I'm a huge documentary fan. Whenever I have some time to kill, I check out HBO's documentaries On Demand. The other night I watched Spike Lee's "
When The Levees Broke". I have so much to say about it I can hardly contain myself.
Before I regale you with all the funny moments from the film (yes, there are hysterical moments in the documentary about Hurricane Katrina, to me anyway), I will give you my personal opinion on this catastrophe and the aftermath.
Hurricane Katrina, horrifying situation. Obviously. Goes without saying. But I'm saying it, so that you cannot say I'm cold and dead inside.
But folks, weather happens. Hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, tsunamis, all
happen. They always have, and always will. You can't stop it. Try as you might, you can't hold back the wind or the rain. If you believe in creation, Man will never beat God. If you believe in the Big Bang, Man will never beat evolution and Mother Nature. You can't have the expectation that the U.S. Government, or the military, or NASA, will ever be able to eliminate the threat of weather. Even before global warming, catastrophic weather occurred.
This documentary is full of people whining. Whining out how they were treated during and after the storm. I can't understand it one little bit.
Here's how it plays out: the mandatory evacuation is ordered. Yes, there wasn't much time to evacuate, and some folk didn't have transportation (except their legs, but I digress...), but there was warning. A lot of folks said their attitude was, "We've weathered many a hurricane, we'll weather this one". Which is a perfectly justifiable attitude. But when you take that route, you are ONE HUNDRED percent responsible for what happens to you.
New Orleans had never issued a mandatory evacuation before, so this was new territory. There's so much to consider in making a decision like that. If you issue that order, and the storm passes over or dies out before landfall, you would get TONS of crap. If you don't issue the evacuation and everyone dies, you'd get TONS of crap. So basically, you don't want to have to be the one making that call, because you know that no matter what, you're going to be covered in shit when it's all over.
But Mayor Nagin issued the order, and that die was cast. I'm sure many lives were saved due to that order.
For the folks who didn't leave the city, nature's fury was unleashed. As the media had reported it would be. The storm itself wasn't that bad, there in New Orleans. I don't think it ever reached category 5 once it made landfall. The trouble came when the levees broke. Major flooding occurred in those neighborhoods, flooding that killed many people. Those who made it to their rooftops had to wait it out until a boat came by.
The folks who hadn't left town, but wanted to leave their houses before the storm hit and move to higher ground, went to the Superdome. The Superdome is in downtown Louisiana, surrounded by high rise office buildings and hotels and restaurants.
That's right, I said surrounded by office buildings and hotels and restaurants. That were empty. Because of the mandatory evacuation. Herein lies one of my greatest frustrations. These folk that were at the Superdome for 5 days post-Katrina, whining about how no one was coming, how they had no food or water, how they had nowhere to go to the bathroom....were within walking distance of hundreds of buildings.
How many high rise office buildings do you know that don't have vending machines? How many restaurants do you know that don't have food?
These people's lack of self-preservation skill was driving me INSANE while watching this film. They were all just sitting around, waiting for Superman to fly in and save them. The sense of entitlement was palpable. They were all expending their energy shouting angrily at the media cameras, "Where is the National Guard??? Why is no one helping us?? No one cares about the Black Man!!!"
And yet there they all continued to lay, day after day. Not helping themselves.
Don't get me wrong, there was something COMPLETELY fishy going on in Washington, DC. The power struggle between the governor of Louisiana and the president seemed ridiculous. She didn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the box, and as for Bush, well...one brain cell plus one brain cell does not a catastrophe solve.
But whether or not the government should have done more, and faster, what you do FOR YOURSELF doesn't change ! When you're on fire, do you stand there until the fire department comes by with a hose? Even if you've called 911 and you know the firemen are on their way, you still stop, drop, and roll. But not these folk.
Once the National Guard made it into town, the compaints just got worse. Complaints of the chaos and the lack of sensitivity...People, there was just a major hurricane! Your entire city was just decimated! THERE'S GOING TO BE CHAOS! It's inevitable.
Then the complaints about being shipped off to different states. Complaints about how long it took to get FEMA trailers and checks...hello, it's the federal government! Do they do anything quickly?
What do you think people did before the Dept. Of Homeland Security? Before FEMA? When a catastrophe struck in ages gone by, people took care of themselves. They were grateful that they had survived, and they picked themselves up and moved on.
Should the levees have held? Sure. In a perfect world, everything would work perfectly and nothing would ever break. And unicorns would fly out of my butt and candy corn would grow on trees. But this is why insurance companies exist. Because we don't live in a perfect world.
Yes, it would be nice if someone helped you. But you can't
expect people to help you. People aren't
required to help you. You can only control yourself. Instead of whining about how no one's helping you, why don't YOU go help someone?
I'm amazed that humans have lasted this long. In the game of Survival Of The Fittest, Louisianians would have lost out.
In my personal opinion, the media made it worse. Every major network had cameramen down there, interviewing the poor neglected victims. If those folk had been truly neglected, they may have gotten up and found some water. Put a camera in someone's face, work them up with a few well placed comments like, "How do you feel that the government seems to have forgotten you?", and you place ideas into their heads.
Sure, you can't know for sure what you would do in a situation like this until it happens to you. But it's not in my nature one little bit to sit around and wait for someone to take care of me or my children. I can do it better than anyone else can anyway.
My main point in this rant is this: take care of yourself. Period.
I've completely re-irritated myself, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to share the comedic portions of When The Levees Broke. But don't take any of this to mean that this film isn't worth watching. It's actually well worth your time, very thought provoking (obviously!).
(L to R: Audrey (in the stroller), Thomas, Christopher, Colson, Ava, Joshua, Zachary)
