I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that you are actually the one who is overlooking two significant facts here.
The first and most important is that, contrary to the impression that Lee's film lets stand (despite the efforts of Prof. Michael Eric Dyson and a few other interviewees), the federal government had the ultimate authority to override both Nagin and Blanco under Homeland Security provisions -- the very provisions that have since 2002-03 governed FEMA's very existence. Indeed, under Homeland Security legislation, which was passed before the "majority liberal Democrat Congress" that you decry took control of the House and Senate, the federal government has the power to tell mayors, governors, and state legislators to stand down and cede situational authority in instances of both terrorist attacks *and* catastrophic natural or man-made disasters. The HS legislation gives the government sweeping powers -- not only to go in and provide aid, but also to evacuate people, to assume control of local hospitals and medical personnel, to distribute food and water, to assume control of water works and other utilities, etc. What's more, this legislation places FEMA -- the organization that many of the New Orleaneans interviewed in Lee's film slam for ineptitude -- under the direct control of HS.
It is knowledge of "the fact" of this legislation that has prompted many pundits -- including the conservative Joe Scarborough -- to be openly critical of the federal government's response to Katrina.
That is, Scarborough and others realize that the feds had the power -- under Homeland Security legislation -- to respond immediately after the levees broke, but *chose* not to do so. (Again, regardless of what Lee allows Nagin and Blanco to imply in the film about the significance of their visit with the President on Air Force One, the Homeland Security legislation would have made it possible for Bush, Chertoff, and Brown to have said then and there, "Nagin? Blanco? Regardless of whatever you two have planned, this is now a federal operation. Stand down, and let FEMA and the National Guard take over under the aegis of Homeland Security.")
In addition, as Prof. Dyson points out in the film, Homeland Security legislation added another layer of complexity -- and federal culpability -- to the mix, as this legislation has since the 2002-2003 Congressional session made FEMA beholden to the larger Homeland Security organization. Before 9/11 -- i.e. back when Republicans did more than just pay lip-service to "small government" and Homeland Security did not exist as an organization -- FEMA more or less called its own shots, and could petition to charge into a trouble spot even before such a place had been declared an official federal or state 'disaster area.' However, the advent of Homeland Security placed FEMA under HS's direct control, creating a situation in which FEMA can't make a move without HS's express permission. Thus, as Dyson points out, the much-maligned Michael Brown was actually placed in a tight spot by Michael Chertoff, whose permission Brown needed before he could act in New Orleans. Chertoff, who in his turn was beholden to Bush and Cheney, got no orders to do anything and made no effort to request such a mandate, so "Brownie" couldn't have acted even if he had wanted to (and I'm inclined to think that he didn't want to).
What this inactivity indicates about the effectiveness and insight of Homeland Security is one of the reasons why even die-hard conservatives like the aforementioned Joe Scarborough have said that the Bush administration dropped the ball badly with their delayed response to Katrina. The Homeland Security legislation -- which, as I've noted, ranks natural/man-made disasters alongside terrorist attacks -- clearly states that if such calamities are of a catastrophic nature and/or involve sites that are of major significance to the trade, communications, energy, or health of the rest of the U.S., it behooves the feds to invoke Homeland Security provisions and intervene, even if mayors or governors have not requested and/or are actively resentful of such intervention. As Scarborough rightly notes, New Orleans is the port that controls the Southern mouth of the Mississippi -- a river that is not only one of the most important trade routes in the U.S., but that also facilitates distribution of vital offshore oil and natural gas supplies. Thus, Scarborough argues, New Orleans' significance as an intervention site should have been a no-brainer to feds and should have been carried out immediately under Homeland Security provisions. The cost of this delay was measured not only in the dead bodies and traumatized minds of those left to rot in NOLA for five days after the levees broke, but was also driven home to folks around the country when they had to pay exorbitant amounts of money to fill their gas tanks and heat their homes in the months that followed. Early federal intervention to tidy things up enough to keep the city going as a port would have nipped this in the bud, say Scarborough and many others, including the conservative CEOs of several oil companies. (That early federal intervention would also have curtailed untold human suffering and death goes without saying -- if you'll forgive me for being true to my liberal ideals and going all bleeding-heart on you by pointing this out.)
A second correction: in your response to the poster's comments about federal culpability in the failure of the levees, you imply that municipal (Nagin) and state (Blanco) officials had sole control over the maintenance of the levee system and that the feds could not have intervened. This is patently untrue -- and not only because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a federal body, but also because most of the money for the construction, maintenance, and infrastructure of public works like levees comes from the federal government. (This is why Minnesotans criticized both their governor *and* the feds after the recent collapse of a major bridge in Minneapolis. It is also why Bostonians are blaming both state *and* federal officials now that the new 'Central Artery' -- which literally *billions* of federal dollars created during the decade-long 'Big Dig' construction boondoggle -- is already showing signs of deadly flaws.)
Thus, the federal government bore a huge share of the official responsibility to build, maintain, and repair New Orleans' levees. This simple fact makes the federal government's rejection of an appeal from Nagin and Blanco for $18 million to repair the levees two years before Katrina seem even more tragic in retrospect. (That Nagin and Blanco didn't shout this from the rooftops long before Katrina saddens me almost as much as the Gruesome Twosome's failure to have the levees thoroughly sounded and inspected during this period -- and to publicize the results so that ordinary New Orleaneans of all 'races' and economic backgrounds would have known that they were living in a death zone with zero flood protection against even a good Cat 2 storm.)
A final point. If the federal government's responsibility over infrastructure seems like typical, "big government" liberalism to you, please allow me to point out that the laws that brought this into being were the product of a conservative president whom Republicans have often claimed as one of their own: Thomas Jefferson. Subsequent conservative presidents firmed up these laws throughout the 19th century. In fact, 19th-century conservatives loved these laws because they gave the feds the opportunity to keep states in line. (Contrary to contemporary Republican spin, conservatives in this country have a 200-year history of cracking the whip of federal control over unruly states while paying lip-service to "states' rights" -- much as House and Senate Republicans did with the Homeland Security legislation.)
I'll be off for good now, but I wanted to be sure to double back to post this, as I didn't want to let your own factual errors stand, unchallenged, in a post that you'd made for the express purpose of impugning someone else's grasp of "the facts." Just FYI.
All Best,
StJude12
Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 7:18 PM
--
Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 5:06 PM
--
Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 5:08 PM
|
|
|
Posts:
3
Registered:
10/4/07
|
|
(499 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 4, 2007 2:39 AM
|
basajo, according to the past several months of polls, you are, indeed, "a minority," just as you have proudly proclaimed here. That is, you are in the minority of the U.S. population that believes that the what you identify as the successes of the Bush presidency outweigh a litany of failures so severe that even Rush Limbaugh and Joe Scarborough have been forced to note them. (In fact, Scarborough even had the guts and common decency to state point-blank that, although he supports Bush because the president is a fellow conservative, he believes that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was a travesty that not only exposed fissures of economic class, but also revealed extremely troubling weaknesses in the Homeland Security system.)
I actually envy you, basajo: I would love to feel optimistic and hopeful about a government that I believed was actually doing its best for all of its people while enhancing our standing in the world. Unfortunately, I cannot. However, I can take solace in the fact that you seem to be happy enough for both of us -- since, as you have said, folks in your sector of the economy /segment of the U.S. are doing well. You go, girl.
Just a few corrections to your post. I believe that your bias against fellow "minorities" is showing when you quote folks from the film as saying that Bush "don't like Black people." While mocking what you consider to be low-income Black speech might be yet another activity that brings you joy (i.e. when you're not clicking your heels with glee because you believe that "Bush likes [you]. LOL"), please note that neither Kanye West nor the folks in the film who quote him (e.g. Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and Wendell Pierce) have said "Bush don't like Black people." West said "George Bush **doesn't** like Black people" -- twice. (After all, with three years of college under his belt, West knows the difference between a rap recording and an important, if impromptu, political statement that will draw the scrutiny of critics determined to parse his every syllable. Curse that danged Affirmative Action!) After the clip of West's comment, Dyson and Pierce repeated "George Bush **doesn't** like Black people," and Sharpton opined that West's comments appealed to those who have long believed the same. None of these men used the non-grammatical "don't." Just FYI.
And speaking of your blanket assumptions about how other people speak and comport themselves, I was amused to read your assertion that liberals "support things like partial birth abortion." I am a card-carrying, loud-and-proud, lifelong liberal, and I do not support partial birth abortion. Like Sister Helen Prejean, the late Dorothy Day, and a host of other liberal Catholics, I quite happily bring my faith -- and my lack of support for abortion, partial-birth or otherwise -- to my advocacy of liberal social justice issues. In this, I am in fellowship with many liberal Protestants.
Indeed, we're proof positive that, contrary to the rantings of conservative punditry, liberals come on all shapes, sizes, and shades of belief. Reviewing the blanket indictments of liberals that you've been tossing around for the past year in your numerous posts to these HBO threads about Lee's film[*], I suspect that evidence that liberals aren't monolithic might shock you -- but then, also judging from your posts, I guess you'd likewise find it shocking that I, like Kanye West, Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and Wendell Pierce, am a fellow "minority" (Black American, in my case) who'd be able to make an important comment on international television without losing my grip on noun-verb agreement. Funny that.
Take care, friend. I am very pleased that you have left the ranks of liberals and are now a conservative; I hope that the move continues to work for you.
All Best,
StJude12
[*] By the way, if you truly believe that Lee's film is so irresponsible that it merits the many hours that your posting history indicates that you've spent here over the past 13 months denouncing it -- springing out like a spider to respond to the posts of those who stop in to comment on the film before retuning to their lives -- then surely your time and energy would have been better spent by picking up a camcorder, getting your friends together, and making a rebuttal that you could have posted on YouTube or even sent to FOXNews or Rush Limbaugh. I'm being totally serious here: the sheer volume and longevity of your posting history on Lee's film is, if you'll pardon me for saying so, truly baffling, and ever so slightly creepy. This seems all the more true because you've been using an HBO website as a platform for your passionate pro-Bush views when there's a presidential primary season underway and an election on the near horizon. Surely, the time that you spend here pouncing on folks who have come to respond to the film would be better spent stepping up your efforts to volunteer for the conservative presidential candidate of your choice. (Even the Republican front-runners need additional volunteers right now -- as is also the case with the Democrats -- and volunteers with web skills are particularly valued.) Life is calling, basajo.
|
|
|
Posts:
3
Registered:
10/4/07
|
|
(498 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Oct 4, 2007 1:12 AM
|
houstonhelper and friends, I am mystified when I read the many posts here that argue that Lee's documentary blames the federal government alone -- an error that many of the official reviews of the film also make. However, if one watches the documentary closely, one sees that for every evacuee (e.g. Mr. Melancon) or expert (e.g. Dr. Mackie) who gives Mayor Nagin a pass, there are two others who skewer the Mayor. This number includes the venerable Prof. Michael Eric Dyson, who minces no words in taking the guy to task. What's more, Lee simply rolls tape at several points to allow Nagin to indict himself -- such as when Nagin cluelessly chortles over making President Bush wait for him as he showered on Air Force One, at a time when folks who hadn't been able to afford to evacuate NOLA were sitting in the Superdome and the Convention Center in their own waste.
Meanwhile, Lee's documentary grants Governor Blanco even less love. I simply cannot believe that any reasonable person could watch all four hours of Lee's film (plus the additional hour or so included on the DVD release) and walk away from it thinking that Lee and those he interviewed have defended the actions of Governor Blanco's state government.
Lee's indictment is wide: his film very clearly presents the case of a system-wide failure with input from municipal (Nagin), state (Blanco), and federal (Bush, FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers) sectors. Hell, if you watch closely, you will also see that those two great dames from Yscloskey -- in the 98% white St. Bernard Parish -- even go so far as to include county/parish officials in the list of those who failed the citizens of the Greater New Orleans area. (e.g. "St. Bernard Parish can kiss my ass" and the proposed election slogan, "St. Bernard Parish is like a dirty diaper: it needs a change.")
This latter point, about the culpability of parish officials, is an instructive one that also serves to illustrate Lee's strategy throughout the film. You see, Lee expects viewers to pay attention in order to hear and extract the threads of 'testimony' from folks speaking from a variety of different personal perspectives. Thus, even as we listen with sympathy to the two Yscloskey women railing against the St. Bernard Parish officials, we realize that since Act I, we've been listening with equal amounts of sympathy to the very guy whom their words are indicting -- namely, the enormously personable and engaging Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, who just happens to be the highest elected official in the government of St Bernard Parish. Lee leaves it up to you, the viewer, to decide whether or not you agree with the women's assessment of Rodriguez, or whether Rodriguez is a guy who loves his parish but was a cog in a larger machine who couldn't have done anything about the levees even if he'd tried (e.g. as his comments about the federal and state governments' "pay me now or pay me later" attitude toward the levees indicate). Particularly alert viewers might even find evidence that suggests that the truth lies somewhere between the Yscloskey women's justified rage and Rodriguez's reasonable feeling that both levee-inspection and post-breach aid efforts were both way beyond his purview as a parish official.
Lee does a similar thing when it comes to critiques of Nagin and Blanco. That is, he allows everyone to run down their views -- both pro- and anti- Blanco and Nagin -- and leaves it up to the viewer to decide. Some viewers may emerge from the film convinced that Blanco and Nagin should not be blamed. Others will view the same evidence and draw a different conclusion. For example, I viewed it and sided with those interviewees who concluded that, in addition to the feds, tons of blame should be laid at the doorsteps of both Blanco and Nagin -- especially, in my view, Nagin, a Black man who grew up in the Seventh Ward, knew that poor folks both there and in other areas of the city would lack the funds and transportation to flee, but made no provision to get such folks out of the city. Lee has included enough evidence to make both sets of conclusions possible.
Thus, houstonhelper, if you and other folks here want to challenge other *posters* whom you feel blame *only* the feds and not local and state government, fine. But please don't argue that Lee has done the same. His vision is more more nuanced and complex than that, as a careful viewing of his film clearly shows.
StJude12
P.S. BTW, Lee asked Condoleeza Rice, Bush I, Bush II, Bill Clinton, Barbara Bush, Chertoff, and any number of other federal officials to sit for interviews for this film; they all declined. Had they brought their voices to the process, the aggregate product would surely have been one that conservative viewers would find more balanced. (For my own part, I would have loved to have heard from Bush I and Clinton, who were, after all, Gulf Coast Hurricane ambassadors at the time that the film was being made, and who were both present -- and silent -- when Barbara Bush made her Astrodome comments.) While such federal officials were far from obligated to participate, their perspectives might have made a case for their actions that some folks might have found persuasive -- just as the participation of Nagin, Blanco, Rodriguez, and a host of other local officials seems to have done in the minds of so many viewers. Just a thought.
--
Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 4:36 PM
--
Edited by StJude12 at 10/04/2007 4:39 PM
|
|
|
Posts:
43
Registered:
8/30/06
|
|
(497 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Sep 25, 2007 6:47 PM
|
> This disaster, and the appalling lack of a federal
> response to it, put into perspective just how equally
> uncaring, and inept the Bush administration was, is
> and will be for the remainder of this presidential
> term. George Bush has already cemented his place in
> history, as the worst President to ever hold office!
> I defy anyone to pinpoint one success, or shining
> moment for George Bush. When people look back on the
> last 8 years, all they will remember are policies
> that began as ill advised, and ended in failure.
> They responded to Hurricanes better at the turn of
> the century, than the Bush led federal government
> handled Katrina, in the 21st century! People in the
> gulf coast were not killed by a hurricane.... They
> were killed by greed,indifference, red tape, and the
> local politicians who allowed the levees to
> deteriorate, and fail!
It wasn't the federal governments fault. The blame goes 1st and foremost to Ray Nagin and thecity of New Orleans. The next level of blame goes to Gov. Blanco and the state. If you knew you facts, you would know the feds could not come into NOLA until Nagin and Blanco gave up their control and asked for help. I would actually say the the most shameful president was Clinton. I also think the country's problems are mainly due to majority of the house and senate being liberal democrats who are always ready to give my hard earned tax dollars away to welfare programs, medicaide, and other nonsense. Who else would continue to pay for housing got the refugees 2 yrs after the fact???!!!!!
|
|
|
Posts:
43
Registered:
8/30/06
|
|
(496 of 510)
Re: WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Sep 25, 2007 6:47 PM
| | | |
